Golfing Enlightenment

Nikanti Golf Club Asia’s first par-72 course comprising three six-hole layouts.

- Justine Moss

When Nikanti Golf Club officially opened its doors in December 2014, it wasn’t just another 18 hole layout in the country’s 260 or so golf course total, but rather the owners have cleverly built a facility that offers golfers a couple of unique concepts.

Firstly, instead of a standard nine or 18 or 36-hole layout, it offers Asia’s first 18-hole, par72 course comprising three six-hole layouts. Each individual layout consists of two par-3s,two par-4s and two par-5s and each six hole loop also starts and ends with a par-5.

Another unique concept is the club’s ‘all inclusive’ visitor rates – there is no membership here - (4,500 Baht on weekday, 5,500 Baht on weekend) which include 18 hole green fee, golf cart with GPS, caddie fee and tips in addition to meals before, during and after each round. The in-cart GPS system has a touch-screen display that provides pin-point-accurate yardage measurements (available in yards and metres) as well as scorecard emailing capability and leaderboard information during private competitions. The system even allows golfers to place food and drink requests with the clubhouse.

The club’s name derives from an old Balinese language word meaning the last step before enlightenment. According to Buddhism, once you experience that enlightenment you are beyond Nikanti.Therefore it translates as ‘delight’ or ‘great pleasure’ or ‘attached to’, and its logo is the number six written in Thai.

Khun Warawit (Nick) Sasomsub, Managing Director of Nikanti GC explains that when his family built the property they set out to satisfy all golfers, no matter who or wherever they are from and build something that everyone can get attached to.