No course in the Chiang Mai market has hosted Thailand’s national professional tour more often than Gassan Legacy: Thailand’s national professional tour played it three seasons running, tightening the setup from par 72 to par 70 as it went. It is a Schmidt-Curley rebuild with no great length to hide behind and water on effectively every hole, so the round turns on placement rather than power. Rooms on site and floodlights for a late tee-off help it fit a northern itinerary.
What follows: the 2014 rebuild, how to tell the three Gassan clubs apart, the tour record, the holes that decide your card, and where Ban Thi sits.
The course itself
The club opened in the mid-2000s as Gassan Lake City Golf Club — Where2Golf and Top100GolfCourses give 2005, several booking sites 2006 — and both credit the original layout to Thai designer Pravit Raeng-Po. The version you play is newer: the course closed in 2013 for a full renovation by Schmidt-Curley Design, the firm of Lee Schmidt whose other northern Thai work includes Chiang Mai Highlands, and reopened in 2014 as Gassan Legacy.
It was not a facelift. The course was re-grassed with new drainage, and greenside hazards were added to protect the new putting surfaces — now the strongest thing about it. The Travelling Golfer rates the greens the best it played in the area, and Golfasian ranks the club among the best-conditioned in Chiang Mai. Mature trees were kept, so the corridors feel settled rather than raw, over terrain Where2Golf calls gently undulating and easy to walk.
Par is 72 on the members’ card — 37 out, 35 back — with five par threes and five par fives. Length is where the published record falls apart: back-tee totals in circulation run from 6,665 to 7,089 yards, with 6,852 (6,265 metres) the most repeated, and the club publishes no scorecard at all. The tournament figure is the informative one — Thailand PGA set it at 6,536 yards in 2018. By championship standards this is short, and sources agree on the consequence: accuracy, not distance, is the currency.
Which Gassan you are booking
Three clubs trade under the Gassan name, all in Lamphun province, and their facts get blended constantly: Gassan Khuntan at Mae Tha, Gassan Legacy at Ban Thi, and Gassan Panorama. The group’s own site sums it up: “Gassan is the largest golf complex in northern Thailand.”
Two of the three have been renamed, which is where the confusion starts. Lake City became Legacy with the 2014 rebuild; Gassan Marina, still listed as a sister club on Legacy’s own website in 2016, was rebranded Gassan Panorama in 2017. Older reviews keep the old names, so a page headed Gassan Lake City is this course and one headed Gassan Marina is not.
The tour record
Gassan Legacy staged Thailand PGA Tour events three seasons running, and the association’s own archive documents each. The Singha-SAT Championship came here in August 2016 for three million baht, and Nirun Sae-ueng, then 21, won at 28 under par, 260, off the full par 72. It returned as the Singha-SAT Lamphun Championship on 9–12 August 2017 for two million with the course tightened to par 71, and Suradit Yongcharoenchai, then 18, closed with a 65 for 24 under, 260, and his first tour title, six clear of the field. For the 2018 opener the club went further, to par 70 and 6,536 yards — little difference to Prayad Marksaeng, the veteran Thai professional, then 52, who led start to finish and won by four at 21 under, 259.
Three progressively harder setups, and the winning scores barely moved. The series left in 2019, when the Lamphun Championship moved to sister course Gassan Khuntan and was cut to 36 holes because PM2.5 smoke made play untenable.
The holes worth knowing
The five par threes are the identity of the round, running roughly 90 to 180 yards from the white tees, so you will use most of the bag. The 2nd asks for a water carry to a narrow green; the 7th is shorter but rated the hardest hole on the course, its target an island green with nowhere to miss. The Travelling Golfer counts two island-green par threes and three tee shots that must carry water.
Among the par fives, the 8th is the front nine’s examination: a right-angle dogleg with a water carry off the tee, bunkers on the aggressive line and water right, then a turn back the other way with water down the left. The 17th settles late matches — an S-shaped par five with water off the tee, another carry with the second and a narrow green. Relief comes in three short par fours, at the 6th, 13th and 14th, and the card finishes on a par three.
Location and getting there
The address is 88 Moo 7, Ban Thi, Lamphun province — the same Chiang Mai–Lamphun border country as Alpine Golf Resort Chiang Mai, but further southeast. The club’s own map page puts it plainly: “It is 45km from the city centre and Chiang Mai International Airport, approximately 9 km. drive off the Super Highway Chiang Mai – Lampang. It takes only 45 Minutes to Chiang Mai Airport and to the city center.”
Treat 45 minutes as the working figure: it is what the club’s own map page gave before that site went dark, and Golfasian quotes the same. You will see shorter claims — Where2Golf lists it 25 km southeast of the city, hotel pages advertise a 20-minute drive — but Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX) sits on the far southwestern side of town, so a transfer crosses the whole city. Budget 45 minutes to an hour each way, more in afternoon traffic, and plan on a hotel car, Grab or a package pickup.
Practical notes
A caddie is mandatory, as at nearly every Thai club — see our guide to the Thai caddie system and tipping. Agents also list the cart as compulsory, one golfer per cart, which is policy rather than necessity: the ground is walkable.
The floodlights are the most distinctive feature here, and they are Legacy’s own rather than a sister course’s: GolfSavers lists night golf among the club’s facilities, a Chiang Mai agency publishes a night-golf rate window, and a reviewer in July 2026 describes teeing off at 4pm and still playing at 8. Confirm the lights are running when you book, since the club’s own pages do not advertise them. Golfasian states: “Newly installed floodlights facilitate early tee-off and play after dark.” A Chiang Mai agency publishes a night-golf window opening at 15:00. But the club’s own site never mentions night golf, and one Thai tee-time platform lists no twilight option — so if a lit round is why you are going, confirm it first.
Accommodation is on site and useful for a two-round stay: the club lists 66 superior rooms, six deluxe and a set of suites — one Chiang Mai agency totals 75 — plus a pool, spa, gym and driving range. The clubhouse is the weak link; Golfsavers notes it has not been modernised. Weekdays are easy to book, weekends less so, and the northern burning season, roughly February to April, is the window to avoid.
On cost, treat this as a mid-market Chiang Mai green fee rather than a premium ticket; the north generally prices below Bangkok and the beach resorts. The club’s own fee page currently shows its green-fee rows blank, and rates move with season, tee time and channel, so confirm current pricing directly (verify). Our breakdown of what golf in Thailand costs explains the moving parts.
Is it right for your trip?
Book it if you like a course that makes you choose. The rebuild left real options — an aggressive line and a bail-out on most holes — and the greens are the best-conditioned surfaces many visitors will putt on in the north. It suits mid-handicappers who can control a ball flight, better players who want a scoring test rather than a slog, and anyone on a multi-round northern trip who would rather sleep at the course.
Skip it if you came north for the view. Water on all but the opening hole means a lot of balls and a slower round, and if scenery is the point, Chiang Mai Highlands and Royal Chiang Mai are prettier mornings out. Beginners will find the forced carries expensive, and if you want resort polish, look elsewhere.
Gassan Legacy earns its place as the accuracy round: pair it with the length of Alpine or the elevation of the Highlands and three days in the north stop feeling repetitive. Our Chiang Mai golf guide shows how the region’s courses fit together, the golf in Thailand hub covers the rest of the country, and read when to play golf in Thailand before fixing dates.