Cambodia has seen its fair share of problems but the country is getting back on its feet and back on the travel map. Located in southeast Asia, Cambodia has been occupied by many, consequently there’s an eclectic mixture of architecture and influence which can be seen in the French Colonial buildings in Phnom Penh for example. After the end of the Civil War during the 1980s things are finally settling down and long may it continue.

Naturally golf in Cambodia is relatively thin on the ground but we are aware of few golf clubs, several of which are located within a reasonable distance of the capital, Phnom Penh. Cambodia Golf and Country Club is home to the country’s first course which was opened for play in 1996 and the Royal Cambodia Golf Club came along in 2004.

In 2006, the new 7,145-yard Phokeethra Country Club in Siem Reap opened for play, bringing a world-class course to Cambodia and a tourism boost to the stunning area famous for its 1,000-year-old Angkor temples. In 2008, the Nick Faldo-designed layout at Angkor Resort was unveiled, raising Siem Reap's golfing bar even higher.

The best course that's currently located reasonably close to the capital is Garden City Golf Club, which opened in 2013, but that may change. Sir Nick's first course (the East) at the Vattanac Golf Resort opened in May 2019 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and the resort's second layout (the West) made its debut six months later, in November.

Further afield in Koh Kong on the Gulf of Thailand coast, we're keeping an eye on developments at the Dara Sakor Resort, Cambodia's first casino facility, which opened in 2015. 54 golf holes designed by a local architect called Ocean, Mountain and Links are part of the master plan.

We learned in late 2022 that work had started on two 18-hole courses at a new – as yet unnamed – golf club in Phnom Penh. Designed by Brian Curley of Schmidt-Curley Design and built by Martin Moore’s Flagstick Golf Construction company, the two layouts will lie inside a residential development, with large lakes created around the property to provide material for shaping the holes.

The East course will be parkland in style and the West course will be “centred around large expanses of sand, dotted with islands of native grasses and groves of date trees”. There will also be an island green 19th in the middle of the lake between the closing holes on each course (accessed by a small boat) for those who wish to play a bonus hole at the end of a round.

Our Cambodian rankings were last updated in April 2020.