Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp Golf Club

Bataraza sits at the southern tip of Palawan, one of the most ecologically extraordinary islands in the Philippines — a province better known for its limestone karsts, pristine reefs, and UNESCO-protected forests than for fairways. Getting here is genuinely remote: this is frontier Palawan, far south of Puerto Princesa, where the road eventually runs out and the sea takes over.

The course exists because Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corporation put down roots in this corner of the island, and like many company-sponsored layouts in the Philippines, it serves the community and workforce attached to a major industrial operation. These kinds of courses carry a character you rarely find elsewhere — practical, unpretentious, and maintained by people who actually use them, rather than built to impress visiting tourists.

Playing golf this deep into Palawan means the surroundings do most of the talking. Expect tropical vegetation in full force, equatorial heat, and the particular stillness of a place well off the beaten track. For visiting golfers, the course itself may be secondary to the simple improbability of the round.