Waterford Valley is Chiang Rai’s second course and the easiest stay-and-play in the province: a Rathert International design from the mid-1990s on a forested plateau in Wiang Chiang Rung district, with a small hotel beside the fairways. It has hosted the Thailand PGA Tour, it sits at the budget end of the Thai market, and the mountain views are real. But the most recent visitor reports on conditioning are poor, so it earns its place as a value second round behind Santiburi, not as the reason to come north, and only after a phone call about the greens.
What follows: the design and the card, the conditioning question as of 2026, the week the tour came to town, the holes the club itself flags, the drive from the airport, the rooms, and who should skip it.
The course itself
The club’s course page credits the layout to Rathert International Golf Design, the firm of American architect Mark Rathert, whose GolfPass portfolio lists Waterford Valley. An ASGCA news item quoting Las Vegas Golf & Leisure records that Rathert “began his journey by working with Robert Trent Jones II in 1977”; the mentor’s firm designed Santiburi Country Club across the province. The opening date is less tidy: the club’s page says “Year to start : since 1997” and golfdigg agrees, most agency listings say 1996, and Golfasian dates the design to 1994. Read it as a mid-1990s course, opened in 1996 on most listings, which the club itself dates to 1997.
The card is consistent: 18 holes, par 72, 6,961 yards from the black tees, with blues at 6,458, whites at 6,028, yellows at 5,569 and reds at 5,118 on the GolfPass, golfdigg and 18Birdies cards, both nines par 36. The club labels its nines A and B rather than front and back, and guides disagree which is played first, so hole numbers elsewhere may differ; we use the club’s labels.
The club’s own summary of the ground is “9 sloping-level holes and another 9 ground holes surrounded by mountain landscape”: one hilly nine, one flat one. Golfasian calls the site “mostly flat as it is built upon a plateau, surrounded by lush valleys and mountains” and adds that “Three holes on each side have severe elevation changes, making correct club selection critical.” GolfSavers says the greens “are very small and require an accurate approach to hold”, and the club’s notes warn of out of bounds on six holes. Top100GolfCourses lists it 11th in Northern Thailand and “quite a way off the beaten track in the north of the country”.
Conditioning is the live issue. Two of the three GolfSavers reviews posted in February and March 2026 are bleak; the third praises the layout but still marks the greens down. One says the “greens are 1/2 the size they used to be” and “Greens patched and inconsistent”, though the “caddie was very good”; another calls it the worst course the writer has played in Thailand and mentions renovations. The lone 2019 review is a rave. Treat the greens as unknown until you have asked the club what is under way.
Tournament pedigree
The Thailand PGA’s 2021 schedule places three of its events at Waterford Valley Chiangrai in December 2021, the biggest the Singha-SAT Chiangrai Championship on the main Thailand PGA Tour, a 2-million-baht event played 10–12 December. The title went to Dechawat Phetprayoon, an 18-year-old from Bangkok who closed with a 5-under 66 to win by one stroke for his first professional victory. The tour has not returned: the association’s 2022 to 2026 schedules list no Chiang Rai venue. The club has kept hosting competition, though: its own calendar records the Thailand Golf Association’s 17th Northern Thailand Championship in July 2024 and a fifth Chiang Rai Open that October.
The holes worth knowing
The club publishes a hole-by-hole briefing. Its index-one hole is the 5th on the A nine, a par four of 439 yards on the 18Birdies card: “It is uphill hole all the way with H/C 1”, with “water and dale hazards” down the left and deep bunkers at the green. The 6th is one of the two holes the club singles out, a “long-range Par 3 hole with small and narrow green area” with water left and bunkers right; the club’s own page lists it at 197 yards, which is the blue-tee number; from the black tees the GolfPass and 18Birdies cards both have it at 226, so expect a long iron either way.
The par-five 1st on the A nine, 505 yards, is about the tee shot: out of bounds left, and carrying the right-hand bunker leaves under 200 yards, per the club. The A nine closes with a 368-yard par four of which the club says “This hole is not too long but it needs good strategy”: fairway wood off the tee, out of bounds right, and a fairway that climbs all the way to a green the club says “curves out”.
On the B nine, the 5th is a 444-yard par four with index two where “The challenge of this hole is the water dog-leg all the way on the right”, and the 9th is the club’s own signature: a 390-yard par four from the black tees (the club’s page shows the blue-tee 367) played around a hill from the tee, after which “the shot must fly over the water hazard to land on the green where it is higher”, a narrow target sloping from back to front.
Location and getting there
The address is 222 Moo 5, Pa Sang subdistrict, Wiang Chiang Rung district, Chiang Rai 57210. Wiang Chiang Rung lies immediately east of the city district, per Wikipedia’s list of its neighbours. Golfasian calls the location north-east of Chiang Rai and puts the drive at 40 minutes from the city; GolfTripz says 45. Ignore listings that place it south of town.
From Chiang Rai International Airport (CEI, Mae Fah Luang), about 8 km from the city centre per Wikipedia and served from both Suvarnabhumi (BKK) and Don Mueang (DMK), the club advertises “Only 30 KM.”; LENGOLF quotes 35 to 40 minutes and GolfTripz allows 50. Budget 45 minutes and treat all of it as approximate. From Chiang Mai it is about 180–190 km north-east on Highway 118, three to three and a half hours by road (Golfasian puts the two cities just over 160 km apart).
Practical notes
This is the province’s stay-and-play. The club describes a 20-room hotel of 60-square-metre suites with private balconies, three-storey condominiums on the slope with two-bedroom units of 80 square metres, and a swimming pool. Golfasian describes the same property as a 20-room golf lodge with 30 dormitory-style rooms, and adds: “Local Thais and large groups of visiting Asian golfers enjoy the lodge, whereas most other Chiang Rai golfers prefer to overnight at better lodging in or near Chiang Rai city center.” See our guide to Thailand stay-and-play golf packages.
Facilities per the club: a driving range open 7am to 6pm daily, locker rooms, a restaurant, a pro shop and carts. One March 2026 reviewer reported no range in use, so ask. Caddies are the norm; the club lists a caddie fee and LENGOLF calls them mandatory. golfdigg and LENGOLF both list a cart as required, while GolfTripz calls buggy use optional; assume you will be riding, and ask the club directly if you want to walk the hilly nine. Etiquette and tipping are in our Thai caddie guide. golfdigg lists standard golf attire, trainers accepted, no jeans, slippers or T-shirts; Golfasian lists the group cap as five on weekdays and four at weekends, and GolfPass says fivesomes are allowed except at weekends and on holidays.
The club publishes nine-hole as well as 18-hole rates. On price, Waterford Valley sits well below Santiburi and at the budget end of the Thai market; rates move by season and channel, so confirm current numbers with the club (verify) and see our Thailand golf cost guide. November to February is the time to come, and the north’s smoke season, peaking around March, makes our best-time guide worth reading before you fix dates.
Is it right for your trip?
Play it if you are in Chiang Rai for two or more nights, have already booked Santiburi, and want a second, cheaper round with real scenery and a few genuinely hard holes. Play it, above all, if you have rung ahead and been told the greens are back in shape; a well-kept Waterford Valley is a good-value mountain course.
Skip it if you have one round in the province, because that round is Santiburi. Skip it if you are chasing conditioning, because the 2026 reports point the other way; Chiang Mai Highlands, three hours south, is the north’s polished resort course. And do not try it as a Chiang Mai day trip.
Waterford Valley is the second name on a Chiang Rai golf itinerary and, once the greens are right, a good one. Our Chiang Rai golf guide shows how to pair it with Santiburi and the city, and the golf in Thailand hub covers where the far north fits in a longer trip.