Nikanti Golf Club – Quality Golf Half Way To Hua Hin

Gunnar Kobin

Feb 1

4 min read

Updated: Oct 22

When I first heard that Nikanti Golf Club has a 6-6-6 layout, I assumed the designers were trying to be different for the sake of it. I was wrong, and I am happy to say so.

Thailand has so many good golf courses that it is hard to believe one could really be unique. Nikanti, in Nakhon Pathom west of Bangkok, is. Not in the way some courses claim to be different and are not. You can tell a lot of thought went into this one. It is not another course drawn up on a laptop.

So, the 6-6-6. The course is three six-hole loops, 18 holes in total, and each loop has two par 3s, two par 4s and two par 5s. Some people will call that a gimmick. I think it is the opposite. Each loop has its own feel and is balanced in itself. Nothing feels like filler, which I cannot say about many traditional layouts, where there always seem to be four holes that do not really belong to the course.

Because the loops are so even, you never get the "getting used to it" feeling at the start or the "waiting for it to end" feeling at the finish. Every hole is built to get your attention and keep it.

A bit of history. Nikanti was designed by Pirapon Namatra, founder of Golf East and considered by many to be Thailand's best modern golf course architect. His courses are known for being clever without being obvious about it, and Nikanti is no exception. Namatra tends to avoid moving a lot of earth. Here he has mixed built features with natural elements from the farmland that was here before, and the course fits the ground well.

OK, the actual golf.

The fairways are more than wide open spaces. They are shaped to push you toward a good strategic choice on every shot, and the greens are placed to reward clear thinking on the approach. Nothing on the course is there to distract or overwhelm you. It is contemporary without being flashy, strategic without being punishing. The holes are designed around how the round plays rather than how each hole looks on its own.

It will test you, in a good way. The challenges are straightforward, even if the look of the place suggests otherwise. Some fairways are on the wide side, but frequent uneven lies quickly knock the driving range mindset out of you. Slopes running onto and off the greens will have you putting from the fringe instead of from near the hole.

The real test is the approach and the putting. The greens are fast, the speed is not always even, and the rough around them defends them well. If you are not willing to commit to a plan, it gets very hard very quickly. The bunkers are spread fairly evenly around the course, some defending, some there to tempt you. My advice is to spend more time thinking than hitting, and to resist improvising.

My own round, in January 2026 off the blue tees, shows how much easier that advice is to give than to follow. I went out in 45. After a bogey on the opening par 5 I made a 5 on the par-3 2nd and a 6 on the par-4 3rd, two doubles in a row, which is not how you want to meet a course that rewards a plan. The steadiest stretch of my front nine came on the par 5s: a 5 on the 6th and another 5 on the 7th, back-to-back pars across the end of the first loop and the start of the second.

On the back nine I parred the par-3 11th and the par-5 13th, and closed with a 6 on the par-5 18th. I cannot give you an honest 18-hole total, because my card has a blank on the 14th. The rest of the back nine was mostly bogeys. No birdies, and no other doubles on the holes I recorded. The card was kept for stroke play and match play at the same time.

The location has an advantage I did not expect. Nikanti sits conveniently for anyone driving from Bangkok to Hua Hin. Instead of carrying the jet lag and travel stiffness all the way down, stop at Nikanti and play a round. You will still get to Hua Hin at a reasonable hour, and the course is not far out of your way. It fits into a golf trip very easily, especially on arrival day.

I am normally wary of all-inclusive green fees. They often feel like a marketing trick. Not at Nikanti. All the essentials are included, so you can play the round without spending anything extra: no stopping to buy snacks and no tips. Food is served between rounds, and it is a proper meal, more interesting than a clubhouse sandwich. The service is more courteous and attentive than you usually get at a public course.

The clubhouse is simple and spacious, and the locker rooms were clean. Everything is tidy. The service is sharp and the caddies are ready to go. They are not just there to walk with you. They guide you round the course.

Confidence runs through everything Nikanti does. It knows what it wants to be and does it without compromise.

Final word.

Nikanti will not impress you with waterfalls or silly changes in height. It also does not try to be brutally difficult. What it does is rethink what a day of golf is: how the course is designed, how the round flows, and how you are looked after along the way. And it does all of it well.

Should you play it? Yes. In a country full of good golf, Nikanti does not need to shout to stand out. It just does things right. If you are heading from Bangkok to Hua Hin, it is the obvious place to break the drive.