Amata Spring Country Club

Amata Spring Country Club: with a name that means "eternal spring", here you will find one of Thailand's elite courses, exclusively for the use of its members and their guests. In return for a hefty joining fee, members enjoy one of the most exciting layouts and one of the best presented courses in the country.

Arranged on naturally contoured land that gently slopes away from two sizeable lakes, the course contains many excellent and distinctive features. The bunkering is top-class, with sizeable bunkers threatening at every hole and on every approach shot. Around the greens substantive sand traps are complemented by smooth sloping run-off areas, which will thoroughly test your chipping skills, before you putt on the fast and often wickedly undulating greens.

The two central lakes come into play on several holes, not least the signature island-green short par-3 17th, which literally floats "offshore" in one of the lakes. A small boat ferries you out to the island. Measuring a mere 40 yards long by 40 wide, there is just the green to aim at, complemented by a small bunker and a couple of palm trees.

This highly prestigious and always challenging golf layout is not matched by its rather eclectic surroundings, which include light industry, Spanish villas, local homes, a temple, an oriental palace, condominiums, woodland and a small range of hills and mountains in the background.

Limited access: this private course is generally playable only by members and their invited guests.