WHERE TO PLAY
NIRWANA BALI ****1/2
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 seventh hole, a par three 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-or-die. 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
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