LAGUNA BINTAN
Even the best golf course would suffer by comparison to nearby Ria Bintan and there is no disguising the fact that this Greg Norman layout is overshadowed by its immaculate neighbour. Taken on its own merits, however, there’s a lot to admire about this attractive and challenging course.
After a relatively nondescript start, the layout begins to come into its own on the par-4 third which features an intimidating drive over a gully and a rocky flowerbed to an uphill fairway that narrows and snakes slightly rightwards towards a small green. The following par-3 fourth is another beauty, with the shallow, heavily bunkered green requiring a tee shot of pinpoint accuracy over another jungle-clad ravine.
Like at Ria Bintan, the holes on which the ocean makes an appearance are the standout challenges. Here, the first sight of the brine comes on the seventh, a long downhill par-4. Meanwhile, the short eighth which is played across a rock-strewn beach to a slightly hidden, elevated green could give Ria Bintan’s famous ninth a run for its money.
The second nine is less eventful. However, the long 16th is a great driving hole with bunkers to the right and water to the left waiting to entrap anything even marginally errant.
BINTAN LAGOON
The two standout courses at Bintan Lagoon, one designed by Jack Nicklaus, the other by Ian Baker-Finch, complement Ria and Laguna perfectly and undoubtedly cement Bintan’s status as one of the region’s premier golfing destinations.
Nicklaus’s effort, the Sea View, could be described as a tropical seaside course. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the gently lapping tepid waves of the South China Sea and the presence of coconut palms, you might say that some holes have characteristics of links golf. Of these, the 12th – a tough par-3 with an ocean backdrop – is the pick. Also notable is the split green on the 13th where a stream separates two sections of putting surface.
If anything, Baker-Finch’s Woodlands course is the stronger of the two layouts. It is shorter in length, but the encroaching thick jungle that lines practically every hole makes pinpoint driving accuracy an imperative. The eighth, a long par-5 which extends down from an elevated tee and features a lake, penal bunkers and a solitary tree in the middle of the fairway, is arguably the finest of many thought-provoking holes here.
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