Seletar Country Club's Redesigned Course Can Still Bite Back

Scenic, Shorter And Playable, Seletar Country Club’s Redesigned Course Can Still Bite Back

- Natasha Wong

Consider it golfing evolution, as we witness a protracted season of changes to the Singapore golfing landscape. Jurong Country Club and the Raffles Country Club closed its doors, while some of Singapore’s best-loved courses underwent major renovations and redevelopment. Courses like the Tanjong Course at Sentosa, the Tampines Course and Garden Course at Tanah Merah, and the New Course at the Singapore Island Country Club have all undergone total revamps with completely new designs that bear little resemblance to their predecessors.

The pressure is on in this season of changes, with some of the redesigns facing challenges such as reduced land areas to work with, and water self-sustainability goals that require thoughtful planning on drainage and increasing water catchment capacity. Coupled with expectations that newer should be better, each renovation has fallen under the intense scrutiny of golfers even as each club tries to optimise the golfing experience for its players.

The Seletar Country Club (Seletar) was similarly presented with the challenge of having to redesign its course after losing 5-hectares of land in a negotiated lease extension plan. With more than half of the 18 holes in the earlier Chris Pittman course design affected by the area lost, the former course layout that was once rated among the top 5 courses in Singapore faced significant changes.