BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Scary triangle or not, getting lost here is a golfer's dream come true as we explore the blue skies and seas of golfing in Bermuda Island.

- BENNY TEO

Bermuda is a thin strip of land in the Western Atlantic Ocean, some 650 miles from the nearest point of land at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, USA. Viewed from the air or on a map, the island looks like a fishhook or maybe a scorpion, with the stinging tail being at Bermuda's West End where the Royal Naval Dockyards are.

It is just 20 miles long and only two miles wide at its widest point. That such a small island should contain five 18-hole championship golf courses, plus an 18-hole executive Par 3 course, an 18-hole par 62 course and a 9-hole course, is quite amazing and it is, quite rightly, Bermuda's claim that they have more golf courses per square mile than any other country in the world, not even in Singapore.

They also have lots of tiny little islands, some inhabited, some not, that create coves, harbours and sounds around the mainland which makes for some stunningly beautiful views, particularly that of Great Sound and Hamilton Harbour from the first tee at the Newstead Belmont Hills Golf Resort.

Belmont Hills is a very beautiful little course, measuring just over 6,100 yards, par 69 from the very back tees. Even so, it is quite challenging with some tight tee shots and extremely difficult greens likened to those at Augusta National by none other than three-time Masters champion, Nick Faldo, who has visited many times and incidentally also owns property in Bermuda.

Tacking those difficult greens can start as early as the first hole here at Belmont -a downhill 339-yard par 4 that shares a huge double green with the 10th, another short downhill par four. Hit your approach way right on the first or way left on the latter and you will likely find yourself sta ding over a huge putt well over 100 feet. Two putt from there and you can walk off the green feeling very proud to have achieved a par.