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The Ballyshear Links at Ban Rakat Club


The Ballyshear Golf Links (“BGL”)  is an 18-hole golf course located in Bangkok, Thailand.

Overview
The Ballyshar Golf Links is the golf course and centerpiece of the private Ban Rakat Club, located in Ban Rakat, some 35 minutes southeast, by car, from center city Bangkok. The 7,115-yard course was designed by Gil Hanse, an American golf course architect, in the image of the Lido Golf Course (opened in 1917, but closed during World War II), a legendary layout among golf historians and course design enthusiasts around the world. The original Lido Golf Course was hailed by renowned British golf writer Bernard Darwin as one of the best courses in the world. He considered it the equal of the Pine Valley Golf Club(opened in 1918). The Ballyshear Golf Links reproduces all 18 original holes from the Lido Golf Course, in nearly the identical sequence. Nine holes opened in September 2021, and the remaining 9 holes debuted in December of the same year.

Background
Development of the Ballyshear Golf Links started as a redevelopment the 18-hole Kiarti Thanee Country Club that existed from 1997 to 2017 on the same site. In June 2017, Kiarti Thanee Country Club Co., Ltd, the owner company of the Kiarti Thanee Country Club, announced that the project would be completed in 2018; The land would continue to be used for golf — but as a new course, with a new operator. The Yokohama International Golf Club Co., Ltd., a Japanese company specializing in golf course management, was nominated as the redevelopment partner (The Yokohama International Golf Club Co., Ltd. has been engaged in operations management at several Thai golf courses since 2006, and several more in Japan. In 2018, it was agreed that Yokohama International Golf Club Co., Ltd. would be responsible for development and operation of the new golf course, American Gil Hanse was appointed the project’s golf course　architect.

Development
From February 2017 to February 2018, Gil Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner visited the site many times to discuss the direction of the new golf course design. As a result, it was decided the design mission was not a renovation of Kiarti Thanee Country Club but rather a completely new layout. Accordingly, construction teams began by clearing the site and bringing a large amount of soil onto the property, to create undulations. In December 2017, Kiarti Thanee Country Club closed as planned, and development of the new golf course began. In formulating the new design, Gil Hanse focused on the fact that the new golf course is located on flat terrain, a delta region. In this regard, he took a hint from the original Lido Golf Course, which once existed on the coastline of Long Island, New York, in the United States. The Lido Golf Course was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, America’s foremost golf course architect at that time. He also designed the Chicago Golf Club (1894) and the National Golf Links of America (1911). Charles Blair Macdonald created the Lido Golf Course in collaboration with construction engineer Seth Raynor, refashioning 115 acres of treeless wetlands. About two million cubic yards of sand were delivered to the course — to raise it up, above sea level, and to create undulations. The Lido Golf Course was the first truly man-made course in the United States or the United Kingdom. At Ban Rakat, Gil Hanse based his work on the design theories and philosophies displayed at the Lido Golf Course. The name of the new golf course was proposed by Gil Hanse, “Ballyshear” is the name of the house where Charles Blair Macdonald made his home on Long Island.

Design Portfolio
Recent original design projects from Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, the partners in Hanse Gold Design, include the new Olympic Games golf course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016); the Black Course at the Streamsong Resort in Florida, in the United States; the Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia, in the United States; and the No.4 Course at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, in the United States. Hanse Golf Design renovation projects include many classic courses that have subsequently hosted, or will host, the U.S. Open Championship, including the Winged Foot West Course in New York (2020), The Country Club in Massachusetts (2022), and The Los Angeles CC North Course in California (2023). According to this experience and track record, they are known as the “Open Doctors”.

Ballyshear Golf Links is Hanse Golf Design’s first project in Asia.

Course layout
Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor worked on more than 20 projects together, including the Lido Golf Course. One of the defining features of their projects was their purposeful use of template of holes, a practice that made them unique among architects in the United States, then and now. Charles Blair Macdonald described this effort as “recreating the ideal holes”. In fact, each hole at the Lido Golf Course was inspired by hole designs existing elsewhere, such as the Redan of North Berwick in Scotland, and the Channel at Littlestone in England. Some original template holes are not British or European. Several were first created by Charles Blair Macdonald on the eastern tip of Long Island. The Cape Hole at the National Golf Links of America, which opened in 1911, served as template to future Cape designs by Charles Blair Macdonald and others, for example. The 18 holes at the Ballyshear Golf Links are a reproduction of the Lido Golf Course based on this classic theory of design, as recommended and practiced by Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor. The template holes at Ban Rakat Club have been reproduced and interpreted in sequence. With only one exception: The order of the Plateau and Dog Leg holes are reversed at Ballyshear Golf Links. However, not all holes on the original Lido Golf Course followed classic template theory and the original style created by Charles Blair Macdonald, and the same is true for the Ballyshear Golf Links. Design of the original Lido’s 18th and 6th holes originated from a design contest held by the British magazine “Country Life”. In the contest, the work of a then unknown surgeon and army medic Alister MacKenzie won the grand prize and was adopted for the 18th hole of the Lido Golf Course — and at Ballyshear. The “Dog Leg” hole by Seth Raynor won second prize and was adopted for the 6th hole of the Lido Golf Course. The “dog leg” design concept has become a well-established nickname for holes that curves sharply to the left or right. It has been adapted once again, as the par-4 2nd hole, at the Ballyshear Golf Links.

Ban Rakat Club
Ban Rakat Club is an exclusive golf club established in 2019. The clubhouse was designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates in collaboration with the Thai design firm Februar Image.

Links

 * 1) / Ban Rakat Club
 * 2) Ballyshear Golf Links
 * 3) / Lido inspired course in thailand
 * 4) / the lost lido shuffle
 * 5) / Ballyshear Links