Palm Hills Hua Hin – Fun Course but Brutal Greens

Gunnar Kobin

Jan 27

5 min read

Updated: Oct 22

On the 6th at Palm Hills I was 70 metres short of the flag and thinking about birdie. I walked off with a three-putt. The ball had finished above the hole, and on that green, above the hole is where the round goes to die. From then on I understood the rule: keep it below the hole, or else. I honestly think you could five-putt that green without doing much wrong.

That one hole sums the place up. Palm Hills is a fun, good-looking course with clever routing and a relaxed feel. The greens are another matter.

The course is just a couple of minutes from the beach and the airport, set between the coast and the hills. The clubhouse looks out across the landscape to the hills. The round itself is quick and smooth. The set-up is well dialled in, and you can take your time and enjoy the Thai golf atmosphere without anyone pushing you along. As vacation golf goes, it is hard to do much better.

A bit of history. Palm Hills is one of the earliest international courses built in Hua Hin, and you can still feel a bit of that pioneering spirit when you play it. It was designed by Max Wexler. In his Southeast Asian work Wexler puts playability first, with a focus on visual harmony and strategic simplicity rather than difficulty. He lets the land shape the holes rather than forcing his own ideas onto it. The subtle elevation changes, the natural landing zones and the green sites all sit comfortably in the setting, and the design has the kind of look that does not date.

OK, the actual golf.

The terrain rolls gently, with plenty of palms and outcrops of rock and water. It is never flat and never boring. You will not get many level lies, and approach shots need proper control of trajectory to finish where you want them.

The front nine looks like the easy half. The fairways and landing areas are forgiving. But it is not just about hitting the ball. Club selection and where you leave the ball matter a lot, and if you are careless you end up with awkward stances and blocked shots. The greens show their personality from the start. They can be fast, and they are often deceptive.

The back nine climbs into the hills and is the best part of the course. The views of the mountains from the high tees are the reason you will remember the round. Some of the par 4s need an accurate drive to leave a simple second. The par 5s need a plan, because they can go from birdie to bogey very quickly. The routing keeps changing your perspective, and the course plays shorter than the scorecard says.

Nothing here is mean. You are not facing huge carries or extreme hazards, and the water is not overdone. The elevation and the natural bunkering do the work. Long hitters get chances on the par 5s, but aggressive play gets punished, and the right tees let shorter hitters play the course without being overpowered by it. For a mixed-ability group it is a very balanced day.

Now the greens.

This is where Palm Hills gets complicated, and it is a Hua Hin trait. Your putting gets graded on your weakest link, and your green reading gets tested to the limit. The 6th, 9th, 17th and 18th are the worst, and leaving the ball in the wrong spot on those greens leaves you with a very difficult putt.

The 6th I have already confessed to. The 9th taught the same lesson. Below the hole is everything there, and I ended up below but on the wrong side. What should have been a simple two-putt turned into a delicate lag just to save par. On 17 and 18 I was pin high with what should have been routine side-hill putts, and those putts showed how severe the slopes are.

My view is that the greens are simply too fast for the slopes they have. On those four holes the elevation and the speed together turn a fair strategic challenge into something close to absurd. A good approach can still leave you a putt you cannot really control. Instead of punishing mistakes and rewarding skill, the slope and the speed take over.

Downhill, down-grain putts, however slight, get frighteningly quick. Gentle uphill putts need more force than you would believe. The local caddies become a necessity. If you trust them, you will hole putts you would otherwise leave embarrassingly short or send racing past.

If the greens were slowed down even slightly, the challenge would not drop at all, but the playability, the fairness and above all the enjoyment would go up a lot. The architecture would get the credit it deserves.

My own round, in January 2026 from the yellow tees, finished on 82. I was playing a match as well as keeping my own score, so the scorecard was not the only thing on my mind.

It started with a birdie on the 1st, which is always a dangerous way to begin. Then the 6th happened, as described. Out in 42.

The 10th was a 7. Nothing more to say about that.

Then, on the best part of the course, things came right for a while. A birdie on the 14th, and then a 2 on the par-3 15th. Back in 40, which is better than a 7 on the 10th usually allows. On the four greens I complain about above, I made bogey on 6, 9 and 17 and got away with par on the 18th.

The service fits the setting. The pace is good, the caddies are attentive, the staff are professional and welcoming from the first tee to the last putt, and the views are there the whole way round.

Afterwards the clubhouse patio is the place for a drink, with the view running across the course to the hills. With the breeze and the warm weather, people tend to stay longer than they planned, going back over the holes they just played. I can see why.

Final word.

Palm Hills is an enjoyable, scenic course for golf in Hua Hin, with a strategic design, a tropical setting and a relaxed resort feel. At its best it rewards planning and creativity. But with the greens running this fast on certain holes, it crosses the line from challenging to unfair. A slightly softer set-up would let the design reach its potential and move Palm Hills from very good to outstanding.

Should you play it? Yes. You will leave smiling, shaking your head a little at a couple of putts you will not forget, and already thinking about coming back. I just hope they have slowed those greens down a touch by then.