Eighteen courses on an island one tenth the size of Melbourne.
Add polo fields and race-tracks for a green paradise.
Duplicate nature of the Anglo-French kind.
Many here, certainly the best, pass under the name of Country Clubs.
Two percent of Singapore’s land area.
Eleven private ($223k for the Singapore Island Country Club; $5k for Changi); thirty thousand total membership.
One single 18 hole public course.
Mr. Malayu from the Haig Road blocks was quizzed impromptu on his way to market this morning.
— How many golf courses in Singapore, Mr. Malayu?
Brief pause with the lively Hindi music from the speakers outside Labu Labi, while the man, retired primary school teacher in his mid-seventies, card-carrying PAP member, screwed on his thinking-cap.
— I think one.
Left without a lollie.
Some of the courses were under threat currently because of housing pressures, upcoming leases not renewed. A canny captain of one such establishment knew to raise green/enviro concerns.
One needs to pinch oneself every so often to return to the present place/time in Lion City, Singapura, bless them. Ninety odd percent humidity most days, torture skipping between the covered walkways.
Sunday Times, 3 February 2013
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