Golf : Cambodia's Third PGA Rated Golf Course Opens

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA – Jan 20, 2009: Siem Reap, the home of Cambodia’s magnificent Angkor Wat temples, continues its bid to become South East Asia’s newest golf holiday destination, with the opening of its third PGA rated 18 hole golf course. Yesterday Hun Sen, Cambodia’s Prime Minister and avid golfer, took the inaugural tee-off shot and announced the Siem Reap Lake Golf Resort officially open.

The USD 150 million course has taken 13 months to construct and is located only 6km from the centre of Siem Reap town. The course is owned by the Korean company KTC Leisure Co. Ltd. and was designed by Kentaro Sato, the well-known Japanese golf course designer. Over the next 2 years KTC Leisure plans to expand the site introducing luxury villas, a hotel, a water park, and Cambodia’s first horseracing track.

Siem Reap previously had two PGA rated golf courses, the Nick Faldo designed Angkor Golf Resort, and the Phokeethra Country Club (the home of Cambodia’s PGA Asian Tour). Sok Mara, the Tourism Ministry Secretary of State explained that a third golf course in Siem Reap will boost overall tourism, ‘We need to combine a lot of products … and golf courses of international standard can help convince people to stay longer’.

Mark Ellison, the Managing Director of Asia Adventures, a tour operator which specializes in golf vacation packages in Cambodia agreed, ‘The addition of this new course is very exciting, it firmly puts Siem Reap on the golfing holiday destination map. Golf offers a perfect alternative sporting activity for those who want a little more from their holiday than just the wonderful cultural experience that the magnificent Angkor temples offers’.