Golf Courses in Bali

Bali golf course map

Golf in Bali

Bali is a province of Indonesia, an island roughly the size of Delaware, where Hindu temples, rice terraces and coastline all sit within an hour of each other. Ngurah Rai International in Denpasar takes direct flights from most of Asia and from Australia, and the island runs on UTC+8.

Golf here works differently from the rest of Southeast Asia. There are not many courses — four you can play today — but each one sits somewhere completely different: on a cliff above the ocean, beside the beach, and inside a volcanic caldera 1,100 metres up.

It is also not an island people fly to only for golf. Most visitors play eighteen in the morning and spend the afternoon at the beach or a spa, and the courses are set up so that this works.

Two kinds of course: the southern cliffs and the northern highlands

As the map above shows, three of the four courses cluster on the Bukit Peninsula in the south, and Handara sits alone in the mountains to the north. Handara takes longer to reach than the distance suggests, because the road climbs — judging it by the straight line on a map will mislead you.

Visitors stay in Nusa Dua, Kuta, Seminyak and Uluwatu, all in the south, and three courses are 20 to 30 minutes from the airport. You can have breakfast first and still make your tee time.

Handara is 2 to 3 hours away. The climate up there is unrecognisably cooler and worth the trip, but a day return means half your day is spent in the car.

The dry season, April to October, is the time to come

Bali has a tropical monsoon climate and averages around 28 degrees year-round. The dry season runs April to October, and July to September is the most settled stretch of it.

November to March is the wet season, but it does not rain all day. It arrives as an afternoon squall, which means a morning tee time plays fine even in the wet season. That is why every local booking service pushes early starts.

Handara is the exception. Cloud gathers on the mountain even when the south is clear, and at 14 to 24 degrees you will want something to put on.

What has changed recently

Ask how many golf courses Bali has and you will be told three, four or five depending on where you look. There is a reason the number moves.

Nirwana Bali Golf Club at Tanah Lot and Bali National Golf Club in Nusa Dua have both closed. Both were long regarded as the island’s flagship courses — Nirwana was a Greg Norman design, Bali National had the best address in Nusa Dua — and articles and tour operator pages about them are still everywhere. Top 100 Golf Courses lists both as Closed.

If a booking site still lists them, you still cannot play them. Bali National in particular is well enough known that people still turn up at the gate.

The other reason is Bali Beach Golf Course in Sanur. It has nine holes and only opens in the mornings, so some writers do not count it alongside the eighteen-hole courses. This page counts four and says which is which.

Against those closures, Bukit Pandawa opened in October 2016. An all-par-3 layout was a first for Bali, and the short round has found an audience among people combining golf with everything else the island offers. Bali’s golf is not growing in number so much as sorting itself by how you want to spend the day.

What is different from golf at home

Four things tend to surprise first-time visitors.

• Every player gets a caddie. This is standard, not an upgrade. Carts are shared two to a buggy.
• You play straight through. No lunch break at the turn — eighteen holes runs about four and a half hours start to finish.
• The caddie tip is separate from the green fee. You hand it over directly after the round. Published guidance ranges from 150,000 to 350,000 rupiah for eighteen holes.
• Two-balls are fine. There is no requirement to make up a fourball.

Green fees normally include the caddie and the cart. Dress code is more relaxed than in Japan or Korea, but a collared shirt is required and a round-neck T-shirt will be turned away.

Clubs and shoes can be rented at every course, so travelling without them is realistic. Left-handed and ladies’ sets are the exception — stock is thin, so ask ahead.

Distances are marked in different units depending on the course. Some use yards, some metres. Check the cart display before you tee off and you will not be second-guessing club selection on the first hole.

Beginners are fine. With a caddie each, pace of play is managed for you. Caddies speak limited English, but they are reliable on club selection and yardage and gestures carry the rest.

Comparing the four courses

Price level is relative within Bali. Actual rates move with the day, the time and the season — check the booking page for each course. Travel times swing with traffic; the south of the island seizes up in the late afternoon, so allow for the return journey if you tee off after lunch.

How to choose

By view: cliffs or caldera

New Kuta and Bukit Pandawa both sit on the limestone cliffs of the Bukit Peninsula, with the Indian Ocean in view throughout. If the sea is what you came for, it is one of those two.

Handara is a different thing entirely — mountains on all sides, and nothing about it looks like the Bali people picture. The frequent comment that it does not feel like the same island is fair.

By time: eighteen proper holes, or par 3s

For a full round, New Kuta or Handara. To be finished by lunch and out doing something else, Bukit Pandawa.

Bukit Pandawa is done in about two hours, which is exactly right for some people and leaves others wanting more golf. Worth knowing before you book rather than after.

By where you are staying: the drive matters

From Nusa Dua, Kuta or Jimbaran, New Kuta and Bukit Pandawa are both within half an hour. Getting to the three southern courses is easy by rental car, taxi or a ride-hailing app such as Grab or Gojek.

Handara is effectively outside ride-hailing coverage, and you may not find a car for the return leg. Arrange a rental or a driver. A day trip means leaving before six in the morning, so staying on site the night before is the easier way to do it.

By what you want out of the day

The courses you can play in Bali

In order of standing. Rates move with the day, the time and the season, so use the booking link on each course to see what is actually available. Booking online is cheaper than turning up and paying at the counter.

• 18 holes / par 72
• Pecatu, Uluwatu — about 20 minutes from the airport
• Opened 2007, designed by Golfplan
• Round takes about 4 hours 30 minutes

The first true links layout built in Indonesia. It sits on limestone cliffs with almost no tree cover, so there is nothing between the fairway and the sea, and reading the wind decides the round more than anything else does.

Five sets of tees (Monkey, Tiger, Cobra, Dragon, Eagle) run from roughly 4,917 to 6,713 metres, which means a group with mixed handicaps can play together without anyone having a miserable afternoon. The 15th, called The Cliff Hanger, opens onto 240 degrees of ocean. Links Magazine named it Best New International Course in 2008.

• 18 holes / par 72
• Bedugul, northern highlands — 2 to 3 hours from the airport
• Opened 1976, designed by Thomson, Wolveridge and Fream
• Round takes about 4 hours 30 minutes

Bali’s first golf resort, laid out inside the caldera of an extinct volcano at 1,142 metres. The temperature sits between 14 and 24 degrees. On a day when the south of the island is over 30, you may want a layer here.

The course runs about 6,893 metres from the blue tees. Elevation change, mountain wind, thick rough and narrow fairways combine into one of the harder tests in Asia, and Golf Magazine has listed it among the 50 Greatest Golf Courses in the World. The 3rd, a 435-yard par 4 called Stone Bridge, drops steeply, turns ninety degrees right, and puts a river across the fairway.

Check the opening hours before you go. Tuesday to Sunday the course opens at 6:30, but Monday it does not open until 10:00. There is accommodation on site, and given the drive, staying the night before is the sensible way to play it.

• 18 holes / par 54 — every hole a par 3
• Kutuh, Bukit Peninsula — about 30 minutes from the airport
• Opened October 2016, designed by Bob Moore
• Round takes about 2 hours

The newest course on the island. All eighteen holes are par 3s, 2,767 metres from the black tees, and a round is over in roughly two hours.

That is the design, not a shortcoming. Playing in the morning and spending the afternoon at the beach is the point. What it asks for is iron accuracy and a read on the wind rather than distance. The 13th, about 148 yards, is the hole people photograph: three bunkers, a curving stone wall, and the Indian Ocean behind it.

• 9 holes / par 36 — about 3,250 yards
• Sanur — about 25 minutes from the airport
• Mornings only, first tee at 7:00
• Round takes about 2 hours

A nine-hole course in Sanur, close to Denpasar and about 25 minutes from the airport, which makes it the option when half a day comes free. Guests at the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel get a discount.

It is not comparable to the eighteen-hole courses.