THAILAND: BALLYSHEAR GOLF LINKS
Architect Gil Hanse will unveil his first original design in Asia, an homage to Charles Blair MacDonald and Seth Raynor’s mythic Lido Club, when the Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club opens for play here in early 2020.
The members-only Ban Rakat Club is now taking shape some 35-40 minutes from center city Bangkok on the site of the former Kiarti Thanee Country Club, which partnered in 2017 with Yokohama International Golf Club Co., Ltd., the Japan-based golf development and club operations firm, to redevelop the property in its entirety.
“We approached the owner of Kiarti Thanee with the idea to create something entirely new in the Bangkok market and it’s our strong feeling that Ban Rakat Club and Ballyshear Links will do exactly that,” says Takeyasu Aiyama, chairman of Yokohama International. “Gil Hanse came with the highest of recommendations: Mr. Bill Coore, who led the redesign of our West Course at Yokohama Country Club, recommended Mr. Hanse for the Ballyshear project and introduced him to us.
“The Ban Rakat Club project will perfectly showcase Mr. Hanse’s skill and expertise, while introducing his work to an Asian audience for the first time. What’s more, vintage design projects such as Ballyshear have never before been undertaken in Thailand. In these and other ways, Ban Rakat Club will bring something completely unique to the market.”
Thailand already boasts the most sophisticated golf market/culture in all of Southeast Asia, with some 200 courses in operation, Asia’s strongest incoming golf tourism sector, and more than a million native golfers. But climate and culture have also meant that vintage “Golden Age” design projects have never been attempted here.
The Golden Age of Golf Design, a period roughly bounded by the two World Wars, just happened to produce an outsized number of American masterpieces. Many came from the hand of architect Macdonald and his protégé Raynor, whose unique templating of classic, old world holes proved foundational to this Golden Age.
At Ballyshear Golf Links, Hanse has deployed the very same templates, harnessing the same early 19thcentury sensibilities that have made Hanse Golf Design the most sought-after course architecture firm in world golf.
“For my firm, this project is very exciting and special,” says Hanse, whose original designs include the Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro and the much-feted Black Course at Streamsong Resort in Florida, USA — his renovation works includes prep work for two of the next three U.S. Opens, at Winged Foot Golf Club (2020) and Los Angeles Country Club in 2023. “This is our first project in Thailand. It has also provided us the opportunity to design a golf course on a very unique piece of land — deploying a philosophy that relies heavily not just on the history of this game, but its strategic history.
“The design of Ballyshear is based on the principles and philosophies espoused by two giants of vintage course architecture, Macdonald and Raynor, who made their marks by replicating in America specific golf holes from classic Scottish links: The Redan at North Berwick, for example. The Alps hole at Prestwick… These holes represent our inspiration and aspiration at Ban Rakat — just as they inspired Macdonald and Raynor at hallowed grounds such as The National Golf Links of America, Chicago Golf Club, and specifically Lido Golf Club.
“The serendipities surrounding the Lido Club are legion, but it’s our design model at Ballyshear because its terrain so resembles the terrain here in Bangkok,” Hanse reports. “As a result, the character of this golf course will be like nothing else in Thailand.”
