Siam Country Club in the Thai resort region of Pattaya, one of the oldest-established golf clubs in the country, is expanding.

The club has appointed IMG’s course design operation to create a new eighteen hole course to go alongside its existing 45 holes of golf. Planning and initial design works are already under way, with construction due to start late this year, and opening scheduled for early 2014.

Dr Phornthep Phornprapha, president of Siam Motors, the resort’s developer, said: “Our objective for the New Course is to create something that is beautiful and very different from our existing courses, providing golfers with an experience that is fun and memorable.”

IMG director of design Brit Stenson said: “With its many lakes and gentle topography, the site is well suited to create a very different and unique golf course. Our main design goal is to make the New Course very playable and fun for golfers of all abilities.” 

Siam Country Club was the first privately owned golf course in Thailand and opened in 1971. In 2006, the original course underwent a complete renovation, and was renamed the Old Course on its 2007 reopening. During the renovation, construction began on a new 27-hole golf course on a nearby property, which opened in 2008 under the name Siam Country Club Pattaya Plantation. The planned new course will take the resort to 63 holes.