The Laguna Phuket Golf Club will be carrying out a comprehensive course upgrade from 1 July 2013.

The Thai club aims to significantly improve its golfing experience and the work is expected to take 18 months to complete.

The course will be reduced to nine holes initially, with members and guests able to play the front nine holes twice for a full round. Once the back nine holes are upgraded, guests will then be able to play on these while the first nine are revamped.

The Laguna Phuket Golf Club hosted the 2009 Singha Thailand Open and 2010 Mercedes-Benz Masters Thailand, and its clubhouse was listed in the top ten for ‘Best Clubhouse in Asia’ by readers of Asian Golf Monthly magazine.

“During recent years the combination of age, drainage, soil structure and contamination of grasses has affected the overall quality of our playing surfaces,” said Paul Wilson, the club’s assistant director of golf. “This project will see significant investments made to improve tee box areas, bunkers, green complexes, practice facilities, drainage, irrigation and all playing surfaces.”

The club is the only golfing facility on the Thai island, which is a popular resort for tourists and travelers. “Although these works may cause some inconvenience to our members and guests, we believe they are necessary to bring our course right up to a true world-class standard that will be appreciated by everyone who plays here,” Wilson said.