Phuket: Tropical paradise, hacker’s heaven

Nick Faldo’s a regular. So is former world darts champion John Lowe. Actors Pierce Brosnan and Hugh Grant have both shown they know how, and former tennis ace Boris Becker has demonstrated there is a sporting life after Wimbledon.

These household names have all played golf while visiting Phuket – either on holiday or on business – along with hundreds of thousands of other people whose names don’t appear on TV.

Phuket now has five golf clubs with a total of eight courses that range in difficulty from walk-in-the-park to world-class-challenging.

At the easy end of the range is the par-72 Laguna Phuket course, though even this course has its tricky moments. The 612-yard 17th hole, for example, requires play across water at least twice.

Water is a big feature of all of Phuket’s golf clubs. In the case of four of them, they are built around former opencast tin mines. There are no natural lakes on Phuket, but there are some 250 lagoons, all mines that filled up with water. The golf courses have brought new life to what were once sad moonscapes, and the lagoons have added extra interest to the courses.

The fifth club, Mission Hills on the island’s northeast coast, has water of a different kind. The only true links in Phuket, it looks out over spectacular Phang Nga Bay, with its vertical limestone cliffs and constantly shifting colours. The green of the 4th hole sits out on a promontory surrounded by this view, creating an additional unusual hazard – the distraction of stunning natural beauty.

Mission Hills has other surprises, which is only to be expected of a course designed by Jack Nicklaus and his Golden Bear Co.

In complete contrast is the wild up-and-down of the new Red Mountain Course, the second course at the Loch Palm club, which is smack in the middle of the island. Built into foothills, this is the sole carts-only course on the island, and with good reason – walking the course would be akin to scaling the Alps. If you want to walk, Loch Palm’s easier old course is more for you.

Red Mountain has rapidly earned a reputation for its unusual challenges, such as the par-3 fifth, which requires golfers to drive from a tee with a vertical drop of over 40 metres down onto the green at the bottom of a valley, and all of this between towering trees.

The Phuket Country Club, not far away, has two courses – the relatively relaxed 18-hole Old Course and the Country Club Course, a tough nine holes with a 38 par.

The most famous course on the island is the Blue Canyon Country Club’s Canyon Course, which has three times hosted the Johnny Walker Classic. Tiger Woods, who competed as an amateur in 1994, and went on to win the tournament four years later, described the Canyon Course as “one of the best I’ve ever played on”.

Players have to contend with no fewer than 80 bunkers, and water comes into play at 10 holes. The par-3 17th hole was listed by Golf Magazine as one of the 500 best holes in the world, and the course has won multiple accolades for best course in Thailand and best in Asia.

Rather easier on golfers, though still far from lacking challenges, is the Lakes course at Blue Canyon. As befits its name, this course features water hazards on 17 of its 18 holes.

As is normal everywhere these days, each of Phuket’s eight courses is surrounded by upscale houses for sale. But the true golfer will probably not want to be tied to one course alone, so the ideal base has to be close to main roads giving quick access to any of the island’s golf clubs, yet far enough from the madding crowd to make for a relaxed lifestyle.

One surprisingly good candidate for this is The Village, Coconut Island. This five-star resort development on Koh Maphrao (Coconut Island) is just three minutes by boat from the main island, with a landing that gives almost immediate access to Phuket’s main north-south artery.

Loch Palm and Phuket Country Club are no more than 15 minutes away, the Laguna Golf Club is about 20 minutes and Mission Hills and Blue Canyon a further five minutes.

The Village itself looks out at Phang Nga Bay, with a view every bit as diverting as the one from Mission Hills’ 4th hole. Homes are either right next to the golden beach or just a couple of minutes’ walk away. There are no cars – just electric golf carts – making for a superlative quality of life.

And after a hard day’s hacking, The Village, with its sophisticated bars and restaurant, is a delightful retreat from the world after a terrible round of golf, or the perfect place to celebrate scoring that elusive hole in one.

For more information, visit thevillage-coconutisland.com.