langkawi magazine

To Do SECTION

Rainforest, Sea and Perfect Greens

One of the best things about golfing is enjoying the views offered by different courses. Picture teeing off against a dramatic backdrop of a 50-million-year-old rainforest.

Opened in 1992, the 5,994-metre par 72 of the Golf Club, Datai Bay course is surrounded by forest with the imposing Gunung Mat Chincang to the west and the Andaman sea to the east. The fairways are covered with Bermuda while the impeccably kept greens are turfed in Tifdwarf. Although not a long course, watch out for the narrow fairways and severe hazards. Take this advice - if the ball veers off course and finds the jungle, it is best to give up the cause.

Much of the original forest is left intact so that the course is built through and around the jungle. As a result, magnificent and ancient trees will provide you with either a welcome shade from tee to the green or simply get in the way. It can be hard to tell where the course ends and where the forest begins.

Club manager Abdul Hamid Ismail says the signature hole No 12 ar 5, for example, is played uphill to wide expanse of fairway. "You'd want to aim to the right as a large nibong palm stands in the way of approaches from the left," he says. "It may be possible to go pass the narrow gap to the left of the palm but this is a risky route - the long, narrow green ends at a steep drop down to the jungle stream on the right.

"Two hollows will trap any ball on its way off the green but a pitch back onto the putting surface is far from easy." Above all, playing at the club gives one a sense of being in a forest, away from the hustle bustle of the city. Another interesting hole is hole No 15 par 3 - its tees are carved out of the side of a mountain with the green set down below in a beautiful jungle clearing.

Abdul Hamid says the high elevation of the tee makes distance judgement difficult while bunkers to the rear and front of the green make club selection even more important.

Langkawi 27/12/2001