Lanna Golf Club is the cheapest and closest real golf in Chiang Mai: 27 holes, par 72 over roughly 7,100 yards, about 10 minutes from the Old City, green fee around ฿1,350, and one of the only courses in the region where you are allowed to walk. It is a warm-up round, not a destination round, and this review is written on that basis.
What exactly is Lanna Golf Club?
A 27-hole Royal Thai Army course inside the Lanna Sports Center on Chotana Road, open since the 1970s and the oldest and most central golf facility in Chiang Mai.
The course is listed as a local Thai design, par 72 over about 7,100 yards for the championship eighteen, laid out as three nine-hole loops (Golfasian course page, accessed 2026-08-20). Two of the nines are the longer parkland loops, running under mature trees with fairways that are wide off the tee and pinched by trunks the further you push a driver. The third nine is shorter, more open, and runs partly along the racecourse ground, which is the tell that this is a city sports complex rather than a resort carved out of a valley.
Water is in play on a handful of holes but never as the defining feature. There is no signature island green, no forced carry that will ruin a mid-handicapper's card, and no elevation change worth mentioning. What Lanna asks for is straight ball-striking and patience on slow greens.
The rest of the complex sits around the golf: driving range, restaurants, fitness, snooker, riding and a shooting range. Normal for an army sports club, unusual for a course you would put on a golf holiday itinerary. See the full listing on our Lanna Golf Club course page.
What does a round at Lanna cost?
Around ฿1,350 for 18 holes with the caddie folded in per one operator listing, plus a cart fee that published sources put anywhere between ฿400 and ฿600.
Two honest caveats on those numbers. First, the cart fee genuinely conflicts across sources, and so does whether the caddie sits inside the ฿1,350 or is billed on top. Second, army-run clubs change rates without publishing them. Treat the figures above as a range to sanity-check the quote you are given, not as the price you will pay.
Budget the extras separately. Caddie tip is customary at around ฿300 to ฿400 for 18 holes, shoe rental is a small add-on if you have travelled light, and a cold drink cart run will add a couple of hundred baht over a round. Even loaded up, this is the cheapest 18 holes a visitor can play in the city.
For context on where the rest of the region sits, our green fee comparison puts Lanna at the bottom of the table alongside the Gassan courses.
Can you actually walk it?
Yes, and this is Lanna's single best feature. The land is flat, the loops are compact, and walking is permitted and recommended rather than merely tolerated.
Almost every course we book in Chiang Mai assumes you ride. Riding is bundled into the all-in rate at Alpine, at Chiangmai Highlands, at the Gassan courses. Lanna is the exception: LENGOLF's course page describes walking as permitted and recommended on this flat layout (LENGOLF Lanna course page, accessed 2026-08-20).
For a golfer who walks at home, that is worth more than the money saved. You get a normal round on foot in a country that has largely stopped offering one. Your caddie still carries, reads greens and cleans clubs, so walking here does not mean hauling your own bag.
One caution: flat and shaded is not the same as cool. From March through May, an unshaded walk in the middle of the day is punishing. Take the first tee time of the morning if you plan to walk in the hot months.
What are the caddies and the pace of play like?
Caddies are mandatory and competent rather than polished, and pace is fine on a weekday and slow on a weekend morning.
Every Thai course assigns a caddie, and Lanna is no different. Expect solid yardages, honest green reads on surfaces that do not break much anyway, and less English than you will hear at the resort courses. A phone with a distance app and a few hand signals covers the gap. Caddies here work primarily with Thai members, so the guest-facing polish of a Highlands caddie is not what you are paying for.
Weekday morning rounds usually run four hours or a little over. Weekend mornings are a different course entirely, because army groups and local social golf fill the sheet, and a five-hour round with waits on par 3s is realistic. If your group cares about pace, book Monday to Friday and take a tee time before 9am or after 1pm.
The third nine is your escape valve. If the front loops are jammed, ask the starter to move you across.
How does the conditioning compare to the resort courses?
Fair to good, and openly below the newer courses. Golfasian's own notes say the condition is good but perhaps not up to the level of the newer courses in the area.
That is the trade-off, and it is the honest reason not to build a trip around Lanna. Greens run slower than the paspalum at Chiangmai Highlands, the best-conditioned surfaces in the region. Bunkering is plain next to the traps at Highlands or the island green at Alpine. Fairway lies vary by loop and by season, and the green season from May onward can leave you playing off soft, patchy turf on the older nine.
If conditioning is your first criterion, Lanna is not your course. Read our Chiangmai Inthanon review for another value option with its own conditioning caveats, or skip both and pay up for a resort round.
Where does Lanna fit against the other cheap Chiang Mai rounds?
Cheapest transfer, cheapest green fee tier, weakest conditioning of the group, and the only one where you can leave the cart behind.
| Course | Holes | Drive from Old City | Approx green-season cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanna Golf Club | 27 | ~10 min | ~฿1,350 green fee | Arrival-day round, walkers, short notice |
| Gassan Legacy | 18 | ~30 to 45 min | ~฿1,950 day / ~฿1,650 night all-in | Flattest Gassan, floodlit evening play |
| Gassan Panorama | 18 | ~30 to 45 min | ~฿1,950 all-in | Length, including a par 6 over 600 yards |
| Chiangmai Inthanon | 18 | ~40 min | ~฿1,400 green plus caddie and cart | Scenery toward Doi Inthanon |
| Gassan Khuntan | 27 | 45 min+ | ~฿2,100 all-in | Mountain views, longest transfer |
The pattern is simple. Every alternative in this price band costs you 30 to 45 minutes of van each way. Lanna costs you conditioning instead. Which currency you would rather spend is the whole decision. If the answer is neither, our Gassan Khuntan review covers what the longest transfer actually buys you.
When should you play it?
Weekday mornings, on the first or last day of a trip. Weekend mornings fill with army and social-golf groups and the pace slows badly.
Because Lanna is a members' course first, the booking pressure that hits Alpine and Highlands from November to March barely touches it. Weekday tee times are usually gettable at short notice in high season. That makes it the natural fix when a flight lands at midday and the group wants nine holes before dinner, or when a rained-out resort round needs replacing at a few hours' notice.
Season matters as much as day of week. November to February is the cool, dry stretch and the best golf of the year here. May to October is green season, with heavy afternoon rain that usually clears, cheaper rates and softer turf.
The city location cuts both ways in burning season. Lanna sits in the valley, so on a bad day in the February to April window it takes the full agricultural smoke load, and Chiang Mai regularly posts air quality readings in the unhealthy or hazardous bands during those weeks. Check IQAir Chiang Mai the morning of your round and carry an N95 through that period.
How do you actually book a round here?
Direct with the pro shop if you are on the ground and flexible, or through us if the round has to line up with a driver, a hotel pickup and the rest of a week's tee times.
Booking direct works because Lanna rarely sells out midweek. Call or walk into the pro shop a day ahead, name your time, and pay at check-in. Bring cash. Small army-run clubs are not the place to assume a foreign card will clear, and you will want cash for the caddie tip regardless.
Booking through an operator makes sense when Lanna is one line in a longer itinerary. The value is in sequencing: a 6am pickup at your hotel, clubs already in the van, the tee time held while your flight is still in the air, and a fallback course if the weather turns. That is what we do.
CMGT Golf is enquiry-driven. Send your dates and group size, we quote the round and the transfer, and the booking is confirmed on deposit. There is no instant-book button here and we would rather tell you honestly what is open than sell you a slot we have not held.
Should Lanna go in your package or not?
Only as a supporting round. As the anchor course it undersells the trip, and for a single round booked on its own, direct booking will usually beat any package on price.
Be clear about the maths. A ฿1,350 walk-up round arranged yourself is cheap and easy, and no operator adds meaningful value to that one transaction. Where a package earns its keep is the rest of the week: tee-time blocks at the courses that do sell out, a private driver instead of a ride-hail app for 6am pickups at courses 45 minutes out, hotel, airport transfers, and someone on the ground when the weather moves your round.
Our Northern Value 4-night itinerary is the usual home for a Lanna round, sitting under two premium ones. It works because the cheap, close round absorbs the jet-lag day and leaves the good legs for Highlands and Alpine.
Tell us if you want Lanna in the rotation and we will price it against the alternative. For the wider picture of what the region offers, read our full golf in Chiang Mai guide, or start an enquiry on the golf hub.
What is the closest thing to Lanna if it is booked?
Star Dome for a floodlit in-city nine, or North Hill if you want city-adjacent golf with genuinely better conditioning.
Star Dome is the other in-city option, a floodlit 9-hole par 36 of a little over 3,000 yards that solves the evening slot Lanna does not. Its published figures come from dated reviews and a foreigner surcharge has been reported, so confirm live before you go. Our Star Dome night golf review covers the detail.
North Hill City Golf Club is the other direction: roughly 15 minutes from the airport, private-club conditioning, and a green fee that published estimates put somewhere near ฿1,700 to ฿1,900 in low season and closer to ฿3,000 in high, none of it officially confirmed. Book it one to two days ahead, and expect a different standard of clubhouse for the money.
Get a quote with Lanna in your Chiang Mai rotationTell us your dates, we price the round and the transfer and confirm on depositFrequently asked questions
How much is a round at Lanna Golf Club?
Published rates put the green fee at about ฿1,350 for 18 holes, with the caddie described as optional and folded into that figure by one operator listing (LENGOLF, accessed 2026-08-20). Cart pricing is where sources disagree: LENGOLF lists roughly ฿400, Golfasian lists ฿600. Club set rental is listed around ฿500 and shoes around ฿70. Because Lanna is army-run and sells mostly to local members, rates move without much notice. Confirm the exact green fee, caddie fee and cart fee when you book rather than trusting any published number, including ours.
Can you walk Lanna Golf Club instead of taking a cart?
Yes. Lanna is one of the few Chiang Mai courses where walking is permitted and genuinely practical, because the land is flat and the three nine-hole loops sit close together inside the Lanna Sports Center. LENGOLF describes walking as permitted and recommended here (accessed 2026-08-20). That matters twice over. It removes the cart fee from your round cost, and it gives visiting golfers who prefer to walk a rare option in a region where riding is the default at every resort course.
Is Lanna Golf Club good enough for a golf holiday round?
It is a good warm-up or filler round, not a destination round. Golfasian's own course notes say the condition is good but perhaps not up to the level of the newer courses in the area (accessed 2026-08-20). Compared with Chiangmai Highlands or Alpine, the greens are slower, the bunkering is plainer and the clubhouse is a sports-club facility rather than a resort. For a first morning after a long flight, or a half-day round while the rest of your group is sightseeing, it is the most convenient golf in the city.
How far is Lanna Golf Club from the Old City and the airport?
Lanna sits on Chotana Road in Mueang Chiang Mai, roughly 10 minutes from the city centre by car (CMGT Golf, 2026). That is the shortest transfer of any course we book. Chiang Mai airport is about 4 km from the Old City with taxis at ฿150 to ฿200, so a same-day arrival round at Lanna is realistic in a way it is not at the Gassan courses, which run 30 to 45 minutes out and further. Confirm your actual drive time at booking, since Chotana Road traffic peaks in the morning.
How many holes does Lanna have and how do the loops play?
Lanna has 27 holes, listed as par 72 over about 7,100 yards for the championship eighteen (Golfasian, accessed 2026-08-20). The holes run as three nines. Two are longer, tree-lined parkland loops, and the third is shorter and runs partly alongside the racecourse ground. Most visiting golfers play the two longer nines together. If your group is mixed in ability, the shorter loop is a reasonable third nine for the afternoon rather than a full second eighteen.
Do I need to book Lanna in advance?
Less than anywhere else in Chiang Mai. Lanna is a local members' course first, so weekday tee times are usually available at short notice even in the November to March high season, when Alpine and Chiangmai Highlands weekend slots go weeks ahead. Weekend mornings are the exception, because army and social-golf groups fill them. We still book it in advance for guests, mostly so the transfer and the tee time line up. Send us your dates through our golf enquiry page and we will confirm what is actually open.
