Capital Greens

The Road South

Undeniably, Indonesia is a country blessed with spectacular scenery, and volcanoes, rivers and plantations provide the backdrop for a number of stunning courses in and around Bogor, a hill town 50 kilometres to the south of the city. Layouts such as Emealda, Permata Sentul and Jagorawi and are set out over manicured, undulating terrain, a contrast to the flatter layouts around suburban Jakarta.

Emeralda is one of the first courses you reach along the Jagorawi Toll Road and offers 27 pleasing holes designed by two legends of the game; Arnold Palmer was the man responsible for the championship Lake/River layout while Jack Nicklaus contributed the Plantation nine.

While Emeralda was built with tournament golf in mind – the club has hosted several Indonesian Opens and boasts a vast clubhouse reminiscent of many you find at upscale resorts across the border in southern China – it offers enough margin of error to be enjoyed by all but the most wayward. Excellent year-round conditioning makes Palmer's pitched greens a handful, however, and even the members say that chipping from below the hole is a far more preferable option than trying to two-putt from above it.

Permata Sentul, a further 20 kilometres to the south, plays over two separate loops of nine that wind around a forested hillside, in some ways reminiscent of the Eden Course at the Hong Kong Golf Club. It comes as no surprise to learn that both courses were the work of five-time Open champion Peter Thomson and his design team.

The back nine is laid out on higher ground and has the more memorable holes, with most lined by trees and several requiring shots over rice paddies and ravines. There are some spectacular views, most notably from the tee on the par-three 15th. This is not a bombers’ course and a three-wood or long iron is often the smart play to give yourself a full pitch shot into the small contoured greens. Another quirk which may not be to everyone’s liking is a sequence of three par-threes in the space of four holes around the turn.

What the course does offer is fresher air due to its elevation, a memorable test, and some of the friendliest caddies around. The course finishes with a gorgeous sweeping par-five, surrounded by mature trees, a setting that resembles a grand old English country estate.

In between Emeralda and Permata Sentul lies the grand old dame of Javanese Golf – Jagorawi. Its two Peter Thomson-designed layouts – the Old and the New courses – are among the most splendidly landscaped in the land and although neither can be described as long, especially by modern standards, both require a cooperative driver and finesse if good scoring is to be achieved. A members' club in the true sense of the term, Jagorawi is strictly private. The club does have a reciprocal arrangement with Clearwater Bay however.