Laem Chabang is the course Pattaya regulars name when a visitor has already booked the area’s marquee round and wants a second serious one. It is a Jack Nicklaus 27 on genuinely rolling ground in Si Racha district, about 25 km north-east of the city, with more elevation, exposed rock and shaping than the flat resort layouts filling most Pattaya tee sheets. Nicklaus Design has been back to restore part of it. On a trip of three rounds or more, it belongs on the list.
Below: the three nines and how they combine, the holes worth knowing, the tournament record, and the two details that decide the round — the airport, and the compulsory buggy.
Three nines that add up to one par 72
The club credits Jack Nicklaus and publishes a first-person designer’s letter, but names no opening year. Golf Course Architecture, the industry trade title, calls it “originally designed in the mid-1990s as a Jack Nicklaus Signature.” Published dates vary: Golfdd says 1993, Planet Golf 1994, Where2Golf and Golfasian 1995. Nicklaus Design’s own site has no page for it, so treat both as unsettled.
The configuration is what people get wrong. There are 27 holes over roughly 700 acres, in three nines of par 36 — Mountain (A), Lake (B), Valley (C). Any two make an 18 of par 72, and cards exist for A/B, B/C and C/A. Which pair you get depends on the starter, so state a preference when booking.
| Nine | Par | Club’s own figure | Black tees, Pattaya Golf Courses card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain (A) | 36 | 3,446 yds | 3,517 yds |
| Lake (B) | 36 | 3,419 yds | 3,453 yds |
| Valley (C) | 36 | 3,619 yds | 3,601 yds |
Those add up to 6,865 yards for Mountain-Lake, 7,038 for Lake-Valley and 7,065 for Valley-Mountain — hence Where2Golf’s 6,865 and Golfasian’s 7,065 for the same course. The Pattaya Golf Courses card runs longer off the blacks (6,970, 7,054, 7,118), rated 72.5 to 73.8, slopes 133 to 139; whites read 6,184 to 6,368, with five tee sets down to a yellow from 4,790.
Conditioning and the Nicklaus Design restoration
Nicklaus Design associate Sean Quinn rebuilt the Mountain nine in 2018; it was closed March to November. Ten to twelve inches of topdressing came off greens Quinn found deliberately shrunk — “some by 40 per cent” — then restored to original size and regrassed with TifEagle. Every bunker was reconstructed, shading trees thinned, tees re-levelled in Zeon Zoysia, irrigation replaced. “Great care was taken to ensure Mr Nicklaus’s original design strategy and intent was not lost,” Quinn told Golf Course Architecture.
Playability was the point: Quinn judged that “the excessive trees and landscaping had made the course too difficult for average to high handicappers.” The Lake and Valley nines were meant to follow within two years; we could not confirm they did, so ask what has been touched recently.
Tournament pedigree
The club’s hosted-event list runs from Asian Tour qualifying in 1995 to the 2022 Singha Pattaya Open; the recurring modern fixture is the Singha Pattaya Open on the All Thailand Golf Tour. The Asian Development Tour co-sanctioned it for the first time in 2023; the Asian Tour’s record for that July names the venue as Laem Chabang International CC on the B/A course, a THB 4,000,000 purse won by Pattaraphol Khanthacha. The All Thailand Golf Tour lists the 2025 edition here (14-17 August); the Thai LPGA’s SINGHA-NSDF Pattaya Ladies Open also plays the course. Top100GolfCourses ranks the B and C nines eighth in Thailand.
The holes worth knowing
The Lake nine’s 6th is the hole everyone talks about, and three sources agree. A par 4 of 445 yards off the blacks, stroke index 1, it doglegs right: water crosses the fairway around 250 yards so most players lay back, a bunker waits right for the slice, and a lake runs hard against the green’s edge. Bail left and there is room; go at the flag and the number must be exact. The A Position called it “easily the most challenging” of the nine.
The Lake 9th is the natural closer, a par 5 to the clubhouse and HotGolf’s pick as the best hole here. A diagonal tee shot has a left bunker needing about 230 yards to carry, and the second shot’s position decides everything, because the green hides behind a rise topped by a mature tree.
On the Mountain nine the 1st is a short par 4 — 386 from the back — into an angled fairway sloping back toward the tee, squeezed by vegetation and rock. The 2nd is the postcard: a downhill par 3 of 190 yards fronted by water, its green now backed by a rock wall built during the restoration.
The Valley nine is longest and rated hardest. A 437-yard downhill par 4 opens, then the 2nd to 8th cross a flat basin where three connected ponds defend the early stretch. The 4th, 452 yards, is stroke index 1 and GolfSavers calls it the toughest of all 27; the 6th is a 552-yard par 5. The A Position praised greens “sensibly not busy, but fast and true.”
Location and getting there
The address is 106/8 Moo 4, Bueng, Si Racha, Chonburi — inland in the hills, not by the water the name suggests. The club says 30 minutes from Pattaya and 109 km from Bangkok. Access is off Motorway 7: past the Laem Chabang interchange, exit at the km 32 marker, then 6 km, entrance on the right just after Burapha Golf Club.
The airport that matters is the one itineraries ignore. U-Tapao Rayong-Pattaya International (UTP), at Ban Chang in Rayong, is nearest: Si Racha is roughly 56 km away, about an hour by car. Suvarnabhumi (BKK), 30 km east of central Bangkok on the Chonburi side, is typically one to one and a half hours up Motorway 7 outside peak traffic. Don Mueang (DMK), north of the city, is the longest transfer. All approximate and traffic-dependent.
Practical notes
A caddie goes out with every group; our guide to the Thai caddie system, etiquette and tipping covers what to expect. Buggies are not optional: the club states buggy use is compulsory, and its rate card carries a “one cart one golfer” note — a cart each, not one per pair. That changes a fourball’s cost, so confirm it (verify). Footwear is spikeless or soft spikes only.
Advance booking is required. Weekend and holiday flight windows are published — morning 06:30 to 08:43, afternoon from 11:24 — with groups capped at four; weekdays allow five. Nicklaus Design’s Sean Quinn called it one of the region’s busiest in the pre-renovation years, so take the earliest slot. Night golf is sold at its own 18-hole rate, and The Golf Lodge has 40 rooms on site.
On published rates it sits in the upper middle of the Pattaya market — above the everyday resort courses, below the most expensive names. Thai green, caddie and buggy fees move with season, tee time and channel, so treat any figure online as indicative and confirm directly (verify); our guide to what golf in Thailand costs explains the tiers. Mid and high handicappers are fine from the whites, the restoration’s stated aim. The ground is exposed, so read when to play golf in Thailand before fixing dates.
Is it right for your trip?
Book it if you want the best Nicklaus routing in the Pattaya area and you care about terrain: real elevation, rock outcrops, greens worth studying. Book it if you are staying on site, or pairing it with Burapha across the road for 36 holes. Book it if you fly into U-Tapao — still about an hour away, but far closer than Bangkok’s airports.
Skip it if you have one round in the province and want the biggest international name; that is a different booking, and our profile of Siam Country Club Old Course covers what that round asks of you. Skip it if you want to walk; you cannot. And skip it if a compulsory cart per player pushes the round past budget.
Laem Chabang earns its place on merit: design, conditioning and tournament record all point the same way, not true of every course in Chonburi. Slot it into a wider Pattaya golf plan, sequence it with our Thailand golf trip planner, and browse the Thailand golf course directory for the shortlist. New to the country? Start at our Golf in Thailand hub.