Island Splendour

RIA BINTAN

The line ‘this is one of the best sites I have ever had to work on’ is one often rolled out by golf course designers, to varying degrees of truthfulness. In the case of his Ocean Course at Ria Bintan, however, Gary Player wasn’t sticking to a script to keep his paymasters happy when he extolled the virtues of this stunning chunk of real estate.

The Ocean Course is regularly ranked among the best in the region and, for visual thrills alone, it is hard to think of many rivals in Southeast Asia that come close to its sky-scraping beauty.

Carved through thick jungle, the course cuts a broad swathe through the Bintan landscape. While many modern layouts deal in loops of nine holes which make their way back to the clubhouse, the Ocean course adheres to a traditional ‘out and in’ design.

The first few holes set a high quality marker. The par-5 first requires a pinpoint drive and a death or glory carry over water to the green while the attractive fifth runs through an attractive, but treacherously narrow, funnel of forest.

It is the holes around the turn, however, that Ria Bintan’s fame is deservedly built upon. The ocean reveals itself halfway down the seventh, a gorgeous downhill par-5. The eighth and the 10th, both par-4s, also feature the sea as a central component. The undoubted star though is the short ninth where the tee shot is played over an inlet to an undulating green backed by towering trees.