Denis Griffiths

Denis Griffiths is an American golf course architect. He took his degree in landscape architecture at Iowa State University in 1970 and founded his own firm, Denis Griffiths & Associates, in 1987, with its office in Braselton, Georgia. He served as president of the ASGCA, the American Society of Golf Course Architects, from 1996 to 1997 and was later made a Fellow of the society. In Georgia alone he has built or renovated some two dozen courses, and his work extends to England, Spain, South Africa, Japan, Thailand and Scotland.

His American work includes Chateau Elan Golf Club outside Atlanta, Brasstown Valley at Young Harris in Georgia, the Georgia Club at Statham, Fox Hollow at Lakewood in Colorado and the President’s Reserve at the Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee. At St Andrews in Scotland he designed St Andrews Bay, and the ASGCA describes him as one of the few American architects to have seen a course design through in the home of golf. The society also tells the story of a commission in Southeast Asia to build a course for a head of state in three months: working with Ron Kirby and Rodney Wright, he had nine holes playable by the deadline and the full eighteen finished afterwards.

It is his work in Thailand, though, for which Griffiths is best known in Asia. Thai Country Club at Bang Pakong in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, was built to USGA specifications and opened in December 1996. It is a par 72 measuring a little over 7,000 yards. At the Asian Honda Classic held there in 1997, the year after it opened, Tiger Woods won at 20 under par, 268, ten strokes clear of the field. The course went on to host the Volvo Masters of Asia on the Asian Tour (2005–2008), the Thailand Open (2017–2019) and the women’s Aramco Team Series (2022). Elsewhere in Thailand his courses include Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club in Chonburi province (27 holes, opened 1993), Dynasty Golf and Country Club in Nakhon Pathom province (opened 1993), Summit Green Valley Chiang Mai Country Club (built in 1990) and Soi Dao Highland in Chanthaburi province, now Chatrium Golf Resort Soi Dao Chanthaburi. Soi Dao was reworked in 2015 by the Thai architect Pirapon Namatra, who renovated several holes and altered the routing.

Among the courses listed on GoGolf, five are credited to Griffiths. All of them are in Thailand, spread from around Bangkok to the eastern seaboard and north to Chiang Mai. Four can be booked through GoGolf, while Summit Green Valley Chiang Mai Country Club appears as an information page only.

Griffiths courses you can book on GoGolf

• Chatrium Golf Resort Soi Dao Chanthaburi (Chanthaburi, Thailand) — formerly Soi Dao Highland. A highland course in the hills, with several holes renovated in 2015
• Thai Country Club (Chachoengsao, Thailand) — opened December 1996. The course where Tiger Woods won by ten strokes in 1997
• Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club (Chonburi, Thailand) — opened 1993. Twenty-seven holes: Mountain, Lake and Ocean
• Dynasty Golf and Country Club (Nakhon Pathom, Thailand) — opened 1993. One of the first courses Griffiths built in Thailand

Courses listed for information only

The following course is not currently open for booking through GoGolf. It appears on the site as an information page only.

• Summit Green Valley Chiang Mai Country Club (Chiang Mai, Thailand) — a par 72 of a little over 7,200 yards, built on former paddy fields in 1990

Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.