Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah

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 40 Golf Courses of Malaysia 2018 It’s only thirteen months since we last refreshed our Malaysian chart positions so the next biennial update wasn’t due until January 2019. However, it became apparent over the last few months while researching our inaugural Asian Top 100 project that several countries really had to be reappraised sooner rather than later and so we’ve decided to bring forward our review process for this important Southeast Asian golfing nation. The bare overall statistics for our Malaysia Top 40 are that thirteen courses move up, twenty-two fall down, three drop out and two remain in exactly the same position as before. One of the two non-movers is our number 1 layout, the West course at TPC Kuala Lumpur, which has now successfully held onto the top spot for the last four editions of our published Malaysian rankings. An early 1990s Nelson & Haworth design, the West course underwent a large-scale renovation by Ted Parslow and Jason Winter a decade ago and since then this longer, tougher layout has hosted a number of top professional tournaments, including the now defunct Malaysian Open and the CIMB Classic, which is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour. Three courses all tuck in behind KLGCC West, each of them climbing two positions in the new chart. At number 2, The Mines is a late-1990s Robert Trent Jones Jnr layout, built on the site of the old Hong Fatt Tin Mine, which at one time was the biggest open cast tin mine in the world, an hour’s drive south of the capital. Fairways which were capped with a foot of sand during construction as a buffer against previously polluted soil have the additional benefit of being free-draining so this course always looks in great shape, recovering quickly after the monsoon season. Last year, one reviewer described the course as “a good Trent Jones Jnr design (with) good bunkering (and) fast and firm greens… an enjoyable course which offers a good challenge,” while another person “enjoyed it thoroughly… the clubhouse is huge and the car park is full of Rolls and Ferraris… this is an interesting course with a great variety of holes… play the Mines if you can get a reasonable price.” At number 3, the Ocean course at Els Club - Desaru Coast – which was a new entry in our chart last time around – is an Ernie Els Design 27-hole layout in Johor boasting three returning 9-hole loops, the par-36 Coast, par-37 Ridge and par-36 Lakes. The course is one of two exciting new layouts (each with its own clubhouse) which are set out within a massive 4,000-acre property that runs along a 17-kilometre stretch of coastline facing onto the South China Sea. At number 4, the Palm course at Saujana Golf & Country Club is one of two excellent 18-hole layouts at Malaysia’s first proprietary club that were designed by Ron Fream of Golfplan in the mid-1980s. Seven Malaysian Opens were held here from 1997 to 2007 before Ron was called back in to upgrade the Palm course in 2015, replacing two of the original holes on the front nine with another two. The Maybank Championship is now held at Saujana and only two weeks ago Shubhankar Sharma won the 2018 edition of this event when he posted an astonishing final round score of 62 to claim his second European Tour title of the season. The highest placed of three newcomers in our new standings appears at number 8 and it’s the 18-hole Valley course at Els Club - Desaru Coast, which opened in March last year. It’s the result of an intriguing design collaboration between Ernie Els and Vijah Singh, who’s just starting out as a golf course architect with only a handful of projects to his name so far. We were really impressed with what we saw in the summer of 2016 when we had a look around the Al Houra course that Vijah co-designed with Graham Marsh near Tangier in Morocco so we’re not in the least surprised that this course is making such a big impact in our Malaysian chart. Climbing five places to number 20, the New course at Royal Selangor Golf Club has been in play for almost a hundred years, though the club itself celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. Located less than three kilometres from the famous Petronas Twin Towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur, the two 18-hole layouts at this club can truly be described as the city’s “green lungs”. Both the New course and the Old course were upgraded in recent times by Nelson & Hayward, with the renovation involving “the reconciliation of many conflicting issues and goals” as explained to us by Brett Mogg from the respected design firm. The inaugural Maybank Championship event was hosted by the club in 2016 using a composite 18-hole course comprising the Old course front nine and New course back nine. In the bottom half of the table, only three courses make upward moves: the Andy Dye-designed East and West nines at Orna Golf & Country Club in the state of Melaka (up two to #22), the 18-hole renovated layout at Penang Golf Club – originally built for Bukit Jambul Golf Club by Robert Trent Jones Jnr in 1984 – on Penang Island (up six to #28), and Arnold Palmer’s Mountain and Ocean nines at Damai Golf and Country Club in Sarawak state on Borneo which debuted in the mid-1980s (up one to #32). Rank/ To view further details of our newly updated Malaysian Top 40 click the link. If you have any strong views on our revised Top 40 for Malaysia then we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us via the “Respond to this article” link at the top or the bottom of this page to share your thoughts with us. We don’t produce “definitive” listings but we do feel our rankings are the “most informed” so your opinions matter to us. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses

Top 40 Golf Courses of Malaysia 2017 TPC Kuala Lumpur (West) fends off two Els Club courses to retain its No.1 ranking This is the fourth revision of the Malaysian national listings that we first established in 2009. Back then, we began with a rather limited Top 10 chart which was eventually expanded to a Top 30 when we last re-ranked two years ago. Largely due to valuable input from a few reputable regional correspondents, we’re now in the position where we can confidently extend the standings to a Top 40. The big news is the West course at the renamed TPC Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club has held off a very strong challenge from two new Els Club courses at Teluk Datai and Desaru Coast to retain its status as Malaysia’s number 1 track. Host venue for six editions of the Malaysian Open up until 2015, the West course is an early 1990s Nelson & Haworth design which was extensively upgraded by Ted Parslow and Jason Winter almost a decade ago. Licensed in August 2016 to become the first golf facility in southeast Asia to join the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club network, TPC Kuala Lumpur now joins a rather exclusive list of thirty-four public and private clubs (including the likes of TPC Sawgrass in Florida and TPC Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico) that currently enjoy the benefits of TPC branding. When we published our last Malaysian chart two years ago, the Els Club Teluk Datai course was a spectacular new entry in the runner-up spot at number 2 and that’s the position it’s still at. Its newer stablemate, the 27-hole Ocean course at Els Club Desaru Coast makes a similar eye-catching entrance into our listings this time around, debuting at number 5. Set out as three returning 9-hole circuits, the layout only opened a couple of months ago but it’s already causing quite a stir in Malaysian golfing circles. There are eight climbers in our updated chart for 2017, with the Raintree and Lakes nines at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort the highest placed of these, rising four positions to number 3. Located halfway between Kuala Lumpur and Penang, this mid-1990s layout from Tim Woolbank lies inside a massive 1,000-acre property, with fairways routed around wetland areas and small lakes. Further down the listings, the biggest upward move comes from Dalit Bay (one of only five East Malaysian courses to feature in our new chart) and it soars ten places to number 19. Laid out by Ted Parslow in the mid-1990s, just around the time Jason Winter joined Ted’s design company, the Mengkabong and Tambalang nines occupy a ravishing coastal site on the north shores of Borneo where water comes into play at sixteen holes. The inaugural Maybank Championship event was held at Royal Selangor Golf Club last year on a composite course comprising holes 1-9 on the Old course and 10-18 on the New. Proponents of this club will no doubt be dismayed to discover that both layouts have suffered falls in the latest rankings shake-up (the Old is down three to number 13 and the New plummets fourteen spots to 25), despite a very recent renovation carried out by Neil Haworth and Brett Mogg. The second edition of the Maybank Championship moves twenty-five kilometres northeast to Saujana Golf & Country Club next month, where the club’s Palm course will host this year’s event. Renowned as a tough tournament track, the Ron Fream-designed Palm course (no change in our new chart) has been used many times for the Malaysian Open so it’s well equipped to cope with the imminent arrival of professionals from the European and Asian Tours. Rank/ To view further details of the Top 40 Golf Courses of Malaysia click the link. As always, we’d like to know what you think of this updated national chart. If you have any strong views then why not get in touch via the “respond to this article” link at the top or bottom of this page to tell us what your opinion is? We’d also love to see some more reviews for our Malaysian courses so if you’ve played any of these Top 40 tracks we’d be happy for you to post a few lines to tell us about your playing experience. Jim McCann Editor Top 100 Golf Courses