Stonehill stands as an example of the amalgamation of modern design principles and the timeless elegance of Golden Age architecture.

Hosting Asia’s inaugural LIV Golf event in October 2022, just a few months after opening, the 7,861-yard Kyle Phillips layout received glowing reviews from the LIV pros for impeccable conditioning and providing a fair test of their golfing skills.

With carefully contoured landforms that rise and fall to meet players as they traverse the course, Stonehill’s environment was crafted to provide an exceptional golfing experience. Two years on, it is considered among the very best layouts in Thailand.

Much like the opulent clubhouse designed by Hart Howerton and built with Veronese limestone and local teak wood using the unique techniques of Thai craftmanship, Stonehill brings the old West of Europe and the new West of North America together in Southeast Asia.

Owner Sarath Ratanavadi envisioned a world-class golf destination that would stand the test of time. It would be his golf legacy. He was also fully aware the 340-acre featureless clay site north of Bangkok was little to work with. It was his oldest son Ing, who was playing college golf at USC at that time, that had visited Yas Links and believed Phillips had what it would take to achieve his father’s vision and transform their land accordingly.

Phillips is known for transforming mundane land into top-class golf. Take Bernardus in the Netherlands, for example, where outstanding results were achieved on a site with a complete absence of redeeming features. Even at Kingsbarns, where the coastline setting provided obvious potential, the land itself was featureless – a few gently sloping farmer’s fields – before Phillips got to work.

Their overriding theme for the entire development – course, clubhouse, villas and spa – was to be fresh and modern, but with elements that were traditional and distinctly Thai. “We always wanted to have the roots of a traditional club, but to also push the boundaries to make Stonehill the best in the country and a great experience-driven product,” says Ing.

Phillips made his first visit in 2017. “The site was flat. A big delta with layers of thick clay,” he says. Marcus Reams of Flagstick Golf Course Construction, whose team built the course, adds: “It was essentially overgrown rice paddies, scrub brush and various trees.”

Work on the landscape began with the clearance of that brush. Specimen trees were preserved or relocated elsewhere on the property – a key to delivering that Thai identity. Around 380 trees were saved or replanted, and 4,200 more were brought in from other areas of the country.

“We identified which groups of trees were nicer in character and, where possible, worked around them,” says Phillips. One particular existing tree, on the seventeenth, is a marker for the property’s original elevation. All other areas of the undulating course have been sculpted above and below that level by Phillips’ team of shapers.

A key consideration in Phillips’ plan for the landscape was to ensure the golf course would be protected from the Chao Phraya River. It is a source of good-quality water, but the Chainat and Chao Phraya dams, about 80 miles upstream, are prone to breaching. With the guidance of the civil engineers, a three-metre-high landform was built around the property to mitigate the risk of flooding. Inside the property, Phillips created landforms up to 14 metres high along with creeks that move water efficiently around the course.

“There are two creeks, one that starts near the second tee and one that starts above the sixteenth green.” says Phillips. “They merge on the tenth and then flow down to the large lake adjacent to the fourteenth and seventeenth greens. That lake then overflows into an even larger lake that provides the necessary water storage capacity during the tropical rainy season.”

A flat site, of course, provides something of a blank slate for design.

“When you have a blank slate, the challenge is to create variety and uniqueness. That can be by building something that is a little unexpected.” says Mark Thawley, design associate for Phillips.

A good example of this comes early in the round, at the 495-yard fourth, in the form of an element of blindness created by the rolling fairway that obscures the putting surface. A small mid-bunker opens up a window in the ridge, leaving only a glimpse of the bunkerless green and, for some pin positions, a walk filled with anticipation of how closely the ball will have fed to the pin.

The turf varieties selected for firm, fast playing conditions and supplied by Sports Turf Solutions were Trinity Zoysia for tees and surrounds, Zeon Zoysia for fairways, Bahia for rough and TifEagle for greens.

The fifth, a short par four, might – if the tees are forward – entice players to go for the green, taking on the creek that runs up the entire right side of the hole. It’s a little reminiscent of the challenge of the famous fourteenth at Loch Lomond, in that the safe play is a lay-up left, before crossing water to the well-guarded green.

The fourth and fifth were particularly challenging for players at the 2022 LIV Golf Bangkok event. For Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, who won the tournament, his only two bogeys of the entire three rounds came at this pair of holes.

By this point in the round some of Phillips’ hallmarks have already been revealed, including generous fairway width that in some places, for example at the first and ninth, is shared, superb shortgrass connections between greens and the next tee, and boldly contoured putting surfaces. The two par threes, the heavily protected third tucked into the southwest corner of the site and the seventh, which plays over a creek and a huge bunker, punctuate a stimulating opening nine.

On the back nine, however, the course ramps up a gear.

It opens with a picturesque par four, with water running down the left side of a fairway that is shared with the eighteenth. Where the creek crosses the line of play, in the approach area, it is lined with local stone – which is used again to great effect on the final three holes. The tiered green has a false front, defended by large and deep bunkers on each side.

Fairway width and contour combine to deliver multiple options for play. Phillips highlights the fourteenth as another example of this: “It’s a hole that has good dimension and a bit of mystery to it, like a hole you might find on a links course. There’s a strong ridge that runs across the landing zone that’s higher on the left and lower on the right. You can either play up short-right to see the top of the pin, or you can drive left over the top of the ridge where the green surface becomes visible.”

The fourteenth green sits on the bank of a large lake, alongside which the fifteenth, a par four that can play 497 yards from the back tee, also plays.

The final three holes give the course a mighty crescendo. First, the wee downhill par-three sixteenth plays to the course’s smallest green, hanging over a creek. Hit it short and you’ll be in the water, but long lies the hole’s only bunker, a snarling hazard ready to punish those who take too much club. “The slight diagonal green along the creek poses a challenge not unlike the short twelfth at Augusta, where anywhere on the green is a good result,” says Phillips.

The par-five seventeenth plays back up towards the lake, with the specimen tree providing the ideal line. The green angles along the lake edge, with the creek cutting across the approach. Good players will need a decent drive to get home in two. Those who favour a lay-up, will still find themselves faced with a demanding short approach.

“As many courses in this region do, we didn’t want the eighteenth to finish on a lake.” says Thawley. Instead, the hole plays uphill off the tee, with the clubhouse visible on the horizon. The approach shot plays back downhill, this time with the creek cutting directly across the front of the green and the surrounding ground rising to the clubhouse, providing a natural grandstand finish.

From a landscape point of view, the owners’ desire to deliver an experience that is distinctly Thai is achieved primarily through the planting. As the newer trees mature this will only be heightened. But special mention should also be made of the structures around the course. There must be 30 elegant bridges spanning the meandering creek, most impressively at the seventeenth, between tees and fairway. The absolute highlights, though, are the traditionally styled tea houses. Stop at them all, for a moment of reflection and to take in the long views across the course. Take time at the sixteenth to enjoy the courtyard and water feature, and a moment of meditation before throwing yourself into that thrilling finishing stretch.

This article first appeared in the July 2024 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.