I just came back from Pattaya in June and can probably make a few suggestions on hotels.
I stayed in a condo since it was an amazing deal $433 for a month for a nice place about 10 minute walk to walking street or 2 minute scooter ride for about $1.20
for hotels it depends on what you want. Pattaya is amazing but I go there for the gogos and beer bars and couldnt tell you anything about golf. you want something probably on or close to beach rd maybe near walking street or the Central mall. Central mall is pretty much the center and you can catch a (baht bus) which is basically a small pick up truck with bench seats and a metal roof to walking street for 30 cents or get a scooter taxi for about 1 dollar. walking street is where all or most of the high end gogos are and its like walking down the vegas strip only its all discos and gogos full of hot Thai girls. there is also areas like LK metro that have some great gogos and beer bars.
I stayed in LK metro last time and stayed at both the LK Renaissance and the LK Metro hotel and both were great. they are usually around $40-50 a night for a nice big room. its pretty fancy and well worth a stay. if you want to be closer to walking street and central mall I would stay at LK Empress or Sea me spring too both of those are probably 50-60 dollars. for top of the line get the Hilton its connected to the Central mall and has an amazing bar on top. probably $200-400 a night and the girls will probably fight you to avoid leaving since they know you are a big spender
there are tons of other hotels send me a PM if you want more info