Raffles Country Club (Palm course): Named after Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore, Raffles Country Club boasts two excellent and contrasting 18-hole championship layouts. (Sadly both courses will close by July 2018 - see Did You Know section below). The Palm course is marginally the tighter and tougher of the two, laid out on gently contoured terrain with many challenging questions posed, especially from the tee.

How to negotiate the many small lakes and ponds on the Palm course is perhaps the key issue, while excellent bunkering around the greens will also need to be avoided. Although there are more trees here than on the companion Lake course, the Palm's layout remains relatively open, with several nicely elevated tee-boxes giving a good view of the hole ahead.

Within this very attractive and well-maintained parkland environment, the closing stretch of holes is perhaps the best. A wonderful area of protected jungle lines the rightside of the course from the par-4 15th, with an attractive water feature gracing the area around the tee-box of the par-3 17th. The par-4 18th opens up a wonderful view onto the large and expansive Tengeh Reservoir (alongside which much of the Lake course is laid out).

The usually top-quality greens come in all shapes and sizes, several presenting a relatively small target, not least the green at the short par-3 3rd - no more than 10 yards wide at its widest point! The par-3 12th is another gem, protected by water on three sides and a large shallow back-bunker. Although traffic noise invades one or two holes at the close of the front-nine, this is not to detract from the overall excellence of this layout and your enjoyment of this very good golf course.