By Mike McAllister, Contributing Writer
When the 48 players in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok tee off on Friday morning, they will be playing a new course. Stonehill, in fact, is essentially brand-new, having just opened in August.
“I think they said there were only 15 rounds played before we got here,” said Dustin Johnson, the 4 Aces GC captain and individual points leader this season.
It’s not often that world-class golfers get the opportunity to compete on a course this early in its existence, untrodden for the most part. They will be hitting shots from places that had not seen a golf ball prior to tournament week.
“In terms of the conditions, it’s pristine. It’s holy ground,” said India’s Anirban Lahiri. “It’s so pure out there. I would say this is the closest you’d come to maybe compare to conditions in Augusta [National], just in terms of the pure turf conditions. It’s phenomenal.”
Phil Mickelson, making his first trip to Thailand, said Stonehill was “in incredible shape. I don’t know if I’ve seen a golf course in this good a condition”.
The founders of Stonehill are Sarath Ratanavadi, the CEO of Golf Energy Development Group, and his son Ing, the club’s executive director. Golf course architect Kyle Phillips, whose CV includes top courses such as Kingsbarns in Scotland and South Cape in Korea, designed the 7,815-yard par-72 layout.
LIV Golf Chief Events Officer Ron Cross has known both Sarath and Ing for more than a decade, their paths first crossing at the Asian Amateur Championship, and they’ve continued to stay in touch. When Cross was initially made aware of the course several years ago, it was through artist renderings. Earlier this year, as LIV Golf officials were determining course selection for the inaugural season, Cross made a site visit and saw those renderings turned into reality.
He knew Stonehill was going to be special.
“Just the attention to detail and the way they were thinking of the design,” Cross said. “It’s spectacular.”
While Thai golfers Phachara Khongwatmai and Sadom Kaewkanjana will enjoy the advantage of home support, they won’t have local knowledge advantage, as neither player had seen it until this week. Still, they understand the significance of it hosting LIV Golf’s first event in Asia.
“The pride of the nation,” Khongwatmai said of Stonehill.
“One of the best I’ve ever played in Asia,” added Kaewkanjana.
As for how the course will play and which golfers it may favour, well … it is more than 7,800 yards, with three par 5s over 600 yards and five par 4s over 490 yards. With rain a possibility this week, there may not be much run out. Bombers should have an advantage, especially on the wide fairways.
“Think I need to eat a lot of curry and pad Thai maybe and help my distance, find another 30 yards before I tee off,” said Kevin Na, captain of the Iron Heads team that includes both Thai players. “It’s a very, very long golf course.”
“Obviously the rain doesn’t make it any shorter,” said Majesticks captain Lee Westwood. “I think it’ll favour the longer hitters, and I think the scoring will be pretty good out there.”
The course’s defences are the green complexes. Lahiri considers Stonehill a second-shot course because ball placement will be key.
“The biggest defence on this golf course are definitely the greens,” he said. “How you manage the greens, how you putt, where you leave yourself is key.”
Westwood and his Majesticks teammate Ian Poulter concur.
“Positional play into the greens, distance control … is paramount,” Poulter said. “We’ve all got new green complexes this week, so nobody is going to be at the advantage of having the reads on some of the putts.
“From that aspect, level playing field, and it should give every team an opportunity, do their homework before we play on Friday and hopefully Majesticks can have a really strong week.”
As for the key stretch of holes? Look to the traditional closing holes – the 171-yard par-3 16th, 603-yard par-5 17th and 495-yard par-4 18th. The greens are all guarded by water hazards.
Putting a target score on an unknown course is a futile exercise, and the course set-up and wind will be factors in determining the winning number.
“If you’re hitting your irons good, you can score,” Johnson said. “But if you get out of position, it’s going to be really tough to get up and down. I don’t think you’re going to see low numbers. If you’re not controlling the ball, it’s going to be a long day.”
“You have no clue,” Na said. “I can shoot 2 under and feel like I didn’t play that great, and it could be a good score, or I could shoot 5 under and feel like I played amazing and I could be four back of the lead. You just don’t know.”
The unknown will be part of the fun this week at Stonehill, as well as the opportunity to compete on golf’s latest gem. As Lahiri, no stranger to golf in Asia, said, “It’s ridiculous how good it is.”
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