Pacific Coast Design

Pacific Coast Design (PCD) is an Australian-based practice that plans and designs golf courses. Its founder, Phil Ryan, set it up at the end of 1986. Ryan has worked in golf since the mid-1970s; he studied civil engineering at RMIT, then took horticulture, landscape and turf management at the University of Melbourne’s Burnley campus, and specialises in golf course construction. For the seven years before he went out on his own he was responsible for golf course turf management and construction on projects in Australia and Asia. He is a senior member of the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects (SAGCA) and co-author, with his colleague Paul Reeves, of “Golf in India”.

The practice has offices in Melbourne and in Pune, India, and has worked on more than 50 projects in Australia as well as in China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Pakistan and Iran. Its Australian work includes Waterford Valley, Hidden Creek, Patterson River Country Club, Gardiner’s Run, Eagle Ridge and Mt. Derrimut, and in recent years it has been involved in planning public courses in Brisbane. In Vietnam it designed the Mountainview course at Kings Island and BRG Ruby Tree Golf Resort. Planet Golf takes the view that PCD’s best work is in Asia.

Its signature work in Thailand is Black Mountain Golf Club, west of the town of Hua Hin. Designed by Phil Ryan, it opened in 2007 and later grew to 27 holes with the addition of the West nine. The site sits beneath dark granite hills, and the course’s official site notes that it was placed 59th in Golf Digest’s Best 100 Courses Outside the United States, was named the best course in Thailand, and won Golf Experience of the Year – Thailand in the IAGTO vote. It has also hosted the Royal Trophy, several Asian Tour events and tournaments co-sanctioned with the European Tour. The firm’s other Thai course, Aquella Golf and Country Club, was designed by Paul Reeves and Phil Ryan on the coast of Phang Nga province, facing the Andaman Sea. It occupies the site of the former Thai Muang course, but the designers explain that they used only about 30 per cent of the original land and kept none of the original shaping. Timber-edged bunkers are the course’s signature feature.

Among the courses GoGolf lists, two in Thailand are PCD designs, and both can be booked through GoGolf.

Pacific Coast Design courses you can book on GoGolf

• Black Mountain Golf Club (Hua Hin, Thailand) — 27 holes opened in 2007. Host to the Asian Tour and to events co-sanctioned with the European Tour
• Aquella Golf and Country Club (Phang Nga, Thailand) — 18 holes that came into play in 2021, spread along a site on the Andaman Sea

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.