From the celebrated Sandbelt of Melbourne, Beyond RSGC now travels north to the island of Borneo. Our next stop takes us to Brunei Darussalam, where dense tropical rainforest rather than sandy heathland provides the setting for our featured reciprocal club. In Jerudong, amid rolling terrain, ravines and thick natural vegetation, lies the Royal Brunei Golf & Country Club — an 18-hole course where accuracy matters and the landscape is very much part of the challenge.
Designed by internationally recognised golf course architect Ronald Fream, the par-72 course winds through dense rainforest, using the natural rise and fall of the terrain to create a distinctly different golfing experience from the open Sandbelt landscape we explored in our previous issue. For RSGC Members travelling to Brunei, it offers something both geographically close to home and very different underfoot.
A ROYAL BEGINNING
Royal Brunei Golf & Country Club was officially opened in December 1989 by His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang DiPertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
Contemporary Brunei government records describe the course as occupying approximately 49 hectares at Jerudong Park, around 12 kilometres from Bandar Seri Begawan. Its official opening was followed by a tournament for the President Trophy, with members of Brunei’s Royal Family among the participants. From the beginning, however, the course itself was intended to provide a serious golfing test.
DESIGNED BY RONALD FREAM
The course was designed by American golf course architect Ronald Fream, whose international work spans numerous countries and climates. At Royal Brunei, the surrounding jungle became part of the architecture rather than something to be cleared away. The Club describes a course set among dense, lush rainforest, with rolling terrain divided by a natural ravine. Brunei Tourism goes further, describing narrow fairways, deep approach bunkers and numerous ravines across a layout filled with dips and elevations.
The result is a course where keeping the ball in play becomes part of the strategy. A wayward shot is not simply a matter of finding the rough. With thick tropical vegetation bordering parts of the course and changes in elevation influencing both stance and approach, accuracy and course management can matter considerably
A DIFFERENT KIND OF ROYAL COURSE
Royal Brunei presents a striking contrast to Royal Melbourne, our first Beyond RSGC destination. Where Melbourne’s Sandbelt is known for firm ground, broad strategic fairways and dramatic bunkering, Royal Brunei is shaped by tropical vegetation, tighter corridors and undulating terrain. Yet both demonstrate the same fundamental principle: memorable golf courses often take their character from the land on which they are built.
At Jerudong, that character is unmistakably Bornean. The rainforest frames the course, ravines interrupt the terrain and elevation changes ensure that golfers rarely encounter exactly the same challenge twice.
THE JERUDONG EXPERIENCE
The Club currently lists its course as 18 holes, par 72, with a rating of 72.0. It operates daily from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm, with a closure between 12.00 noon and 2.00 pm on Fridays for Friday prayers. Its Jerudong location also places it within one of Brunei’s principal leisure areas, making the course accessible for Members incorporating golf into a visit to the Sultanate. But this is not necessarily a course to approach casually.
The combination of narrow playing corridors, bunkering, ravines and changes in elevation means golfers may find that thoughtful positioning proves more valuable than simply reaching for the longest club in the bag. In other words: admire the rainforest, but try not to visit too much of it.
WHY ROYAL BRUNEI?
Part of the pleasure of reciprocal golf is discovering how differently the game can be presented from one destination to another. Royal Brunei Golf & Country Club offers RSGC Members the opportunity to experience golf in a distinctly tropical setting: a course woven through rainforest, shaped by natural terrain and designed to test accuracy as much as distance.
It is also a reminder that some memorable golfing experiences need not require travelling halfway around the world. Across the South China Sea, another Royal club awaits. And that is precisely what Beyond RSGC is about.
