Orchard (Palmer)

A pair of golfing legends – Arnold Palmer and Gary Player – designed the two 18-hole championship courses within The Orchard Golf and Country Club on the edge of Metro Manila in the affluent municipality of Dasmariñas.

Set in a former mango orchard on an extensive estate, the golf facility here is only one of a wide selection of leisure and sporting amenities (including cinema, swimming pool, tennis and badminton courts) that are available to members.

Both courses are top class parkland affairs but the Palmer layout just has the edge over its Player sibling – unlike, in regard to the illustrious playing careers of the two men, when the Black Knight’s nine majors hold sway over Arnie’s seven!

A round on the Palmer starts gently with a par five sandwiched between two straightforward par fours, followed shortly after by a couple of delightful short holes at 5 and 7, where water, sand and mango trees threaten a four or more on the scorecard for the wayward.

The back nine begins with a testing, uphill par four hole (with water protecting the front of the green) and it ends with a strong, right doglegged par five at the 18th where more than a dozen fairway and greenside bunkers prevent an easy conclusion to the round.

The calibre of the Palmer course is such that it hosted the fifth Johnnie Walker Classic in 1995 when Fred Couples became the first American to win the event with an aggregate score of 277, eleven under par.