Sentul Highlands

Top 100 Golf Courses updates its Southeast Asia rankings Earlier this month, we published the second of three Asian chart releases, reporting on the South Asia countries of India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This ranking announcement now concentrates on the Southeast nations of Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In this article, we report on the best golf courses to be found within a huge geographic area of four and a half million square kilometres, where approximately 650 million people live. We feature exactly two hundred courses across the eight countries that we’re revising so we think we have things pretty well covered across this subregion. It’s not the easiest of geographical areas to keep a close eye on so we’re grateful for our reliable network of contributors keeping us fully informed. In particular, Kimi Hoshiyama, our China and Southern Asia correspondent consistently goes the extra mile on our behalf to ensure we stay ahead of the game in this part of the golfing world. Indonesia The top four positions in our Indonesia Top 30 remain unchanged, so the Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Taman Daya Golf Club & Resort near Surabaya holds on to its No. 1 status. Unveiled in 1995, this resort layout is set on a rolling landscape with deep valleys and drainage canals adding to the playing interest. It was once the exclusive preserve of members and their guests but green fee-paying golfers can now play here with a little prior notice. Taman Daya Golf Club & Resort The highest of four new entries arrives at No. 15 and it’s the 18-hole layout at Parahyangan Golf Bandung, which opened for business in 2018. Laid out by Bob Moore from JMP Golf Design Group, the course sits thirty kilometres from Bandung, where two distinctive 9-hole circuits have been routed around terraced rice paddies and fish farms, totally integrating golf with its environment. Parahyangan Golf Bandung Only nine courses make an upward move in the new listings and two of them progress four places. The first of these layouts is Riverside Golf Club, located midway between Jakarta and Bogor (at #13), which is a Bob Harrison design from when he worked with Greg Norman. The second is the Sea View course at the 36-hole Bintan Lagoon Resort on Bintan Island (at #21), and this Jack Nicklaus Signature course overlooking the South China Sea fully complements Ian-Baker Finch’s Woodland track at the resort. Rank/ To view the complete detailed list of the Top 30 Golf Courses of Indonesia click the link. Laos The landlocked country of Laos in the middle of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula has a new No. 1 and it’s the 18-hole configuration of the Vientiane and Long Thanh nines at Long Thanh-Vientiane Golf Club, on the outskirts of the capital. Part of a large residential project that will eventually include a hotel, school and hospital, the development is due to have a fourth 9-hole circuit completed this year, enabling six different 18-hole combinations to be brought into play. Long Thanh-Vientiane Golf Club To view the complete detailed list of the Top 5 Golf Courses of Laos click the link. Malaysia Nine golfing layouts in our Top 40 remain in the same position as last time and one of the non-movers is our national No.1, the West course at TPC Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, retaining the top spot for the fifth successive edition of our Malaysian rankings. Venue for the now discontinued CIMB Classic tournament between 2013 and 2018, this is a Nelson & Haworth design that was extensively renovated by Ted Parslow and Jason Winter to toughen it up at the start of the new millennium. TPC Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club - West course The biggest climber in the new listings is the course at Impian Golf & Country Club, reversing a three-place fall in our 2018 chart with a nine-place rise to No. 20. Designed by Ross Watson, the course is draped across a 142-acre property as two returning circuits, the Golden nine and the Negara nine, with a number of the holes carved through a hardwood tropical rainforest. Impian Golf & Country Club The first of two new entries appears at No. 32 and it’s the Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II co-designed Legacy course at the 36-hole Forest City Golf Resort in Johor. In contrast to the tight Classic course which opened at the resort last year, the older Legacy layout is characterised by wide fairways that run through mangrove swamps bordering the Pulai River, with many of the holes flanked by these water hazards and sandy waste areas. To view the complete detailed list of the Top 40 Golf Courses of Malaysia click the link. Myanmar Our new No. 1 for Myanmar is the course at Myotha National Golf Club, which is an 18-hole layout from Schmidt-Curley Design that debuted in 2018, forming the sporting centrepiece of a master planned community outside Mandalay. Packed with dramatic elevation changes, this 8,000-yard goliath is grassed with Zoysia to help foster firm and fast playing conditions. Bunkers, in the words of Brian Curley, are “strong and bold, in keeping with the scale of the property,” while greens “are often large (with) strong slopes including backstops and bowls”. Myotha National Golf Club To view the complete detailed list of the Top 5 Golf Courses of Myanmar click the link. Philippines The Country Club course was ousted from the top rung of the Philippines Top 30 when we last re-appraised this country but it has immediately bounced back from the runner-up slot to regain the No. 1 position. Situated to the south of Manila, between Santa Rosa and Canlubang, this Tom Weiskopf-designed layout has recently been extended, allowing it to host major national events like the Philippine Open, with the last three editions of this event held here. The Country Club Only six other courses improve their chart standing and the one to make the biggest impact is Anvaya Cove Golf & Sport Club near Subic Bay, which gracefully glides up four places to No.3. Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan laid this one out within a substantial seaside residential development and there are two distinct 9-hole circuits, “Mountain” and “Seaside,” with the front nine set out around housing further inland, followed by a back nine that heads towards the shore before returning to the clubhouse. Anvaya Cove The highest new entry arrives at No. 16. and it’s the Tagaytay Midlands course at the Tagaytay Highlands resort mountain resort located around sixty-five kilometres south of downtown Manila. Developed in the mid-1990s as a retreat for those wanting to escape from the capital, the resort is split into three residential communities, with two of them, Highlands and Midlands, boasting their own 18-hole course. Such is the extreme terrain here, the two clubhouses are connected by a funicular transport system. To view the complete detailed list of the Top 30 Golf Courses of the Philippines click the link. Singapore Unfortunately, golf in Singapore has contracted in the last few years as the government has taken a rather hard-line stance of not renewing land leases with golf clubs. The national plan in the early 1990s was to increase the number of courses from 22 to 29 but there are now only fifteen still in operation. As a result of this decline, we’ve reduced our Top 15 to a Top 10. The Serapong course at Sentosa Golf Club maintains its strong grip on the No.1 berth at the top of the chart. Designed by Ron Fream of Golfplan back in the early 1980s, the layout was renovated fifteen years ago by current general manager Andrew Johnston when he worked with Bates Golf Design Group. Now he’s heading an in-house team that’s just embarked on an intensive 3-month upgrade, having only recently carried out a redesign of the Tanjong course. Sentosa - Serapong course The Sentosa’s fairway drainage is being improved, bunkers are to be relined and new white sand installed, greens are undergoing a “drill and fill” enhancement program, and tees are to be resized, re-lasered and re-grassed with Platinum Paspalum. It’s this sort of ambitious project which keeps Serapong ahead of the pack so, for the current host venue for the Singapore Open, upgrade work like this is totally understandable. The most impressive positive move in the rankings is made by the Dendro and Vanda nines at Orchid Country Club, which lies next to the Lower Seletar Reservoir, advancing four spots to No. 10. Host to the Singapore Open in 1999, the course was also used by the Asian Tour for the short-lived Singapore Classic professional tournament from 2010 to 2012. To view the complete detailed list of the Top 10 Golf Courses of Singapore click the link. Thailand Having started out with a Top 10 for this country ten years ago, we’ve gradually included additional courses to our Thai table to create a Top 50 chart. There’s been quite a shake-up with this, the fifth revision of our inaugural listing, as there are only five non-movers and eight new entries. The course at Ayodhya Links is still the national No.1, a position it’s held for the last eight years. Originally designed and built by Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett, the entire layout was subsequently raised by Founder/Chairman Pitak Intrawityanunt to prevent the possible recurrence of flood damage suffered in 2011. Ayodhya Links Our US Consultant Fergal O’Leary posted a review six months ago, saying “the greens have interesting shaping and certain pundits laud over them. I appreciated them for the setting they were in, and the character that they add. Some are better than others for sure… I was more captivated by the commendable chipping areas and the routing”. The highest new entry at #26 is Grand Prix Golf Club’s track which is located an hour’s drive north of Kanchanaburi. This golf facility was developed by Dr Prachin Eamlumnow, Chairman of the Bangkok International Motor Show, with holes laid out around a series of lakes in two returning 9-hole circuits. A sizeable river bisects the property, adding to the challenge, as do quite a number of split fairways and multi-tiered greens. Grand Prix Golf Club The biggest rise in chart position is made by the Rajjaprabha Dam Golf Course (up nineteen to #31), lying close to the Khao Sok National Park, where a dramatic 18-hole layout was carved from a dense rainforest by the electricity Generating Authority of Thailand at the start of the new millennium. It’s one of Thai golf’s best-kept secrets due to its remote location. To view the complete detailed list of the Top 50 Golf Courses of Thailand click the link. Vietnam Two years ago we added five courses to our Vietnam chart, fashioning a Top 25. Such is the pace of golfing progress in that country we’re now extending our standings to a Top 30 and, with two courses falling away from our last revision, we’re actually adding seven new tracks this time around. The big news is that the Greg Norman-designed course at Bluffs Ho Tram Strip holds off a very strong challenge from a couple of new 18-hole layouts that come crashing into the national chart at #2 and #3 to continue as the No. 1 course in Vietnam. A reviewer last year termed this “an outstanding course… very well-conditioned” with “a great variety of holes [and] green complexes [that] are beautifully engineered”. Bluffs Ho Tram Strip Tom Doak included Bluffs Ho Tram Strip as one of the eighteen “Gourmet’s Choice” courses in Volume 5 of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, with one of his co-authors, Masa Niishijima (our International Consultant), writing: “above all, The Bluffs makes good use of the unique dunes terrain, and at every hole you feel connected to the ocean, even if you can’t always see it”. Incredibly, only two tracks make any forward advance in our new table: the first is the Dunes course at the BRG Da Nang Golf Resort (up two to #4) which was Greg Norman’s first Vietnamese design when it opened a decade ago, and the second is the B and C nines at Chi Linh Star Golf & Country Club (up four to #14), where the first professional event (the Carlsberg Masters) in the north of the country was hosted back in 2004. BRG Da Nang - Dunes course The two highest-placed newcomers make their chart debut quite a bit ahead of the others. The course at Hoiana Shores Golf Club is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design (new at #2) that opened just last year, situated close to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hoi An on a coastal property of pure sand. The architect describes his experience of working in the region as “a lovely treasure hunt that ends with us finding a golf course project hard by the sea. Where great land meets the sea, great golf can happen.” It seems like that’s exactly what has transpired here. Hoiana Shores Golf Club Hard on the heels of RTJ2’s new production, yet another Greg Norman course enters the chart at No.3. KN Golf Links Cam Ranh, Norman’s 3rd Vietnamese course and his 104th worldwide, is also situated on the South Central Coast of Vietnam, with fairways occupying a landscape dominated by enormous sand dunes. According to the designer, “the scale and natural topography of the property lends itself to a great variety of golf holes. It plays links because there’s a lot of up and down and natural contouring to the layout [and] it’s a lot of fun”. KN Golf Links Cam Ranh To view the complete detailed list of the Top 30 Golf Courses of Vietnam click the link. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Top 30 Golf Courses of Indonesia 2018 We continue our reappraisal of Asian national rankings with the revision of our Top 30 for Indonesia. The former national number 1 course at Nirwana Bali Golf Club closed last year for a major overhaul by Phil Mickelson’s design firm and it looks like the redesigned layout might not re-open until next year sometime. It’s part of a redevelopment plan to replace the 5-star Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali hotel with a 6-star Trump Tower hotel and so we await with bated breath the unveiling of the new golf resort. Meanwhile, the temporary omission of the Nirwana Bali course from our chart allows most of the others already occupying top ten positions to move up at least one place, including the late-1990s Jack Nicklaus Signature design at Taman Dayu Golf Club & Resort, which advances from the runner-up spot to become our new number 1 in Indonesia. Described last month by a reviewer as “an excellent resort course” with “sweeping elevation changes (and) plenty of interesting hazards,” this highly regarded course is open for casual green fee play with just a few days of advance notice. The Forest and Mountain nines at Rainbow Hills Golf Club move into our Top 10 for the first time, rising three places to number 10. Situated an hour’s drive south of Jakarta in the majestic highlands of East Bogor, this 27-hole facility was laid out by Bob Moore of JMP Design, with the original Forest and Mountain nines first to appear in the mid-1990s, followed twenty years later by the Stone Hills nine. Mountain golf’s the name of the game at Rainbow Hills, where length off the tee isn’t nearly as important as accuracy on the fairways. In the middle section of our new listings, three courses make modest upward moves. The first of these is the 18-hole-layout at Imperial Klub Golf (up four to number 12), a public facility that lies to the west of Jakarta at Lippo Karawachi, where one-time Jack Nicklaus design associate Desmond Muirhead set out another of his highly idiosyncratic designs in the late 1990s, featuring swirl-shaped, volcano-shaped and sawtooth-shaped bunkers plus a variety of island and peninsula greens. Highly contrived, it’s a course that golfers either love or hate but, for the time being at least, it has found favour with our panel of Asian correspondents. Rising three places to number 15, the Woodlands course at the Bintan Lagoon Resort is an Ian Baker-Finch layout that comfortably outshines the Jack Nicklaus course that’s in operation at the same venue. Both 18-hole tracks opened for play in 1997, with the Golden Bear’s course offering views of the South China Sea that the Woodlands course can’t match because it’s been carved from a dense forest landscape further inland. Nonetheless, it’s the Australian ex-professional’s design that’s viewed as the better of the two courses at this resort. Also advancing three places to number 17, the Greg Norman-designed course at Riverside Golf Club, located halfway between Jakarta and Bogor, is set within a 220-acre property close to the Cikeas River, though none of the fairways are affected by this aquatic hazard. That’s not to say water doesn’t come into play, as it does so on several holes, with tree-lined fairways crossing small ravines and streams on several occasions. The par three 14th is the best hole on the card, played across a gorge from an elevated tee position to a green perched on the edge of an escarpment. The only new entry appears at number 28 and it might be something of a surprise to many – the thrilling 18-hole par-three executive course at Bukit Pandawa Golf & Country Club, which only opened at the end of 2016. Set out on the limestone cliffs that run along the south coast of Bali, overlooking the Indian Ocean, this Bob Moore design forms the centrepiece of a residential development that will in due course include several 5-stars hotels. Grassed with Pure Dynasty paspalum, the holes measure between 107 metres and 223 meters from the back markers, requiring a tee shot with just about every club in the bag during a round here. Rank/ To view further details of our Indonesia Top 30 chart click the link. Please use the “Respond to this article” link at the top or the bottom of this page if you’d like to comment on our revised Top 30 for Indonesia. Feel free to tell us what we’ve got right or let us know what might be improved. We don’t produce “definitive” listings but we think they’re the “most informed” that you’ll find anywhere. With your help, they can also be the most accurate. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Top 30 Golf Courses of Indonesia 2017 We expand our Indonesian national listings by 50% then re-rank the chart This is the fifth time we’ve updated our Indonesia chart since we inaugurated our listings for the country in 2009 and, for the third consecutive revision, the top three places stay the same. When we last reviewed the standings for this Southeast Asian nation, we said it would “take something special to dislodge Greg Norman’s Nirwana Bali, Jack Nicklaus’s Taman Dayu and Gary Player’s Ria Bintan (Ocean) courses from the top spots in the Indonesia table” and that statement still holds true because those three tracks remain firmly entrenched in the first three positions. Another Nicklaus design, the Bumi Serpong Damai course at Damai Indah Golf makes an impressive four place leap up the chart to number 4. Considering this 18-hole layout had taken a bit of a tumble from number 6 to 8 last time around, there’s been a very smart turnaround in fortunes for a course that was unveiled in 1992 as the Golden Bear’s first Indonesian project. Another two courses make significant upward moves within the new chart. The first of these is Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s accomplished Pondok Indah layout (up seven to number 9), which is probably best known for hosting the World Cup of Golf in 1983. It’s recently undergone an extensive renovation, a measure that has no doubt gone a long way to rejuvenating its ranking fortunes. The other course to make a similar positive advance is Merapi Golf Yogyakarta (up five to number 14), a Thomsom, Wolveridge and Perrett mid-1990s design that’s located less than ten kilometres from the summit of Mount Merapi, an active stratovolcano that has erupted several times since the start of the new millennium. Only two other courses climb up the standings and they are Rancayama (up two to 8), an early 1990s Ted Robinson Jnr layout and a debutant in our last chart, and Jagorawi (New) (up one to 10), where Thomson, Wolveridge and Perret set out this testing 18-hole course as one component of a very challenging 45-hole golf complex. We’ve also expanded our new Indonesian listings by 50% so there are ten new entries in our new Top 30, headed at number 13 by the Forest & Mountain nines at Rainbow Hills, a mid-1990s Bob Moore layout from JMP Design. Such is the quality of the par five 13th hole on this course, it’s been included in the Golf Magazine book The 500 World’s Greatest Golf Holes. Rank/ To view further details of the Top 30 Golf Courses of Indonesia click the link. We’re always interested to know what you make of our re-ranked national listings so if you’d like to contact us with any comments regarding our newly enlarged Indonesian Top 30 then by all means click the “Respond to this article” link at the top or at the bottom of this page to give us your thoughts. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses