Loch Palm Golf Club

I booked here through phuketgolfcourse.com and paid 3500bht for round-trip transfers+caddy+green fee. Loch Palm is the other course I played in Phuket and if it wasn't for Blue Canyon being so stunning, I would have been raving over this place. The front nine is more impressive than the back, although the back nine has a couple of cracking par 3s in the 14th and 16th. There is a 50' drop in elevation from the tee to green at the 14th making club selection a nightmare and the 16th has you playing across an enormous lake coming in from the right with OB tight on your left. Like Blue Canyon, water plays a large part in the course but also doesn't make it a game of precision target golf. The coures is not as sensitively sculpted as Blue Canyon and does feel a little more manufactured. However, you would still be mad not to play here as it is a fantastic test of golf in glorious surroundings. The course also has the best driving range I've ever seen. A bay of about 20 tees in a slight recess of a hillside plays out to the main (and vast) lake with yardage markers anchored in the water! Certainly no guessing at how far your ball carried as it makes a big splosh! The clubhouse is nice, but not in the same league as Blue Canyon and the overall response from staff was also not as good. In fact, this was one aspect that tarnished the day as my caddy started off pleasant enough but became almost mute by the 10th hole. She also gave me consistently terrible lines to putt to and I wish I'd ignored her and trusted my own eyes instead. Compared to the caddies at Blue Canyon, the one at Loch Palm was significantly worse which was a real shame. She didn't even give me my scorecard at the end of the round! Overall, an excellent golf course but you may wish to pay the extra to play at neighbouring Red Mountain which is said to be the mutts nuts.