The Mines - Malaysia

The Mines Resort just outside Kuala Lumpur was once the largest open-cast tin mine in the world and the topography is dominated by the lake that was created to in-fill the deepest part of the mine.

A sequence of lakeside holes begins with the 10th. Two protecting fairway bunkers push you toward the water on this short par four. The water hazard is brought more into play at the par five 11th. This hole is typical of the Trent Jones Jnr canon. It appears quite forbidding but there is more room to the right, away from the water, than appears from the tee. The attacking golfer though will have to take his ball more out over the water.

At the 12th you play toward the remarkable Palace of the Golden Horses, billed as Asia’s most extraordinary hotel. The giant edifice – whose architectural influences somehow span both the Taj Mahal and Las Vegas – looms behind the green as you play the longest par four on the course.

The par five 17th is a strong hole that Tiger Woods made to look laughably easy in the 1999 World Cup. A plaque commemorates Tiger’s eagle three.

The golf course at the Mines course offers plenty of variation to make it an interesting course. The design and landscaping manages to avoid the trap of too much ornamentation that so many high profile golf projects in Asia seem to fall into. While the massive lake is the course’s single largest feature and its most dangerous hazard, it is not the only feature. The series of holes on the front nine that work their way around the property’s hinterland work well as a counterpoint.

Reproduced with kind permission from The Finest Golf Courses of Asia & Australasia by James Spence.