WITH over 200 golf courses in Thailand, attracting and maintaining golfers and members is not an easy task, unless you have the facilities and a high profile - or perhaps the help of a certain Tiger Woods. One Woods shot helped to put Phuket's Blue Canyon Country Club (BCCC) on the golfing map, and now, plans are in place to keep it in the consciousness of the golfing community.

The par-4 13th has been named the 'Tiger Hole' at the club's popular Canyon course, thanks to the exploits of Woods back in the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic, when he managed to drive the 356-m-long hole. Unfortunately, he three-putted for par, although he did go on to win the tournament.

Memorable shots aside, BCCC's Canyon course has been consistently ranked as the best and most prestigious golf course in Asia by a number of golfing and financial publications. There have been several pretenders to the throne since it was developed in 1991, but Blue Canyon is still right up there with the best of them.

The club is sprawled over 720 acres and attracts golfers from all over the region, including a substantial number of Singaporeans. The Canyon championship course was completed in 1991, while The Lakes course (which is undergoing a refurbishment and will be re-opened in late 2006) was built in 1999.

The Canyon course, carved into a landscape of wooded hills and dotted with lakes and natural hazards, is spectacular and challenging. According to its director of golf, Tim Haddon, its signature holes include the 17th (which PGA star Fred Couples has described as 'one of the best par 3s anywhere in the world'), the aforementioned 13th and the par-3 14th.

'Most people view the Canyon course as being a lot more taxing than the Lakes course,' says Mr Haddon. 'It's a harder championship course, and tends to be a little difficult from all the tee boxes.'

Undulating greens

He adds: 'The Canyon course is a little more narrow and the greens are a lot more undulating and a little more compact. I think what makes it unique is that the front nine winds through the old rubber plantation, so it gives it a woodlands feel, while the back nine tends to open up into the old tin mines so both are very distinctly different.'

Chairman Sia Leng Yuen, who acquired the club back in 1998, says that it was 'love at first sight' after playing the course almost 10 years ago. 'I saw in Blue Canyon the potential of acquiring a golf course property with a brand name that I could develop further and with a land bank of more than three million square metres,' he says.

'Secondly, I was buying into the future of Thailand which was just recovering from the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, and last but not least, I felt that Phuket, with its strategic location and developed infrastructures, was fast becoming a tourist destination capable of rivalling Bali - there was no comparable destination available in Asia.'

While Mr Sia is unable to estimate how much the club cost to build, he believes that the construction and infrastructure would cost around US$50 million today, excluding the cost of the land.

However, while its idyllic location and facilities have undoubtedly been a draw for visitors to Thailand over the years, it hasn't all been smooth sailing for its management.

A debt restructuring plan was ironed out at the end of last year, with the club entering into a strategic partnership with RREEF Global Opportunities Fund II LLC, a real estate investment fund managed by DB Real Estate, and satisfying all payments to its creditors. Under this development plan, the partners will invest two billion baht (S$83 million) of capital into Blue Canyon to transform the property.

Hotelier Adrian Zecha has been roped in, together with Kerry Hill Architects and Jaya Ibrahim & Associates, to help conceptualise and manage the development of the Blue Canyon Residential Community.

The refurbishment will be conducted in stages and also includes a transformation of the club house and Golfers' Spa Lodge and the upgrading of the current residential apartments.

'The luxury villas are part of the redevelopment plan we have in place for the Club in the next few years,' says Mr Sia.

Nine villas will be built for the first phase, with each villa sited on more than one acre of land and each with a built up area of about 500 square metres. In addition, there are 154 apartment units in two existing condo housing projects.

Adds Mr Sia: 'Currently, units are sold on an as is basis' and the buyers may design them any way they wish for their own stay, or buy the condominiums as designed by Jaya Ibrahim. The latter condos will have the option of being put into the rental pool to Blue Canyon for income.'

Nevertheless, there will be strict criteria when it comes to buyers. 'We shall be marketing them to the world community,' says Mr Sia. 'In view of our future development plan for the entire Blue Canyon, we shall select and screen our potential buyers carefully, and initial viewing will be by invitation only.'

Having hosted the 1994 and 1998 Johnnie Walker Classics, the 1996 Honda Invitational, the BMW International World Final, Thailand Open and Tiger Skins, the club is looking forward to more tournaments, according to Mr Sia.

'Blue Canyon will host some major tour events during 2007. We are working towards owning our own annual tour event in the near future which we can stage on both of our courses.'

Mr Sia is optimistic about the future of Phuket's golf tourism. 'I believe that the sky is the limit,' he says. 'We are beginning to host visitors from China, India and Russia, whereas just a few years ago, we didn't even think of these countries as potential sources of our visitors.'

Limited competition

He says there is limited competition on the island. Phuket has a total of seven or eight courses, more than 20,000 hotel rooms and nearly three million tourists a year.

Compare this to the nearly 50 courses around Singapore (including southern Johor, Batam and Bintan) and he says: 'Phuket does not have enough courses to cause any competition. If at all, the courses around Phuket complement each other, and furthermore, the cost of land is becoming prohibitive to build new courses.'

There's no denying that this exclusive club is in a spectacular spot, with the backdrop of the Phang-Nga mountains and the Andaman Sea almost within touching distance. Naturally, Mr Sia thinks it's pretty special.

'If one were to grade the golf courses in the region based on accessibility, caddy service, ecological friendliness and quality, it would be difficult to find one in the same league as Blue Canyon,' he says.

He adds: 'The designer of both of our courses, Yoshikazu Kato, is retained by Blue Canyon on a long-term basis and he still walks the courses every day at the age of 72, which indicates our determination to strive for even greater heights. It reminds me of a Chinese proverb which says that one would inevitably feel the chill at any peak. Notwithstanding the fine weather in Phuket, we do feel the chill once in a while from being at the peak.'