New Dawn at New Kuta

It’s hard to believe that when you turn off Uluwatu Highway and pass through the gate at New Kuta Golf Club there’s a religious experience at the end of the road — and it’s got nothing to do with Shiva, the Ramayana or a beach break par excellence.
The three-kilometer-long drive that leads steeply downhill to a clifftop overlooking Balangan Beach in surf-blessed, spiritually rich Bali is a curious five-minute journey. When I visited in January, the aged concrete path was potholed and pebbly. Cows were grazing in palm-tree framed pastures that flanked either side. Nowhere along the first kilometer or two was there sign of what lied ahead — further down the drive and in New Kuta’s future.
For those who have followed the development of this project on the Island of the Gods, the scene probably wouldn’t come as a surprise. Construction on its centrepiece — an 18-hole Golfplan-designed course — began in 1994 but idled for years after 1998, when the country’s president was ousted from power. Eight years passed before a finger was laid on it again.
But when work did resume, it was both serious and skillful. The results prove it. What sits on that balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean now is nothing short of dazzling — one imaginative hole after another, each a chapter in a story that’s been waiting to be told for almost 15 years.
“There’s no question this course has been a long time coming,” admits Stephen Banks, who moved from Vietnam to Bali in November to assume the role of general manager at New Kuta Golf Club. “But it was worth the wait. The seventh is a good example of what makes it remarkable: From a forward tee, the hole is a difficult but manageable par-4 that just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. From the tips, it’s a par-4 that will test the best players on earth.”
At the end of February, it did just that. That’s when 144 players from the European and Asian tours convened at New Kuta Golf Club for the co-sanctioned Indonesian Open. By press time, the tournament was a few days from commencement. But that didn’t prevent Banks, a British PGA Professional, from predicting how events might shake down.