Blue Canyon

Asia has many top class premier golf courses and one of my favourites is the Blue Canyon Country Club in Phuket, Thailand. The Blue Canyon Country Club rose to fame when the Canyon Course was selected for the 1994 Johnnie Walker Classic. This was followed by the 1996 Honda Invitational Tournament of the Omega Tour. The Canyon Course's reputation as Asia's best was reaffirmed in 1998 and again in 2007, when the Johnnie Walker Classic returned, making it the first golf course to ever host the tournament thrice in the JWC’s history.

Architect Yoshikazu Kato took great care to mould his design ideas for the Canyon Course around the natural environment of Phuket Island, making use of the natural woodlands, water features and topography of the land. The result is a striking, organic design giving a feeling of unperturbed spontaneity to the intimidating natural hazards and lush fairways.

The Canyon Course features 80 bunkers and water at 10 of its holes as well as plenty of narrow tree-lined fairways, several dog-legs, narrow landing areas and well guarded, slick Bermuda Tidwarf greens to challenge the most proficient of golfers.

The golf clubhouse commands one of the best views over the course that I have seen anywhere and what better way to finish a day's golf but to sit at the clubhouse terrace supping a cold Singha beer and eating some great local Thai food.

This panoramic HDR photograph was created from 7 separate RAW images taken with a Canon G9 camera, using AutopanoPro to create the panorama and Photomatix Pro to generate the final HDR image.