Almost everyone who lands in Phuket with clubs wants the Canyon Course — the Tiger Woods hole, the Johnnie Walker history, the green fee to match. The Blue Canyon Lakes Course is the other 18 at the same address, and for many visitors it is the better-judged round: same architect, same reclaimed tin-mine landscape, more room off the tee, and a rate agents list well below its famous sibling. It is not a consolation prize. It is a proper course with a genuinely frightening finish.
This profile covers the design and the published numbers, the professional golf the Lakes has quietly hosted, the holes worth planning for, and the practical side — access, cart and caddie rules, and whether it earns a slot in your week.
The course itself
The Lakes is the work of Yoshikazu Kato, the Japanese architect who began developing this abandoned tin mine in 1988 and who also routed the Canyon Course next door. Dating it is oddly fiddly: the club’s overview and About pages say 1999, while the course page’s own spec box says “Year Built: 1998” — independent listings follow 1999. Either way it is about eight years younger than the Canyon, and routed around the flooded pits and canyon walls the mining left rather than flattening them.
It plays to par 72. The club’s card gives 7,129 yards from the black tees, then 6,504, 6,073 and 5,366 from blue, white and red; agents’ hole-by-hole cards add up shorter, around 7,069, so treat the headline as approximate. The par split is worth knowing — the outward nine is a par 35 with a single par 5, the inward nine a par 37 with three of them, so the scoring chances sit in the back half.
Water is the identity of the place. The club states that “water hazards are featured on 17 of the 18 holes at the Lakes”, and unlike most such claims it survives its own scorecard: the club’s hole-by-hole guide, as published by PhuketGolfCourse.com, introduces the par-3 17th with the line “This is the first and only hole with no water”. What stops it becoming punishing is width — the club advertises “270-yard target-driving areas”, and the ground is gentler than the Canyon’s, with total elevation change of 22 metres. Fairways are Zoysia matrella, greens TifEagle Bermuda; golf-travel sources report a 2006 renovation that removed several blind shots, though the club does not document it.
Easier than the Canyon? On the club’s own numbers, yes: it publishes a slope of 128 from the Lakes’ black tees against 141 on the Canyon, though agent scorecards put the Lakes nearer 135. Reviewers disagree — one repeat visitor who treats the Lakes as a home course rates it the tougher examination, because the greens are harder to read. The Lakes forgives your driver, then makes you earn everything from 150 yards in.
What the Lakes has actually hosted
Worth being blunt, because this club’s history is routinely credited to the wrong lawn. The three Johnnie Walker Classics (1994, 1998, 2007), the 1996 Honda invitational, the 2005 Thai Airways International Thailand Open and the Asian Tour’s 2021 Blue Canyon Phuket Championship were all played on the Canyon. No co-sanctioned European or Asian Tour event has ever been played on the Lakes.
It has, though, hosted professional golf almost nobody outside Thailand knows about. Under Phuket’s “Sandbox Swing” programme of September–October 2021 — eight tournaments and 12.5 million baht, run by the Professional Golf Association of Thailand and the All Thailand Golf Tour to restart competition after the pandemic — the Thailand PGA’s schedule lists six consecutive events at Blue Canyon, every one designated “(Lakes Course)”: two Thailand PGA Tour tournaments at two million baht each, two Development Tour events at one million, and two One Day Tour rounds. For the biggest, the Lakes was presented at 7,061 yards to a par of 71. The 18th was also named Best Par Four in Asia by Asian Golf Monthly in 2003. It has also hosted one genuinely international tournament: the Blue Canyon Classic of 13–15 May 2022, a US$75,000 event co-sanctioned by the Asian Development Tour and the MENA Tour, won by China’s Chen Guxin at 16 under.
The holes worth knowing
The 3rd tells you the Lakes shares the Canyon’s DNA. The club’s guide calls it “Similar in topography to the Canyon Course’s signature 13th”: the tee shot must carry a water-filled canyon or thread the gap between two of them, and the green sits on the canyon edge.
The 4th is stroke index 1 — a wide fairway offering a safe “high road” left that leaves a longer second over a sheer-sided canyon, or a shorter “low road” right that flirts with the same canyon for an easier approach. A real strategic hole, early enough to define the round.
The short holes are the Lakes at its best. The 12th is, per the club’s guide, “The shortest par 3 at the Blue Canyon” — from an elevated tee out of a chute of trees to a green that is effectively an island. The 8th is billed as “The most picturesque par 3 on the golf course”, and the 2nd has a green 57 yards wide.
The 18th is the reason to come: 471 yards, par 4, from the black tees, stroke index 2. The club’s own description is unusually candid — “A single tree separates fairway options”, left for the view and right for the length, into a small green set between canyon walls and a water-filled canyon, with “nowhere to hide on one of golf’s most testing holes”. The club calls it “perhaps the most difficult natural par 4 finish in golf”. Take the bogey and shake hands.
Location and getting there
Blue Canyon sits at 165 Moo 1, Thepkasattri Road, in Thalang district at the northern end of the island, just inland of the Mai Khao coast and effectively next door to Phuket International Airport (HKT). Published distances vary wildly — 1 km to 10 km depending on what is measured — but in practice it is a 10 to 15 minute transfer from the terminal, which makes the Lakes an easy first or last round of a trip. From the southern beaches it is a different story: Patong is roughly 35 km away, with quoted drive times running from about 45 minutes to an hour. No useful public transport; book a car or transfer.
The two courses share one clubhouse, built between them — pro shop, changing rooms, restaurants, pools, spa and 31 rooms above it — plus a practice ground with covered and turf bays, a large eight-hole putting green and a short-game area.
Practical notes
Caddies are mandatory, as at every Thai club — our guide to how caddies work in Thailand covers tipping and etiquette. Carts are compulsory on the Lakes too, with agents listing one golfer per cart and a 90-degree rule on fairways, so walking is not on offer. Agents also list a collared-shirt policy and no outside food or drink — (verify both with the club when you book). One note for anyone reading older reviews: the Canyon closed for a full renovation and reopened on 1 February 2024, the Lakes carrying the club throughout.
On price, the Lakes is the value play at a premium address: rate sheets consistently put it well below the Canyon for the same dates, in low season sometimes close to half, while November through March carries the usual premium — (verify current rates with the club or your booking agent before you travel). Our breakdown of what a golf trip to Thailand costs puts that in context, and the best time to play golf in Thailand explains the seasonal trade-off.
Is it right for your trip?
Play the Lakes if you are giving Blue Canyon two days, if your group’s handicaps are spread wide, or if the Canyon’s rate is what stands between you and a round at Thailand’s best-known club. It suits mid- and high-handicappers better than most courses of this pedigree — wide fairways, a real tee spread, trouble you can see — and it is the best arrival-day or departure-day round on the island.
Skip it if you have one round in Phuket and came for the history: that is the Canyon, unambiguously. Skip it too if you cannot keep a ball dry, because with water on 17 holes a poor ball-striking day is expensive in sleeves and in strokes. And if you want elevation and theatre above all, Red Mountain delivers more of both.
For the rest of the island’s roster, start with our Phuket golf guide, use the Thailand golf trip planner to build the week around it, and browse the Golf in Thailand hub when comparing regions.