Palm Hills Golf Resort & Country Club is the course you drive past first on the way into Hua Hin — it sits right on Phetkasem Road at the northern edge of town, about two kilometres from Hua Hin’s little airport and ten minutes from the town centre. Opened in 1992 to a Max Wexler design, it is often described as the first international-standard course built in the Hua Hin area, and today it fills a very specific role: an honest, well-kept, sensibly priced round that slots neatly around the region’s headline acts.
This profile covers the layout and its slightly links-ish character, the handful of holes that decide your score, how the course sits in the Hua Hin pecking order against Black Mountain and Banyan, and the practical details — getting there, caddies, the driving range, and who should give it a miss.
The course itself
Palm Hills is an 18-hole, par-72 course credited to architect Max Wexler and opened in 1992. Published lengths vary slightly by source — the club’s own material lists 6,887 yards from the tips, while several golf-travel references quote 6,892 — so call it a shade under 6,900 yards from the blue tees, with white and forward tees bringing it down to a very manageable length. The club publishes a course rating of 72.1 and a slope of 123 from the blues, which tells you most of what you need to know: this is a test, but not a beating.
The land is the interesting part. The course runs along a strip of gently rolling ground below a rocky hill backdrop, and its position near the Gulf of Thailand coast means it catches a genuine sea breeze — several observers describe the exposed, wind-affected feel as almost Scottish-links in character, even though the framing is pure Thai parkland, with frangipani and mature tropical trees lining the fairways. The front nine is the friendlier half, wider and flatter; the back nine climbs into more undulating ground, and this is where the elevation and the wind start compounding.
Conditioning has long been a quiet strength. The fairways are Bermuda grass, broad and generous, and the greens are Tifeagle surfaces that visiting golfers consistently describe as quick — on some days among the fastest in the area. Regional guides rate Palm Hills as one of the better-maintained courses in Hua Hin year-round, which matters more than it sounds in a destination where green-season conditioning can vary a lot from club to club.
A footnote of local history
Palm Hills does not have a modern tour pedigree, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. Its historical claim is being the course that started Hua Hin’s modern golf boom: when it opened in 1992 it was the area’s first course built to contemporary international standards (Royal Hua Hin, of course, predates it by nearly seventy years but belongs to a different era entirely), and the year after opening it hosted what golf-travel references record as the inaugural Thailand World Pro-Am. The full name today is Palm Hills Golf Club & Residence, reflecting the housing estate that has grown up around the fairways — a very common pattern for Thai courses of this vintage.
The holes worth knowing
The round has a clear set of decision points, and they cluster in the middle of the card.
- 2nd, par 5 — water runs down both sides of the fairway and bunkers guard three sides of the green. It asks for two disciplined shots before you earn a look at the flag; a loose drive here writes a big number early.
- 9th, par 4 — widely cited as the hardest hole on the course, largely because of a tree that blocks the line up the fairway. You have to pick a side off the tee and commit to it.
- 11th, par 3 — the signature hole: a long one-shotter playing uphill and usually into the sea breeze. Almost everyone underclubs it the first time. Take at least one extra club, sometimes two, and trust the number.
- 14th, par 4 — a dogleg left with water hugging the inside of the turn and sand on the safe side. Published yardages for this hole vary between sources, but the shape of the problem doesn’t: there is no bail-out that removes the need for an accurate drive.
Location and getting there
Palm Hills sits at 1444 Phetkasem Road in Cha-am district, Phetchaburi province — technically just over the provincial line from Hua Hin, on the corridor between Cha-am and Hua Hin. In practice it is the closest full course to Hua Hin’s north side: the club puts itself about 2 km from Hua Hin Airport (HHQ) and roughly ten minutes from downtown Hua Hin. Note that HHQ handles only limited scheduled traffic, so almost every visiting golfer arrives by road from Bangkok instead — the club quotes just under 200 km and about a 2.5-hour drive from the capital, which is realistic outside peak traffic; allow three hours to be safe from Suvarnabhumi (BKK). If you’re staying in Cha-am rather than Hua Hin, Palm Hills is the most convenient of the area’s quality courses.
Practical notes
Caddies are mandatory, as at almost every Thai course, and Palm Hills’ caddies have a good reputation among regulars — well trained and genuinely helpful on those quick Tifeagle greens. Our guide to the Thai caddie system and tipping etiquette covers what to expect and what’s customary. Carts are available (with GPS units, per the club), but the terrain is walkable for reasonably fit golfers, the back nine’s slopes notwithstanding.
The practice setup is functional rather than fancy: a driving range near the first tee — a modest, uncovered facility with a small number of bays, and cheap buckets — plus a putting green and short-game area. A couple of booking sites list night golf here, but the club’s own website doesn’t mention it, so confirm directly before planning an evening round. The clubhouse is one of the more comprehensive in the area, with a sports club (pool, tennis, fitness), locker rooms and the Birdie Restaurant, and kiosks on course at roughly every third hole keep you watered — worth knowing, because the exposed layout gets hot; the sea breeze flatters the temperature more than it lowers it.
On price, Palm Hills sits in the mid-market for Hua Hin — clearly cheaper than the Black Mountain and Banyan tier, and frequently bundled into multi-round packages for exactly that reason. Rates move by season and booking channel, so treat any number you see online as a starting point and confirm current green fees before you travel (verify). Our breakdown of what golf in Thailand actually costs explains how Thai pricing tiers work.
Is it right for your trip?
Play Palm Hills if you want a well-conditioned, honest round with a bit of wind and elevation in it, at a price that leaves budget for the marquee days. It is a particularly good fit for the first or last round of a trip — that airport-edge location makes it the easiest course in the area to reach — and for mid-handicappers, who get generous fairways off the tee and a genuine test on and around the greens. Higher handicappers cope fine here too; it’s regularly cited as one of Hua Hin’s more forgiving layouts.
Skip it if you only have two rounds in Hua Hin and want maximum architecture per round — those slots belong to Black Mountain and Banyan (now Pineapple Valley). And if what you’re after is atmosphere and history rather than conditioning, the century-old Royal Hua Hin is the sentimental pick. Palm Hills is the dependable third or fourth round — the course locals and long-stay golfers keep coming back to when the trophy rounds are done.
For the wider picture, start with our Hua Hin golf guide — Palm Hills pairs naturally with Springfield Royal Country Club up the road toward Cha-am — and see the full Golf in Thailand hub for everything from course directories to trip logistics.