GOLF TRAVEL
Eat, Play, Love Craig Morrison travels to Bali, the Island of the Gods, where golf has firmly taken root
A Player’s Guide
Robin Moyer
Tropical Treat: The demanding par-four 16th hole at Bali Golf & Country Club, a Nelson & Haworth design 58
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B
etween Java and Lombok the Indonesian island of Bali is enchanted and beautiful. It doesn’t teem with golf courses, but there are four layouts here that anyone would want to play. Tourism is the island’s main industry. Terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005 briefly kept holidaymakers away, but they have now returned in numbers, increased numbers in fact. There are almost three million annual visitors and the actual population is not much more than that. Consequently, the infrastructure is stretched, the roads endlessly busy. But work goes on apace (or as speedily as it might on tranquil Bali) in preparation for the APEC summit in 2013 for which the island’s communications will be much improved. Away from any traffic problems Bali is a place of harmony and relaxation. It was the setting for last year’s Julia Roberts’ movie Eat, Pray, Love and the effects of its starring role can be felt in countless new yoga and spiritual retreats all over the island. Bali of course is famous for its sacred rituals, devout rites and ceremonies. Every home has its own shrine. Every town has numerous temples. Offerings to the gods are made daily and can be seen everywhere. Flowers literally
litter the streets. And the incense can be thick, the atmosphere heady. Yet Bali is very much of the world too. Upscale hotels and resorts abound, from Banyan Tree and Bulgari to the newly-opened W Retreat & Spa. And while fabulous food might be found cheaply in local restaurants, one can pay top dollar (or Indonesian Rupiah) to eat in style at the new chic restaurants which have recently appeared and which make Bali, when considered with its existing cuisine, something of a foodie’s favourite. Golf, while not exactly exorbitant, sets one back on average US$150 per round. But most will have few complaints. The courses are all excellent and each one is quite distinctive and memorable. Carts are pretty much compulsory and compulsory caddies are almost always female – and almost all are pretty. In fact, the only male caddies I met were playing their monthly gratis game at Bali Golf & Country Club. I joined them for the back nine. Unbelievably they played off handicaps of two, three and four and were lovely knowledgeable guys, very gracious in their resounding victory. Like almost all Balinese, the caddies cannot do enough for you and you will find yourself tipping more than you can afford. It’s a good feeling.
Courtesy of Nirwana Bali Golf Club
Bali High: The parthree seventh at Nirwana Bali, with the famous Tanah Lot temple hovering just off the coast, is surely the most photographed hole on the island
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WHERE TO PLAY NIRWANA BALI HHHH
Tom Breazeale (New Kuta x 2)
Picture Perfect (clockwise from top): New Kuta, the newest of Bali's four courses, occupies a stunning setting on the south coast; thee tee shot at the par-three fourth at Bali Golf & Country Club needs to avoid tiered rice paddy fields, unique examples of golf course landscaping 62
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The Great White Shark created this course on the island’s west coast where Hammerheads are not as rare as the many surfers might hope. In parts – its most memorable parts – it’s a clifftop course to rival any on the Monterey Peninsula. But this is far from California. The temple at Tanah Lot, perhaps the most spectacular on the island, is in full view here and the course plays through rice fields. It could only be beautiful Bali. The sevent h hole, a par t hree which plays scenically close to the temple, could be considered sacrilege, unless you take the view of many golfers, that the game can be a religious experience. The islanders might choose to spend a high percentage of their income on religious festivals and ceremonies, but the golfer who chooses to spend some time and money here will feel genuinely elevated. Visually, it is a masterpiece; golf-wise it is a masterpiece too, revealing its setting to best effect on every hole. Its design is primarily heroic, which is to say that many shots are do-ordie. Elsewhere that sometime lack of choices can be a weakness. But here it is just right: the shots offer sufficient hope and the golfer can only be fortified and emboldened by the surroundings. This Greg Norman course opened for play in 1997 and is still stupendous today.
Nirwana Bali Golf Club Yardage: 6,805 Par: 72 Designed by Greg Norman Contact: nirwanabaligolf.com
BALI GOLF HHHH
This is a great, great course and rumour has it that the new Indonesian owners plan improvements in an attempt to make it – once again – the island’s very best. The hilly front nine plays parkland style through the Nusa Dua estate, the securitychecked resort which is home to some of Bali’s very best hotels. The back nine, still within Nusa Dua, meanders through massive coconut groves (amongst huge almost endless white sand bunkers and lakes teeming with large Alu lizards) down to the Amanusa Beach Club – one of the swankiest most eye-popping anywhere – before turning back again to the fabulous clubhouse. The signature hole is the ninth which requires a muscular downhill drive to set up as short a strike as possible over a lovely but sizeable and looming lake. My favourites though were earlier in the floral front half, the third and fourth being a long two-shotter and a short singleshotter over tiered paddy fields: unique examples of golf course landscaping. The club has a small number of villas which look entirely amazing, luxurious beyond belief. HKGOLFER.COM
Guests enjoy their own dedicated staff and private pool as well as use of the Amanusa Beach Club. Bali Golf & Country Club Yardage: 6,888 Par: 72 Designed by Nelson & Haworth Contact: baligolfandcountryclub.com
NEW KUTA HHHH
Despite its claims of common ground with links golf (and it does have deep bunkers, rolling fairways and sloping greens), New Kuta is very much the clifftop course and all the better for it. In fact, it’s astonishingly good. It opened just three years ago and has picked up a slew of awards. Out on 14, 15 and 16 – the most precarious of the holes – there’s nothing between the golfer and the cliff’s edge. Indian Ocean waves crash onto Dreamland Beach beneath you, the fairways vibrating such is their force. It is pretty elemental here: man against nature. Fear has ruined many scores at this stage of the round. The scenery has no doubt ruined scores too. The beaches and the ocean views are amongst the most spectacular to be had. New Kuta is a tough test. The greens run fast and the aforementioned deep traps are not for the less than skilled bunker player. But being on holiday one should forget the score and live a little. The golf on offer here is exhilarating in the extreme.
Australians account for many of the visitors to Bali and Australia’s two greatest golfers designed 50 per cent of the courses here. This one, the oldest on the island, Bali Handara, was designed by Peter Thomson, a five time Open champion and by definition one of the world’s greatest links players. Yet Bali Handara couldn’t be further removed from the links game having more in common with jungles than sandy seasides. It is built in a volcanic crater more than 1,000 metres above sea level and the grasses are deep green and lush, the trees numerous and often towering. The mountains are magnificent and the course is special too. It’s perhaps the
Robin Moyer (Bali Golf & Country Club)
New Kuta Golf Yardage: 7,500 Par: 72 Designed by Golfplan Contact: newkutagolf.com
BALI HANDARA HHH
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gentlest of the layouts on the island, but it has class. The stylish par -fives at the end of the outward and inward halves stand out. They promised me birdies but delivered much more ... The routing is clever. The golfer plays up, down and across in all directions, feeling the wind in its many guises. Warm breezes blow across the entire island and everyone , it seems, flies kites. Here in Bedugul though the winds are noticeably cooler, making it a great altitude escape for those who have been sweltering in the busier tourist traps on the coast. The mornings can be misty, the nights chilly. The on-site accommodation is a jot dated. But the course – though maybe less exciting than others on the island – is timeless. Anyone who can should visit. Bali Handara is a special place. Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club Yardage: 7,024 Par: 72 Designed by Peter Thomson Contact: balihandarakosaido.com
NEED TO KNOW
Like most places in t he tropics, Bali experiences two seasons: wet (September through February) and dry (March through August), but the difference is marginal, with the
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former characterised by short, sharp downpours in the afternoon. The rest of the time is generally very warm, although the sea breezes and lower humidity of the summer months make this a prime time for golf. Cathay Pacific and Garuda, Indonesia's much revamped national carrier, fly direct from Hong Kong to Denpasar, Bali's international gateway, daily (travel time: four hours, 45 minutes). Those travelling on Hong Kong SA R passports do not require a visa for entry into Indonesia; those travelling on most other passports – including Australian, British, Canadian and the United States – are required to pay a 30-day visa-on-arrival fee of US$25. Craig Morrison is the author of recently released 18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes which Forbes Magazine has called ‘an instant collectable’. Visit 18greatestgolf.com. “This might be stretching it, not least considering climatic differences, but a golfing trip to Bali has something in common with a golfing trip made to Ireland," says Morrison. "The Balinese people – basically Indonesia’s Hindu minority – are charming, warm and hospitable. Terrorism is, we all trust, a thing of the past. The atmosphere is singular. The coastal golf is superb.”
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