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Situated halfway between the Thai capital and the beach resort of Pattaya, the prestigious course at Amata Spring Country Club is imbued with all the attributes you would expect of a top notch modern course in this part of the world: long, undulating fairways, exceptional greenside bunkering, wonderfully fast putting surfaces and plenty of water-threatened holes.

Fairways have been routed around two sizeable lakes and it’s on one of these grand water hazards that golfers encounter the layout’s signature hole at the 145-yard, par three 17th. In fact, that yardage is rather superfluous because the island green at this hole actually floats, so the carry to the 40 yards by 40 yards putting surface – accessed by a small boat from the lake side – can be altered at the flick of a switch.

A number of high profile competitions have been held at Amata Spring since the course first opened for play in 2005: The inaugural Honda LPGA Thailand tournament in 2006, the first four Royal Trophy events from 2006 to 2010 and the first Thailand Golf Championship (when Lee Westwood claimed his 37th career victory) in 2011.

Architect Lee Schmidt kindly provided us with the following comments:

“When the industrial complex Amata Nakorm was initially designed, a large lake was excavated as the water source for the proposed factories. With the expansion of the property and other facilities over time, other water sources were designed and the initial lake was no longer needed.

When we first saw the site in 2003 and were reviewing concept routing options, we wondered how deep the lake was. An engineer showed us a plan where there were really two lakes but the current water level was above the divider between the two.

The discussion progressed and we eventually found out we could make the final water level water at any level we desired. The final routing has hole eighteen near the location where the two lakes were divided. Fill material from other areas of cut on the course were added to expand the divider, thus making eighteen fairways shaped as they are today.

Hole seventeen, which is the floating green, was the concept of the golf course’s major shareholder, Andrew Yau. He first spoke of a floating green and we then said you mean an “island green”. He corrected us, saying a floating green not island green. Schmidt Curley Design had never designed or engineered one before but, with the assistance of a local Thai engineer, we started the design process.

There were a few failures during the construction process, but the final product was exactly what Andrew wanted. The green is anchored in four locations and has a submerged irrigation line running from the boat docking location to the green. The ferryboat carrying golfers to the green is captained by a well trained uniformed Thai staff member.

A number of other holes are worthy of mention: The 4th is a testing long par four that has a creek guarding the front of the green and it’s framed by a beautiful gold outlined historic Thai Temple.

Hole 7 is a medium length downhill par five with cross-bunkers between the first and second landing areas. The front third of the green is higher than the backs section, giving the illusion from the fairway that the green is sitting on the lake edge.

Hole 8 is a long par three over water with the green angled right to left. The front is slightly raised then the middle section drops down before rising over a metre to the back tier. Depending on the pin position there will many interesting putts made and missed on this exciting green.

The 18th is a demanding finishing hole playing over 470 yards. The tee shot needs to be both long and accurate, avoiding the bunkers on the right side of the fairway and water that extends the entire left side of the hole from tee to green.”