Golf-crazy Singapore offers a range of classy courses perfect for sealing that all-important business deal. Minty Clinch tees off.
Sentosa Golf Club
WHERE IS IT? 5km south of the city centre.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? Singapore’s flagship golf club is an ultra-smart set-up with corporate and political ambitions far beyond the pursuit of the elusive white ball. Opened in 1974 by then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, and located within 15 minutes of the financial district, it welcomes the international elite with a thoroughly commercial spirit. The Tanjong course came first but the Serapong, opened in 1982 and revamped in 2007, has eclipsed it in recent years. Regularly voted the best in Asia, it hosts the Barclays Singapore Open in November, but its day-to-day purpose is to provide a handsome environment for shaking hands on contracts rather than golf victories. The courses are impeccably maintained, their velvet fairways bordered by tropical woodland, banks of flowers and sheets of water. The red-roofed, white-pillared clubhouse evokes a colonial elegance that has long been replaced by hard-nosed wheeler-dealing, but it is certainly a place to linger long after the last putt has sunk.
ADDRESS 27 Bukit Manis Road, Sentosa Island
CONTACT Tel +65 6275 0022; [email protected]; sentosagolf.com
PRICE Serapong £155 weekdays, £220 weekends; Tanjong £140 weekdays, £195 weekends. Prices include cost of buggies. Caddies are available.
CLUB HIRE £37 (Callaway)
CLUB HOURS 6.45am-7pm
MINIMUM HANDICAP 24 for men, 36 for women
FACILITIES Two 18-hole championship golf courses: Serapong (6,675m, par 72) and Tanjong (6,014m, par 72). Driving range and practice area.
AFTER THE GOLF The food options are as upmarket as the setting, with a choice of Italian at Il Lido, overlooking the South China Sea, or Japanese at the Nogawa.
Raffles Country Club
WHERE IS IT? 30km west of the city centre.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? Although unrelated to Singapore’s iconic Raffles hotel, this country club is similarly classy. Both courses were designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. The Palm is a challenge for the thinking golfer, featuring small wooded hills and cunningly placed bunkers to break up the rolling fairways, while the Lake lives up to its name, with the frequent threat of ball-swallowing marshes on the shores of the Tengah reservoir.
ADDRESS 450 Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim
CONTACT Tel +65 6861 7655; rcc.org.sg
PRICE Palm £60-£63 weekdays, £145 weekends; Lake £60-£83 weekdays, £171 weekends. Buggy
HIRE £10 per golfer.
CLUB HIRE £16 (Japanese)
CLUB HOURS 7am-6.30pm
MINIMUM HANDICUP 27 for men, 36 for women. Certificate required.
FACILITIES Two 18-hole courses: Lake (6,041m, par 72) and Palm (6,072m, par 72).
AFTER THE GOLF Celebrate success with a Tiger beer on the spacious Golfers’ Terrace or a Western-style snack in the Lakefront Café. The Shanshui Palace restaurant specialises in seafood and Chinese dishes and is open for lunch and dinner.
Orchid Country Club
WHERE IS IT? 15km north of the city centre.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? Two of the three loops of nine can be combined to make 18, although the choice is often limited by seemingly never-ending renovation. The focus is the Sungei Seletar reservoir, a source of irrigation water and a backdrop to many of the holes. Rough is rarely a threat and gentle regulation bunkers are unlikely to damage your score card. The Aranda, set back from the reservoir with hilly fairways and raised tees, is the most hydrophobic-friendly; look for its talking point, an orchid-shaped bunker on the uphill par 5 ninth. Night golf is a religion here, with masses of buggies chugging through shadowy tropical darkness until close to the witching hour.
ADDRESS 1 Orchid Club Road
CONTACT Tel +65 6750 2111; [email protected]; orchidclub.com
PRICE £41 weekday mornings; £50 weekday afternoons; £92 weekends; night golf £5 supplement. Buggies cost £10.
CLUB HIRE £22 (Ram)
CLUB HOURS 7am-11pm
MINIMUM HANDICAP REQUIRED 27 for men, 36 for women.
FACILITIES There are three nine-hole loops: Dendro (3,262m, par 37), Aranda (3,051m, par 36) and Vanda (3,037m, par 36). There is also a four-hole practice course, the Peter Senior and Gary Edwin Golf Academy, and a 160-bay two-tier driving range (7.30am-12am) that is due to re-open next month following a refurbishment.
AFTER THE GOLF Players can stay on-site in the 69-room Orchid Lodge. The Vanda Terrace is open from 7.30am to 11pm for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Marina Bay Golf Course
WHERE IS IT? In the city centre.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? When it comes to extortionate membership fees, Singapore’s private clubs have long been a licence to print money, leaving the rest of the population in a permanent state of golf deprivation. The first light at the end of this tunnel came in 2006 with the opening of the front nine at Marina Bay, the city’s inaugural public course. When the back nine were ready a year later, the breakthrough was complete – Singapore was officially a place where anyone could play. Marina Bay is as metro-central as the game can get, overlooked by the Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest observation wheel, and within a stone’s throw of the new on-street Formula One motor racing track. When the sandy terrain was reclaimed from the sea, it was completely flat, but the courses have been landscaped to present an intriguing challenge. Irrigation lakes provide additional hazards, along with pot bunkers borrowed from Scottish links.
ADDRESS 80 Rhu Cross
CONTACT Tel +65 6345 7788; [email protected]; mbgc.com.sg
PRICE £36-£50 weekdays, £45-£90 weekends. For evening/night golf (Wednesday-Friday) there is a £5/£10 lighting supplement.
CLUB HIRE £30 (Callaway)
CLUB HOURS 7am-10pm
MINIMUM HANDICAP REQUIRED 24 for men, 36 for women.
FACILITIES One 18-hole course (6,542m, par 72); driving range (7am-10.45pm, closed Monday till noon); Star Golf Academy.
AFTER THE GOLF The Canopy Café starts with a light breakfast shortly after dawn, then progresses to both Chinese and colonial-style grub.
Jurong Country Club
WHERE IS IT? 20km west of the city centre.
WHAT’S IT LIKE? In a place where several rival clubs guard their exclusivity fiercely, Jurong stands out for the warmth of its welcome. The original nine holes, which opened in 1975, are the more interesting, starting with a tough uphill dogleg and progressing to a testing signature hole requiring a long carry over water and a decorative but distinctive fountain at the sixth. The back nine are flat and open, with large lakes and minimal rough – a good example of Singapore’s default method of encouraging speedy play. This is necessary in a golf-crazy community that is chronically short of tee times, especially at weekends. Although buggies are available, Jurong is walkable, especially with a caddie to advise on its idiosyncrasies.
ADDRESS 9 Science Centre Road
CONTACT Tel +65 6560 5655; jcc.org.sg
PRICE £41 weekday mornings; £48 weekday afternoons; £82 weekends; night golf lighting fee £6.
CLUB HIRE From £11 (different brands available)
CLUB HOURS 7am-7.30pm (7pm weekends)
MINIMUM HANDICAP 36 for men, 40 for women
FACILITIES An 18-hole course (6,219m, par 72), a five-hole executive course, a two-tier 54-bay floodlit driving range, a practice area and a putting green. Caddies cost £11 plus a tip.
AFTER THE GOLF Golfers’ Terrace is open 7am-11pm (8pm on Sundays) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Time Out Pub (open 5pm-1am) has karaoke on demand, a pool table and happy hour from 5pm to 8pm.
