Emerald Golf Club

Overview: In Ban Chang, Rayong, Emerald Golf Club offers an 18-hole, par-72 course on the golf corridor between Pattaya and the eastern seaboard. The course opened in 1995 and is credited to Nick Faldo and Desmond Muirhead. At 6,628 yards from the longest published tees, it is not built around brute length. Instead, the routing uses wooded corridors, rolling ground and water to make placement important. The course's green complexes and short holes provide much of the interest, while the surrounding trees give the round a more enclosed character than the broad resort layouts near the coast. Older sources may still call it Rayong Century Golf Club.

History: Emerald was established as Rayong Century Golf Club before adopting the Emerald Golf Club identity used by current course records. Its 1995 design is associated with the unusual collaboration of Faldo and Muirhead, and the course has remained part of the Ban Chang golf offering as the area developed around it. The available sources do not document a single major reconstruction that would replace that identity, so the profile preserves the original designer attribution and separates the former name from the current operating name.

Did You Know? Emerald is a rare joint design credit for two architects better known for their individual work. The combination is reflected in a course that mixes a relatively compact total length with visual variety: tree-lined holes, rolling ground and water can all appear within the same round, requiring a player to change strategy rather than repeat one formula.