Thailand Has Two Hundred and Fifty Golf Courses and Almost None of Them Are in the Places You Are Going
Championship layouts, two caddies per group, a green fee system with twilight rates, and a January in Hua Hin that is a genuinely world-class week of golf.
A caddie named Boon sat in the back of a cart in Hua Hin for four hours, carried every club, read the greens better than I did, and at the end was tipped two hundred baht. The entire round, green fee included, cost less than a nice dinner. I have never played golf anywhere else for that.
Thailand is one of the great golf destinations on earth and it is almost entirely unmentioned in the conversation.
Last verified 1 August 2026.
The scale of it
More than two hundred and fifty courses, which is a genuinely serious national infrastructure, and the reason is not tourism at all. It is a thirty year domestic development driven by a very large middle class that plays at weekends.
And what that produced is a version of golf that does not exist elsewhere: a national association, club memberships accessible to locals at a price that would be astonishing anywhere in the developed world, and championship quality layouts in places with no international profile.
Peak season is November to April, which coincides exactly with the season everybody is in the country for, so the good courses are full and the low ones are cheap. That is a useful thing to know before you go.
What it costs, roughly
Green fees on a real range from about eight hundred baht on the public and budget layouts, through a couple of thousand in the middle, to six thousand and considerably more at the private championship and resort courses.
And that is not the whole cost, because in Thailand the green fee is the smaller number.
A caddie is commonly four to six hundred baht and is mandatory at most courses, and there is normally one caddie for two golfers, which is an unusually low ratio and it is a large part of why a round here feels different from a round in Europe.
Tipping a caddie is expected and a hundred to two hundred baht is a good round, and in the local structure this is a real part of a caddie's income rather than a discretionary extra.
A cart is often compulsory and commonly five to seven hundred baht, and club rental runs five to eight hundred.
So a full eighteen holes, done properly, lands somewhere around three and a half to seven and a half thousand baht, and that number is worth knowing before you assume Thailand is somewhere it is not.
Twilight play, which is the Thai trick
Most courses sell a twilight rate from about five or six in the afternoon, at a meaningful discount, and the saving is frequently large enough that it changes the arithmetic entirely.
You get nine holes rather than eighteen in the heat, the light is better than the midday light, and in most of the country the temperature in the middle of the afternoon is the thing that makes a round unpleasant rather than the golf.
Playing at six in the evening in December in central Thailand is a genuinely lovely hour, and the staff know it and the courses are set up for it.
Where the good courses are
Chao Phraya and the Bangkok area, where the established private clubs are old, flat, tree-lined and completely unlike a resort course. Thai Country Club has hosted Asian Tour events. It is the most interesting golf in the country for a golfer who likes a proper golf course rather than a photograph.
The eastern seaboard, which is the epicentre, and it is a genuinely surprising answer. The country clubs around Pattaya and out towards Cha-Am have hosted international and major women's events, and there is a concentration of championship layouts within a couple of hours of Bangkok that exists in no other Asian country.
Phuket, where the scene grew enormously over the last two decades and where you will find the most expensive golf in Thailand and some of the best. Blue Canyon has a genuine international tournament pedigree. There is also a wide range of mid-price layouts which is the part of the Phuket scene that is genuinely good value.
Samui, which has a real golf offering and almost no reputation, and which is a strong off-season option.
Chiang Mai and the north, which has a smaller scene, cooler conditions in the winter, and mountain or highland courses that are unlike anything in the south.
Memberships, and whether they make sense
If you are going regularly, membership at a public or semi-public club is frequently a large saving, and the fees in the local market are a fraction of what an equivalent club would cost in most Western countries.
If you are in the country for three weeks, a membership is pointless, and the resort and championship courses run golf packages with green fees, caddie, cart and transfers bundled, which is the way to do it and is generally cheaper than booking the parts.
Foreigners can hold memberships at most of these clubs, and it is worth asking directly rather than assuming it is a problem, because it generally is not one.
The thing people miss
Golf in Thailand is a genuinely excellent January. Cool dry season in the centre and the east, courses at their best condition, low humidity, and a domestic scene that is fully alive.
It is also a sport that requires a caddie, which means it requires you to accept help from a stranger for four hours in a language you may not speak, and if you are comfortable doing that it is the best version of the sport there is, and if you are not you will have a strange time.
