Pirapon Namatra

Pirapon Namatra is a golf course architect based in Thailand, known at home by the nickname Khun Ope. His first course was Bangsai Country Club, which opened in Ayutthaya province in 1996. He drew the 18 holes and the surrounding housing as a single plan and saw it through himself, from the first concept to design and construction. The Thai golf travel company Golfasian records that he studied golf course design in the United States and served his practical training there.

In 2004 the engineers and architects who had worked on course construction through Thailand’s golf boom of the 1980s and 1990s came together to form the design firm GolfEast, and Namatra has led many of its projects as designer. The firm’s website describes a service that runs the whole way through, from site survey and feasibility study to design, construction, renovation and consultancy, and that covers not only the course itself but the clubhouse, the maintenance facilities and the roads within the property. Among its best-known work are Banyan Golf Club, opened at Hua Hin in 2008 and now Pineapple Valley Golf Club Hua Hin; Singha Park Khon Kaen, opened at Khon Kaen in 2009, which hosted the Asian Tour’s Kings Cup from its opening until 2016; and Nikanti Golf Club, opened in 2014.

Of Bangsai Country Club, Namatra has said that he wanted to build an enjoyable course with plenty of variety from hole to hole, neither too easy nor too hard. His work is characterised as asking the player to read the situation and put a shot together, rather than relying on length. Nowhere is that thinking clearer than at Nikanti Golf Club, where three loops of six holes make up an 18-hole par 72, each loop holding two par 3s, two par 4s and two par 5s. The club explains that this 6-6-6 arrangement grew out of a brand philosophy drawn from the six sense bases of Buddhist teaching. It is described as the first 18-hole course in Asia, and quite possibly anywhere, to make up a par 72 from three sets of six holes.

GoGolf lists four of Namatra’s Thai courses, and all four can be booked. Santiburi Samui Country Club, on Koh Samui, is a joint design with Edward Thiele and opened in 2003 as the island’s first golf course. It follows the hills of the north coast among what is left of the coconut groves, and many of the holes look out over the Gulf of Thailand towards Koh Phangan. Pineapple Valley Golf Club Hua Hin was built, as the name says, on former pineapple fields, and the design leaves the natural undulations as they were. With Nikanti Golf Club in Nakhon Pathom province and Bangsai Country Club in Ayutthaya province, that makes three courses within driving distance of Bangkok.

Namatra courses you can book on GoGolf

• Santiburi Samui Country Club (Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand) — a joint design with Edward Thiele, opened 2003. The first golf course on the island
• Pineapple Valley Golf Club Hua Hin (Hua Hin, Thailand) — built on former pineapple fields. It opened under the name Banyan Golf Club
• Nikanti Golf Club (Nakhon Pathom, Thailand) — a par 72 made up of three loops of six holes, opened 2014
• Bangsai Country Club (Ayutthaya, Thailand) — Namatra’s first course. 27 holes laid out across farmland

Tee times and rates for a given day can be checked on each course page or in the GoGolf app.

See the other golf course architects here.