GOLF ATRAVEL Player’s Guide
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Sense of place: the first green at Laguna Phuket, the work of South African architect – and HK Golfer contributor – Paul Jansen
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Alex Jenkins plays Laguna Phuket Golf Club, which has reopened after undergoing an impressive transformation over the past 18 months. Photography courtesy of Laguna Phuket Golf Club
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Clockwise from top: the well defended green at the 18th, a stout par-4; water makes an appearance at the mid-length par-4 13th, wood ties, created from the trees that were felled during the rebuilding process, divide the upper and lower tiers of the 14th fairway; the inviting clubhouse at Laguna Phuket 56
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ot a whole lot has happened golf wise in Phuket in recent years. Save for the opening of Phunaka, a ninehole, floodlit track located between Phuket Town, the island’s historic capital, and Patong, the sprawling seaside resort favoured – it seems – by heavilytattooed Russians (although the sudden decline of the Rouble may change all that), the last course to make any real noise was Red Mountain Golf Club, which wowed all and sundry with its dramatic elevation changes and spectacular views upon its completion in 2007. There’s no denying that Red Mountain is a heck of a golfing experience – and at over 7,000 Baht (roughly HK$1,650) for the green fee, caddie fee and mandatory golf cart fee, it jolly well should be – but it’s perhaps not for everyone. It’s not that Red Mountain is an unfairly difficult course. It’s isn’t. But there are certainly a number of holes where the jungle encroaches close enough to the landing areas to have you worrying about the number of golf balls left in your bag. No such concerns await a few miles to the northwest at Laguna Phuket Golf Club, which reopened its full 18 holes to much fanfare last month following a highly impressive redesign masterminded by South African architect Paul Jansen. HKGOLFER.COM
Jansen, as regular readers of HK Golfer will know, contributes a monthly column on course design to this publication and was the lead architect for Faldo Design at the award-winning Laguna Lang Co near Danang in Vietnam. Brought in by the same owners on the back of that success to reinvigorate their popular course in Phuket, Laguna Phuket is Jansen’s first solo project, one that will undoubtedly build his reputation within the industry globally such is its quality. Opened in 1992, the original course at Laguna Phuket was an archetypal resort layout. While certainly enjoyable enough to play for the large numbers of holidaymakers that came through, its age, exacerbated in these tropical climes, was starting to show and the conditions of the playing surfaces suffered. Renovation was clearly in order. Although this has been billed as a redesign, Jansen’s work has essentially resulted in a completely new course. The nines have been reversed, which means the 18th now rightly finishes in front of the lovingly-appointed clubhouse, and despite the routing remaining largely untouched, the removal of a great many trees, the reshaping of the playing areas, the inclusion of completely new bunkering and a change of grass type (the tee boxes, fairways and roughs are all made up of low-maintenance Zoysia, while the re-contoured greens have been HKGOLFER.COM
carpeted with a silky Bermuda TifEagle varietal) means that even regular visitors can be forgiven for thinking they’d never set foot on the course before. Jansen’s courses are noted for their strategic interest, and this is certainly the case at Laguna Phuket. The course occupies a generally flat parcel of land but Jansen has raised many of the teeing grounds, which gives players a far better appreciation of what lies in store at each hole, while the fairways – and this is still a resort course after all – are refreshingly generous. As is the yardage, which comes in at comfortably under 7,000 yards. You won’t lose too many balls off the tee here which, importantly, helps with the pace of play, but low scores are far from guaranteed thanks to the newly constructed green complexes. In the main they are more contoured than the original putting surfaces and the way they are HK GOLFER・FEB 2015
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NEED TO KNOW THE GOLF Yardage: 6,718 Par: 71 Redesigned by Paul Jansen (2014) Green fee: THB 4,420 – 5,200 Caddie fee: THB 350 Cart fee: THB 700 (not mandatory)
GETTING THERE Numerous airlines operate direct flights from Hong Kong to Phuket (flight time: 3hrs, 15mins), including Dragonair (dragonair.com) and Thai Airways (thaiairways.com). Laguna Phuket Golf Club is a 20-minute drive from Phuket International Airport.
CONTACT Creativity required: the greens at Laguna Phuket require players to use their imagination with the short game 58
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Website: lagunaphuketgolf.com Email: golf@lagunaphuketgolf.com Tel: +66 (0)76 324 350
angled means there is always a preferred side of the fairway to be hitting approach shots from. Miss the target and you’ll likely be faced with a chip from one of the many run-off areas. But the firmness of the turf, combined with the undulations of the greens means you won’t be reaching for your lob wedge for each and every shot. Nor are you likely to be gouging flops from thick rough. This makes it fun and players who show imagination with their short game will flourish. Jansen advocates a sustainable approach to golf course architecture (read his latest column in this issue to learn more about that) and Laguna Phuket reflects this philosophy. The tree removal programme has not only resulted in superior views of the surrounding area and wider playing corridors, the wood harvested has been used to woodchip vast areas of the rough and for the construction of on-course furniture – from benches, tee markers, steps and, most intriguingly of all, wood ties in the fairways and small, Thai-style boats that bob around in a number of the lakes. The sustainability angle is perhaps most obvious in terms of the bunkering. Many modern courses are characterised by great swathes of sand that appear on nearly every hole, which is usually to lend visual splendour if little else. That is certainly not the case at Laguna Phuket, where the course’s original 99 bunkers have been slashed in number by nearly two thirds to 37. That might not sound a lot but the point is that each fulfills a role. They don’t appear randomly; they have been used sparingly but to sound strategic effect. Other, less noticeable changes to the course have added benefits to both the environment and the playing conditions. A new irrigation system has cut the number of sprinkler heads down from 1,400 to 800 and over 15km of drainage has been added. One of the effects of the latter means that play is far less likely to be halted during occasions of heavy rain. A lot of good things will continue to be said of the results of Jansen’s work, and rightly so, but the man himself claims he is just as proud of the way the work was done. “We essentially built the golf course using inhouse staff,” says Jansen. “We taught them how to build greens and bunkers, install drainage and use survey gear. Many of the existing staff were then asked to manage small teams themselves, which meant they had to take on more responsibility. But this was paramount for getting the work done on time to budget. “This is a great investment in the current staff and something that I don’t see enough of in Asia – or indeed the rest of the world.” Amen to that. HKGOLFER.COM