Ronald Fream

Ronald Fream is an American golf course architect, born on March 16, 1942 in California; some sources give his birth year as 1943. He studied landscape architecture at Washington State University and began to specialize in golf course design around 1966. After roughly four years in Robert Trent Jones’s office he worked as a construction superintendent on course projects, and later took up design work under the architect Robert Muir Graves.

In 1972 he founded his own firm, Golfplan, in Santa Rosa, California. Through the 1970s he took on work around the world alongside Peter Thomson, the five-time Open champion, Thomson’s design partner Michael Wolveridge, and the British architect John Harris. Golfplan’s own website says the firm has designed courses in more than 85 countries on six continents. Fream is understood to have stepped back from front-line work in recent years, and design is now led by David Dale and Kevin Ramsey, two colleagues of long standing.

Fream was one of the first American architects to work in earnest in Asia’s emerging markets from the 1980s. In Singapore he designed the Serapong course at Sentosa Golf Club, which opened in 1982. In Malaysia he laid out the 36 holes of Saujana’s Palm and Bunga Raya courses, along with Awana in Genting Highlands (1986), Bangi (1994) and Bukit Unggul (1995). In Thailand, Panya Indra (1991) and Windsor Park (1994) were designed together with David Dale. In Indonesia, Indah Puri on Batam (1993) and New Kuta Golf (2007), built on the limestone cliffs of Bali’s Bukit peninsula, are among Golfplan’s best-known work.

GoGolf lists 12 courses with which Fream or Golfplan were involved. Two of them, Handara Golf & Resort Bali and Jagorawi Golf & Country Club outside Jakarta, date from his years working with Peter Thomson and Michael Wolveridge. Handara is a highland course laid out inside a caldera and opened in 1976, while the first nine holes of Jagorawi’s Old Course opened in 1979. At Chee Chan Golf Resort in Thailand the credited architect is not Fream himself but Golfplan’s David Dale. At Awana in Malaysia, a Golfplan team carried out the largest renovation the course has seen since it opened, and it reopened in 2026.

Fream and Golfplan courses you can book on GoGolf

• New Kuta Golf (Bali, Indonesia) — opened 2007. A links-style layout spread along limestone cliffs
• Handara Golf & Resort Bali (Bali, Indonesia) — designed with Peter Thomson and Michael Wolveridge. A highland course opened in 1976
• Jagorawi Golf & Country Club (Depok, Indonesia) — the Old Course, designed with Thomson and Wolveridge, opened its first nine holes in 1979
• Panya Indra Golf Club (Bangkok, Thailand) — 27 holes opened in 1991, designed by Fream and David Dale
• Windsor Park and Golf Club (Bangkok, Thailand) — built in 1994. A Fream and Dale layout with water in play on many holes
• Chee Chan Golf Resort (Chonburi, Thailand) — opened 2018. Designed by Golfplan’s David Dale

Courses listed for information only

The following six courses are not currently open for booking through GoGolf. They appear on the site as information pages only.

• Indah Puri Golf Club Batam (Batam, Indonesia) — opened 1993. A hillside course looking out over the sea and the Singapore skyline
• Sentosa Golf Club (Singapore) — the Serapong course, designed by Fream, opened in 1982 and has been renovated since
• Saujana Golf and Country Club (Shah Alam, Malaysia) — all 36 holes of the Palm and Bunga Raya courses were designed by Fream
• Awana Genting Highlands Golf and Country Resort (Genting Highlands, Malaysia) — a mountain course opened in 1986, reopened in 2026 after a Golfplan renovation
• Bangi Golf Resort (Bangi, Malaysia) — opened 1994. A parkland layout by Fream and David Dale
• Bukit Unggul Country Club (Dengkil, Malaysia) — built in 1995, following the natural contours of the valley

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.