The links-style course at Eastern Star, located near the Gulf of Thailand, is one of only five courses in Thailand designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. The Pattaya golf course is set on 530 acres of land and meanders through lovely residential areas of Eastern Star Country Club & Resort. The course features wide fairways and hundreds of coconut palm trees and is a popular local favorite. The gently undulating fairways and greens feature 65 bunkers, 11 lakes and more than 2,200 coconut palm trees. The golf resort is conveniently situated just 2 kilometers from the sea ensuring a constant cooling breeze. Like a true links course, it is only slightly above sea level in altitude.
As you would expect coconut trees are much in evidence but the relatively wide fairways means that they should not impede your progress too much as long as you can also avoid the numerous bunkers and 11 lakes! Eastern Star provides a reasonable but challenging layout for golfers. It can get very hot playing golf in Pattaya during the summer season but due to its proximity to the gulf of Thailand the course is usually blessed with the cooling prevailing winds that blow at that time of the year. The course is very picturesque and is framed by the nearby mountain range and is a perfect venue for a relaxing game on any golf holiday in Pattaya.
You need to play intelligent golf to score well as there are numerous doglegs where positioning is vital and you also need to make sure you are not blocked out by the tall trees. If the cooling sea breeze is blowing then this can add a further dimension. The water hazards usually line one side of the fairway with and are often a factor as you approach the green so if a hook or a slice creeps into your game then you are going to get wet.
The signature hole is the attractive par-3 13th requiring a tee shot over a water hazard to a green with another water hazard on one side, a very deep bunker on the other and thick rough everywhere else. The par 5 4th hole is another hole worthy of mention with a narrow landing area an water all along the left had side.
Pattaya golfers will be amused by some of the very unusual and imaginative topiary including a hedge right in the middle of the fairway sculpted in the shape of the FA Cup on the second hole, right in the middle of the fairway.