Malacca Golf Courses

A'Famosa Golf & Country Club

A'Famosa Golf Resort is a Malaysia golf course with full resort facilities. This Malaysia golf course is located 1 hour south of Kuala Lumpur and is within easy reach of Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. The 27-hole parkland style golf course comprises three very good quality nine-hole loops, with a unique Ross Watson design. A’Famosa hosted the Malaysian Amateur Open Golf Championship in 2011.

Each of the three nines is uniquely crafted to take advantage of the terrain’s natural contours. Set in an environment of lakes, tropical flora and beautiful landscaping, golfers are faced with a delightful yet challenging layout. A'Famosa Golf Resort consists of the Rockies, Crocodile and Palm nines.

The Rockies nine is sprinkled with attractive boulder outcrops. As expected there are plenty of coconut palms on the Palm course, and the Crocodile nine has its very own crocodile home. With constant but gentle elevation changes, high-quality bunkering and strategically contoured fairways, this is an enjoyable yet challenging Malacca golf course. A’Famosa is usually well maintained and in good condition for Malaysia golf enthusiasts.

The Palm golf course is arguably the most attractive and scenic nine, with a wonderful array of impressively designed holes. The tree-lined earth mounding that flank the fairways is frequently home to clusters of pot bunkers, complementing the bunkering around the often elevated greens of this wonderful Malaysia golf course.

The Rockies and Crocodile nines share the same impressive design characteristics, although with less water in play on the Rockies course. There is a slightly more open aspect on some of the Crocodile holes, from which you can inspect several of the other resort activities along the way. Just beyond the island green of the par-4 7th, is the pit where a couple of hungry crocs hang-out. The Rockies and Palm combination is generally used for tournaments played at A'Famosa Resort in Malaysia.

This Malaysia golf course clubhouse has spacious changing room, a business center, pro shop and excellent food and beverage outlets like Golfer's Terrace and Bonus Café. The Clubhouse also boasts a well-stocked pro shop.

Ayer Keroh Country Club

Ayer Keroh Country Club (AKCC) was carved out of virgin jungle and opened for play in 1964. It was designed by a team led by Tun Abdul Ghaffar Bin Baba, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Chief Minister of Malacca, and a golfing aficionado. The Malacca golf course is located right off the north-south highway and even has its own interchange.  AKCC has hosted a number of major professional golf tournaments, the most prestigious being the 1989 Malaysian Open.

Ayer Keroh Country Club is well laid out, attractive and challenging. The original course consisted of two nines, known as Tunku's and Ghaffar's nines. A third nine (Governors) was added in the mid-1990. The three nines hug a lake known as the Ayer Keroh Lake which comes into play on quite a few holes.  The course has matured well and stands a testament to what can be done with the right support and attention to detail.

Of the three nine-hole loops, the Governor and Tunkus provide the best combination and play in a natural jungle-lined environment.  Maintenance is top notch with fairways a joy to hit from. Most holes are well defined with thick vegetation and many trees lining the fairways and occasionally in the middle of them. However, sand is only used sparsely used at this Malaysia golf course and those areas where it is present are almost always in the form of greenside bunkers.

Ayer Keroh has its fair share of obstacles at strategic places, but the course is notorious for the jungle that lines both sides of almost every fairway and unmercifully punishes each and every wayward shot. On a few holes the tee-shots will feel quite tight (especially on Ghaffar's nine), although more breathing space and a slightly more open aspect also features in the layout.

The forests and tall trees give a sense of coolness to Ayer Keroh. This very pleasant and quiet area of  jungle contains many elevation changes which provide considerable charm and variety to each hole. The undulations on the golf course are mirrored in the contouring of the greens, with some slopes as testing and slippery as they come.  Of the many memorable holes is the dogleg 6th, where a perfect drive will land you in the jungle.  The final test comes at the long par-5 closing hole on Tunku’s nine, a mere 604 meters and one of the longest par-5 in Malaysia.

The Malacca golf course is home to troops of macaque and dusky-leaf monkeys so caution should be observed if straying too far from ones valuables. Caddies are available and usually assigned one per foursome. They are very helpful when reading putts and judging distances.

With good maintenance throughout and many beautifully jungle-lined holes, don't miss out on Ayer Keroh when golfing in Malacca! Ayer Keroh is a joy to play.

Gemas Golf Resort

Gemas Golf Resort is located 30 minutes from Malacca at the northern border of Johor, south-west of Gemas train station. The Malaysia golf course is also accessible from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur in 2 hours.

The developers of the Gemas Golf Resort have shown that a golf course can be built in an environmentally friendly manner.  Every tree on the golf course was identified and labeled during construction. Every indigenous species of tree is now retained on the fairway and along the course perimeter.

Officially opened in 1996, the 18-hole golf course is surrounded by the Gemas forest reserve and Mitnas oil palm plantation and provides very natural surroundings for golf in Malaysia. It is not surprising to hear or even spot monkeys and other animals from the forest reserve wondering to the fringe of the golf course.

Gemas Golf resort is one of the hillier Malaysia golf courses. Both front and back nines play to an identical distance of 2,852 meters from blue tees. The front nine is hillier with water and sand hazards being almost non-existent.  The exception is the par-4 ninth where a bunker is situated between two trees to trap drives of approximately 190 meters from tee.

Water and sand hazards become more prominent on the back nine of the Gemas course.  On the par-5 16th, a carry of 200 meters from tee box is required to ensure that your ball does not get stuck in the banks of the lake.

Other notable holes include the par-3 eighth which requires a long iron or rescue wood to hit the green 163 meters away. The longest par-4 is the 14th. Playing at over 430 meters, a bogey is a good score here. The most difficult hole is the par-5 seventh. A slight dog left it is a undulating and slopping left uphill to the green.  The green is located at the top of a steep gradient hill.

The 3-storey clubhouse houses a small hotel, meeting and function room, a golfers' terrace & restaurant, and locker rooms.  While it is adequate for a small town golf course resort, it is not as impressive as the bigger and more modern clubhouses at other Malacca golf courses. Bare patches on some fairways and a few greens could be improved too. Nevertheless golfing at Gemas Golf Resort is an enjoyable and interesting Malaysia golf experience.

Orna Golf & Country Club

Orna Golf & Country Club (OGCC) is located on an undulating site 25 minutes from Malacca.

Orna Golf & Country Club has gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the most challenging golf courses in West Malaysia since it opened for play in late 1997.  The 27-hole Malacca golf course has hosted numerous professional events and is a regular fixture for the Asian Tour qualifying school.

Comprising three nine-hole loops - East (Holes 1 - 9), West ( Holes 10 - 18) and North (Holes 19 - 27), American Andy Dye's sweeping creation is characterized by heavily mounded fairways, significant elevation changes, large waste bunkers, and lakes and creeks that bisect many holes. Trees and jungle vegetation feature less than on most other Malaysian golf courses. The generous width fairways offer something of a big-hitter's paradise, but key challenges at Orna are to be found around the well-protected greens. The greens themselves are undulated with many roller-coaster slopes that getting down in two often difficult.

Orna Golf & Country Club three nine-hole loops play away from and back towards the clubhouse. The championship combination of the East and West Courses weighs in at a super heavy weight length of 6,697 meters. This combination has parallel finishing holes, played either side of a small lake, with Dye's most spectacular earth mounding on show just beneath the stylish and large red-roofed clubhouse.

The East Course measures 3297 meters and challenges golfers with a healthy dose of water. One of the highlights here is the par-5 7th, a double dogleg right that tempts long hitters to cut across the dogleg and the lake to attack the green in two.

The West Course is the longest of the three nines, measuring a back breaking 3400 meters. This tract includes the signature hole. The 183 meter par-3 12th plays from elevated tees to small island-green and demands tee shot accuracy to have any chance for par. Another gem is the unconventional par-5 16th. This hole has a split fairway that allows golfers to hit left or right of a small lake that runs from tee-to-green. The elevated green if reached at the end of the lake.

The North Course is designed to be the shortest and easiest of the three, but golfers will be well advised not to under estimate the 2911 meter length as it is no pushover.

The entire West Course (Holes 10 - 18) as well as the last holes of the East Course (Hole 9) and North Course (Hole 27) are fully lit for late tee-off starts and night golfing.

The OGCC clubhouse is its unique clubhouse, undoubtedly one of the most distinctive looking in the country. Recreational facilities include a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, and tennis courts and karaoke rooms. The on-site Chinese restaurant serves high-end Chinese cuisine with great views of the golf course, albeit with no pork on the menu. Other facilities include a golfer’s terrace, on-course kiosks, locker rooms, and pro shop, all of which are only average.

Tiara Melaka Golf & Country Club

Within its 27-hole layout, Tiara Melaka contains the superb Woodlands-nine, as good a nine-hole loop of undulating, through the jungle golf as you'll find anywhere. With dense jungle lining the way, and a few monkeys probably looking on, this immensely attractive rain forest environment contains many pleasantly undulating and very picturesque holes.

The par-4 3rd is a challenging gem, requiring a strategic decision on the tee, either lay-up and leave a longer approach shot, or drive over a stream that diagonally crosses the fairway, with a tall cluster of trees as your marker. The Meadow-nine gives solid support to the Woodlands; although very well laid out, it doesn't quite provide the same level of naturalness or tropical scenery. The best stretch of holes on the Meadow-nine are the final three, with plenty of water to be crossed, towering trees to be avoided (on the fairway at 17 !) and a fairway hugging lake to be avoided all the way along the rightside of the 18th.

The Lakes-nine, although containing some enjoyable and testing holes, is not quite in the same league as the Woodlands or Meadow, the combination on which most tournaments are played. Although the immaculate greens are large (occasionally huge), the fairways vary from good-width to testingly tight. Maintenance at Tiara Melaka is generally good, although if improved a few notches, this is a layout that could challenge for top honours amongst Malaysia's very best.