If you’re looking for the ultimate tropical golfing experience, you can’t go past mountain retreat Handara Golf & Resort Bali.
There are many golf courses on the blissful island of Bali, ranging from links-style nine-holers through to pedigree championship fairways, all set against beautiful tropical backdrops. However, if you’re headed to Bali with a few rounds in mind, you can’t look past Handara Golf & Resort Bali, the island’s Grande Dame course.
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While we all like the feel of a brand new golf course, there’s nothing like playing one that’s established, that’s surrounded by nature to the point that, in passing, you might not even know it’s a golf course at all. Handara Golf & Resort Bali is a little like that. Located near Bedugul in the centre of the island, this iconic course is tucked away deep within a valley and the only sign that there’s a world-class country club is the iconic Balinese gates at the street entrance.
But once players make their way down the winding two-kilometre entrance road, they’ll quickly become inspired by that sense of place that is central to the Handara experience. The island’s first to make the 50 Greatest Golf Courses of the World listing, the 18-hole par 72 championship course was designed by five-time British Open winner Peter Thomson, with contributions from Michael Wolveridge and Ronald Fream, and the result is a golf course that’s at once challenging and a joy to play.
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The first thing you’ll notice is the change in the climate. While the courses on the coast can be balmy, here in the Balinese highlands, the air is cool, and mist swirls and clings to the towering jungle-clad limestone peaks – the ruminants of a volcanic crater – that ring the course and which seem to tumble down to the very doorstep of the clubhouse.
Created in 1976 by Ibnu Sutowo, known as the father of golf in Indonesia, and named for his daughter, Handara initially found favour with the Japanese market thanks to a joint venture with Kosaido Club that led to the course being branded as Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club.
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The clubhouse, designed with 180-degree views over the course, is wreathed by rustic yet spacious colonial-esque cottages as well as a few newer and more luxurious Chalet rooms for guests looking to make their trip into the island’s interior an overnighter. Within the clubhouse, in addition to spacious changing rooms, a comprehensive pro shop, and light-filled entertaining and meeting spaces, there’s also the Soyokaze Restaurant and the Breeze Terrace, both as popular with locals and day-trippers as with players finishing a round with a bite to eat and a few well-earned Bintang beers.
Now, despite a rebranding to Handara Golf and Resort Bali in 2008 and a renovation in 2015 (partially to rebuild the east wing after a devastating mudslide destroyed it in 2012), the mountain climate isn’t easy on infrastructure so don’t expect the manicured fairways and pristine greens you’ll find in Nusa Dua and Sanur.
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Instead, you’ll find a course that’s deeply nestled in nature, with towering, mature trees lining the fairways, verdant tropical gardens ringing the cottages and clubhouse, and an ancient, vibrant jungle never far from sight. Pause for a second before teeing off and you’ll hear the hoot of monkeys and the calls of kingfishers and scarlet-headed flowerpeckers.
This is where the course’s experienced caddies come into play. Predominantly male, and many with enviable handicaps of their own, the caddies will help guide the uninitiated through the many dog-legged fairways and past the often-invisible water hazards that make the course one of the region’s most challenging.
While green maintenance could certainly be improved (although the heavy tropical downpours that assault the course on a regular basis do make this tricky), Handara does give players a truer sense of the authentic Bali golf experience, one that’s steeped in the island’s rich culture and history, and which delivers an excellent round that’s intrinsically linked to its location.
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