Love Letter To: Robinswood Golf Club

Most of the time, our Working Holiday series is built around public golf, showing what’s out there, what’s accessible, what you and friends can go and do. But this one was a little different. When the chance came up to tag along on one of Mac’s work trips (again) and we saw the course—it wasn't a difficult decision for it to be an episode of Working Holiday. Robinswood Golf Club isn’t somewhere you just book a tee time. It makes the kind of “private golf” we’re used to feel public. And that feelings starts to develop before you even arrive on property.

The drive starts like any other in Thailand: endless stretches of fields, scattered 7-Elevens, Mac yelling at other drivers… And then, out of nowhere, everything changes. Tall white pillars appear seemingly out of nowhere with a building that feels more Greek than Thai. One glance tell you that this is something different, something that very clearly doesn’t belong and I think that’s kind of the point.

Being at courses we don’t belong to has become a bit of a running joke for us, but within about 100 yards of turning onto the property, we knew this one was different. It stood completely on its own. It was very quickly taking the number one spot of places we probably shouldn’t have been playing.

For all of this to make sense, I should give a brief history of Robinswood. The course sits within a much larger development called Reignwood Park, hosting a residential community, sports facilities and an international school. As soon as you’re inside the walls of Reignwood, you quickly realize, this was designed to sit with the best, no stone left unturned, every amenity you can imagine, everything done with the dial turned to 11.

If you were to ask any of us one word to describe the course of Robinswood, I think all three of us would say "immaculate". You could spend 20 minutes searching before you find a single divot. As you know I don’t get in the weeds about course design. The biggest take away was the variety of golf. It had par 5’s we couldn't reach in two, short and long par 3s, character and variety, everything you need to enjoy a round. Oh, and did I mention they have an island green in the shape of an apple?

What really stands out, beyond the typical checklist of service, design and conditioning, is the architecture. I’m not kidding when I say some of the homes are among the most extravagant we’ve ever seen, and not just in scale, but in how different they all are. We were told each property is designed to replicate a home from somewhere else in the world. From one position, you can see a Chinese inspired villa, a UK estate style manor, and then a modern mansion that wouldn’t look out of place in LA.

Look, we get it. This isn’t a place many people will ever get the chance to play. It’s not what these trips are usually about, and it’s probably somewhere we had no real business being. But that’s exactly why it felt worth talking about. It stood out. Not just within the Thailand trip, but across the whole Working Holiday series.

Check out our full overview of Robinswood in the Working Holiday Thailand episode where we play the course (yes, somehow they let us on there).

*Additional reporting by Zane Moulton

This story is part of Skratch Golf’s Love Letter series—an ode to the places that make the game unforgettable.

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Love Letter To: Scottsdale National

Love Letter To: Pebble Beach Golf Links

Love Letter To: Royal Melbourne

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