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agog in bali
The gods may not help your golf in Bali, but the island of the gods offers great golf and numerous other five-star luxuries.
By Alistair Speirs.
“Unbelievable! Amazing! Wow!” I thought my playing partner was impressed with my putting, but I soon realised what had caused his astonishment: an enormous mountain filling the entire horizon – a simply stunning pyramid – reaching into the clouds.
We were at the beautiful Bali Golf & Country Club in Nusa Dua, Bali, and had played three holes without a glimpse of fabled Mount Agung when suddenly it burst into sight, dominating the view and making us realise why the Balinese revere the 3142-metre fabled giant in the sky.
It’s impressive indeed and just one of the many highlights of a round of golf on Bali’s four resort courses.
Once you focus back on your golf game you realise that the Bali Golf & Country Club is, in fact, a course of two distinct nines. The first nine ventures off into rainforest-clad hills, with holes winding through lush countryside, while offering stunning ocean views. There are several challenging doglegs and two charming uphill par 3’s playing to hidden greens. The back nine plays closer to the sea and is flat and sandy, with coconut palms replacing forest species. Water comes into play at the 12th, along with a temple, and again at the 18th where a slight push or slice could spoil a round.
Major renovations in the clubhouse have brought standards up to five-star, with luxurious locker rooms, a good restaurant, well-stocked pro shop and swimming pool, while the 19th hole bar, The Bunker, offers great views over the 18th fairway and green.
Well-trained, attentive caddies and golf carts stocked with cold drinks make each round a pleasure, no matter how you are playing. The course is only minutes from all the five-star hotels in Nusa Dua, with adjoining access to several major golf and beachfront resorts, including the St Regis, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton Laguna and Westin.
These hotels also boast some of the best spas in Indonesia, with world-class restaurants and facilities. Golf packages and transport to the course is easily arranged at each property.
Further west up the coast past popular Kuta and Seminyak, and beyond charming Canggu, lies the Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort, the second of Bali’s courses: Nirwana Bali. Designed by Greg Norman on a dramatic coastline, the layout is beautiful to see and a serious challenge to play.
Fairways are lined with lush vegetation and many holes have genuine rice-field features. But beneath the velvet glove is a steel fist. Wayward shots are punished and missed greens mean rapidly escalating scores, with virtually no chance of recovery.
A fine mist permeates the air on holes close to the sea as the wind pulls spume from white-topped waves. On the 7th tee appears the amazing Tanah Lot temple, poised on its little islet looking just as it does in countless postcards and magazines.
Perhaps a prayer would help to guide the ball across the rocky bay from tee to green, but on this occasion it doesn’t and my ball joins the flotsam and jetsam on the rocky beach below. An unplanned offering to Bali’s gods of golf!
Nirwana’s female caddies are as charming as any in Asia and are determined to make your round fun. Although this course is punishing, its shear beauty makes up for lost balls and poor scores.
Play and stay packages are available at the Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort, the only on-course accommodation in the region. The resort is a Balinese oasis with fairway-frontage double room accommodation or private villas which can accommodate couples, families or groups looking for the finest five-star facilities, including superb restaurants, cafés and award-winning spa facilities with golf on the doorstep.
It’s a good two hours drive up into the mountains to the Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club, but it’s worth the time and effort. Carved into the side of a long-extinct volcano, the course is visually stunning and outstanding to play, but so unlike its seaside sisters you could be on another continent.
And it’s cold. Seriously, we are up so high that the temperature drop is quite noticeable, easily enabling two rounds to be played each day. And it can be damp, misty and breezy. With this comes lush green grass, lusher greener undergrowth and the lushest greenest forest and jungle on the slopes of the caldera.
The peace and beauty of the course is only interrupted by the cries of birds and monkeys from the forest. The course is challenging, but eminently playable, and the variety of holes is as expected from Peter Thomson’s design: a work of art.
The view from the back tee of the 18th stopped us in our tracks. On our left, rising hundreds of feet in the air is an astonishing cliff-face jungle. Untouched, unspoilt and unexplored since the last volcanic eruption, it is teeming with life, but eerily quiet. Mists dance through the branches and ferns. It could be a scene from Jurassic Park. It’s a full 500 yards to the clubhouse, down and up again. We don’t want to finish, as the round has been magical and the experience unforgettable.
Hotel, bungalow and villa accommodation is available on the course, and considering the distance it’s worth spending a night or two as the magic of this location makes you want to stay.
But we have to leave, travelling back down the mountain, through bustling Denpasar to the beach at Jimbaran, then up the other side of the dry and dusty peninsula called The Bukit. There, through imposing large gates and down huge empty roads is the grandly impressive, ambitious development of New Kuta Golf, perched on a cliffside overlooking the ocean.
Carved out of the rock and turfed with thick green grass, the layout is impressive. Its clifftop position seems to attract more wind than any other course on the island and its status as the home of the Indonesian Open makes it the most challenging of Bali’s four resort layouts.
With new hotels nearby, including the impressive Best Western new Kuta Condotel and the suave boutique Le Grand Suites, it’s worth staying locally and playing several rounds. With several more resort developments on the horizon, this precinct faces an exciting future.
at a glance
Getting there: Garuda, Jetstar and Pacific Blue fly daily between major Australian cities and Denpasar.
Golf courses: Bali Golf & Country Club, Nusa Dua, phone +62 361 771 791
www.baligolfandcountryclub.com
Bali Handara Kosaido Golf Club, Bedugal, phone +62 361 288 944
www.balihandarakosaido.com
Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort, Tabanan, phone +62 361 815 900
www.lemeridien.com/bali
New Kuta Golf, The Bukit, phone +62 361 848 1333 www.newkutagolf.com
Green fees: Bali Golf & Country Club $US165, Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort $US165, Bali Handara Koseido Country Club $US140, New Kuta Golf
Golf $US118.
Accommodation: Bali Golf & Country Club – St Regis Bali Resort, Sheraton Laguna Resort & Spa, The Westin Resort & Spa www.starwoodhotels.com and Grand Hyatt Nusa Dua www.hyatt.com
Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club – on site hotel www.balihandarakosaido.com
Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort – on site Le Meridien hotel www.lemeridien.com/bali
New Kuta Golf – Best Western New Kuta Condotel www.bwnewkutacondotel.com
Le Grande Pecatu, Bali www.legrandsuites.com
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