New Bali golfcourse offers Challenge, recreation<\/p>\n
By Arif Suryobuwono<\/p>\n
TABANAN, BALI (JP): The Tanah Lot temple will eventually have
\na state-of-the-art neighbor, whose presence kindled a great deal
\nof controversy last year due to its close proximity to the Hindu
\nsanctuary, considered as one of the six most holy temples in
\nBali.<\/p>\n
Unlike this seawater-abraded temple of the Tabanan regency,
\nwhich has poisonous black sea snakes as its guards, the neighbor,
\na 60-hectare golf course, will have satpam (security officers)
\nwatchful at its gateways.<\/p>\n
And while the Balinese traditionally frequent the mossy
\nseaside temple with offerings to the gods, people next door will
\nbe busily swinging clubs, hitting white balls, searching where
\nthey land and driving them into one of the 18 holes of the par-72
\nlinks with a four-hectare driving range.<\/p>\n
The layout is part of the 121-hectare Bali Nirwarna Resort,
\nwhich will boast a five-star, 292-room hotel, 190 timeshare
\nsuits, 316 resort homes, 152 villas, a thalassotherapy spa, four
\noutdoor tennis courts, two badminton courts and two air-
\nconditioned squash courts.<\/p>\n
What's unusual in the new course is the use of rice terraces
\nas roughs. World number two golfer, Greg Norman, might have been
\nthinking of the 12th hole at the Augusta National Golf Club
\nCourse in Augusta, Georgia, when he designed the course's 163-
\nmeter 12th.<\/p>\n
They are both short par 3, though Augusta's, covering a length
\nof 141.7 meter, is shorter.<\/p>\n
Both are also situated in the west but the Balinese hole will
\noffer more breathtaking sunsets since golfers overlook the Indian
\nOcean, with the Tanah Lot temple about 500 meters in front of it,
\na little to the left.<\/p>\n
While the American hole boasts \"hidden hazards\", its Balinese
\ncounterpart, with the deceitful rise and fall of the wind, caused
\nby the trees on the hillside behind the green and tee shots over
\nthe windy Indian Ocean, will by no means be less notorious.<\/p>\n
What could make the 163-meter 12th hole more harrowing is the
\nthree to five-meter high sloping coastline, bordering the river
\nmouth which tears apart the 12th's narrow putting surface from
\nits cliff-top green.<\/p>\n
If completed by the middle of next year, the Bali Nirwarna
\nResort Golf Course will be the fourth course in Bali after the
\nBali Handara Course in Bedugul, the Bali Golf and Country Club in
\nNusa Dua and the Denpasar Golf Club in Denpasar.<\/p>\n
And it will also be the fifth course in Indonesia designed by
\nNorman. The other four are the recently completed Riverside
\nCourse in Bogor, the Dago Pakar Resort in Bandung, West Java and
\nthe Tering Bay Resort on Batam island.<\/p>\n
Joint venture<\/p>\n
The US$324 million Bali Nirwarna Resort is 20 percent owned by
\nthe Bakrie Investindo and Bakrie Nusantara Corp. Both are
\nsubsidiaries of the widely-diversified, Jakarta-based Bakrie
\nGroup. Its British partner, Timeswitch Investment Limited, owns
\nthe remaining 80 percent.<\/p>\n
Norman, tight-lipped when asked how much he was paid for the
\ndesign, said that in his design, he tried to make sure of the
\nbalance of the 18 holes. He added that he had a strong belief in
\nmaintaining the environment the best he could.<\/p>\n
John A. Pirtle III, the resort's president director, told The
\nJakarta Post that the course is now being constructed at a cost
\nof US$12 million, exclusively of land appropriation, by PT Flora
\nTjipta Sarana, a subsidiary of real estate developer PT Bangun
\nTjipta Sarana.<\/p>\n
The entire resort complex will be completed by November or
\nDecember next year and the construction of the hotel will be
\nstarted no later than April next year, Pirtle added.<\/p>\n
Pirtle said the course's membership fee has not yet been
\ndetermined but it would perhaps amount to about US$4,000 a year
\nto make it as competitive as that of other golf courses in
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Furor<\/p>\n
The resort's development, started with a ground-breaking
\nceremony in November 1993, was halted following a furor raised by
\nstudents of the local state-run university Udayana on Jan. 20
\nlast year.<\/p>\n
Development was finally resumed last September after the
\ngovernment, the Golkar ruling party and the Armed Forces faction
\nat the House of Representatives supported the project, saying
\nthat opposition to the project had been stirred by rival
\ninvestors and had been highly politicized.<\/p>\n
Anton Setianto, president of Bakrie Investindo, said the
\nproject had obtained a land use permit, certificates of analysis
\nof the environmental impacts and an analysis of the social
\nimpacts.<\/p>\n
\"Results of those analyses have been approved by the
\nIndonesian Hindu Council,\" Setianto added.<\/p>\n
Pirtle assured that the course as well as the entire resort is
\nenvironmentally friendly. Around 60 percent of the resort will be
\nan open-spaced area and the 20-hectare of original rice terraces
\nwill remain on the course, where local farmers will be allowed to
\ntend and harvest them, he said.<\/p>\n
Pirtle said water for irrigating the course would come from
\nseveral creeks which run through the course and from the sewage
\ntreatment plant which would produce almost clear water.<\/p>\n
According to Pirtle there used to be no people living on the
\nsite but farmers regularly came to tend the paddies. Pirtle said
\nhe did not know how many farmers had been out of work because of
\nthe project. More than 200 people own the rice fields there.<\/p>\n
Tabanan regent I Komang Wijana said the rice fields
\ntransferred to the Bakrie Group were unproductive and considered
\nless profitable.<\/p>\n
\"From one-hectare rice field, people invested Rp 350,000
\n($158.5) to earn only about Rp 1 million. It is not really worth
\nthe effort,\" Wijana said.<\/p>\n
Wijana said owners of the site were happy with the presence of
\nthe resort project because it increased their land value.<\/p>\n
\"Prior to the project, their land value was only Rp 130,000
\nper are (100 square meters), or Rp 1,300 per square meter. The
\nproject enables them to sell their land at Rp 4 million per are,
\nor Rp 40,000 per square meter,\" said Wijana.<\/p>\n
However, eight hectares of the site, which is owned by 49
\nfamilies, has yet to be released for the project due to a
\ndisagreement on price, Setianto said.<\/p>\n
Hartawan, the project's assistant landscape coordinator, said
\nthe land overlaps the adjacent land belonging to PT Lembah Tanah
\nLot Permai, another company which has also planned to build a
\nchampionship golf course.<\/p>\n
There are still two other investors eager to build resorts in
\nnearby areas, a staffer of Tabanan regent, who requested
\nanonymity, winked.<\/p>",
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