Jababeka Golf & Country Club: The World's Toughest Golf Course

Fri, 15 Jul 2005

You cannot consider yourself a true golfer unless you have visited Jababeka Golf & Country Club. Easily accessible from Jakarta at a distance of only 31 kilometers by toll road in the direction of Cikampek, which you can cover in just 45 minutes by car, this 18-hole golf course, designed by Nick Faldo, offers you a beautiful panorama. Golfers from many countries across the world had their own first-hand experience of this golf course when they took part in the international golf tournament here, the Jababeka Olympic Open 2002, from July 30 to August 3, 2005.

Measuring some 67 hectares in area and 7,230 yards in length, the golf course has unique but challenging features. Before a golfer can hit the ball from the tee box to the green, he must brave hard challenges. Unless he hits home, the ball will not fall at the right spot.

Professional golfers like the golf course very much, given the beautiful surroundings, its eight-hectare lake and the highly challenging level of difficulty it offers. It is no exaggeration, therefore, that it has been dubbed "The World's Toughest Golf Course".

In the final analysis, golfing is not just a matter of sport. It is more sophisticated than just a mere branch of sport. Golf includes sportsmanship and business, as well as fun during your holiday. The golf carts are manned by female caddies, who are required to put up their makeup when they are on the golf course.

This golf course, at the same time a sports landmark in Cikarang, is provided with a driving range, a clubhouse, a pro shop, an international-caliber restaurant with 300 seats and a function room. For your information, a driving range is also found in Jababeka area, located between Plaza JB Jababeka and The Capitol. This arena also has top facilities, such as a clubhouse, a restaurant and a parlor for massage and reflexology treatment.

A golf course is an important facility in Jababeka City as it complements a classy lifestyle in an area where beautiful nature is highly regarded. The Jababeka Golf & Country Club was built between 1994 and 1996 at a cost of some US$13 million. This cost covered the construction of a clubhouse, but not the plot of land.

"It has been built to lure CEOs who have offices around the Jababeka industrial estate. It will be a magnet of sorts to them," said Setyono Djuandi Darmono, president director of PT Jababeka Cikarang Tbk.

More apparently, the Jababeka Golf & Country Club serves three functions for Jababeka: (1) as a corporate flag-carrier (2) as a valuable land asset and (3) as a business network. In view of these three functions, the image of Jababeka as a residential estate for the middle-class up with a comfortable and beautiful environment will become much stronger. Some businesspeople can make use of their golfing hobby to expand their business network. "Japanese companies require their employees to play golf as they can do business through golfing," Darmono said.

This dream is no exaggeration, indeed. Today, this golf course, which has been given a rating of 73 by the Indonesian Golf Association (PGI), is one of the favorite golf courses among Indonesian golf enthusiasts. No fewer than 3,000 golfers play here every month. Most of them come from Jababeka area, including expatriates from Japan, Korea and Europe.

Industrial Estate, Central Business District, Educational Park

A grander dream, and the process is under way to make this dream a reality, is to make the New Cikarang Green City, now called Jababeka City, a self-supporting city built with a residential concept as neat as that of Hong Kong or Singapore. This area, established on January 12, 1989, is an integrated industrial estate.

The publicly listed company managing this area has seen its ups and downs. Excessive expansion and the unfavorable macro- economic condition culminating in the monetary crisis made the company sustain about $300 million in bank debts. To be financially sound, the company had 70 percent of these loans, handled by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), converted into the majority shares (90 percent) of this bank consortium.

The typhoon was over. On this 3,000-hectare plot of land you can now find 1,113 companies, including multinational corporations. These companies, generally making Jababeka their industrial center, include, among others, Unilever, ICI, Samsung Electronics, Nippon EGI (Sumitomo), Mattel West Plant and East Plant, United Tractor, Sari Roti, Nissin, Kao Indonesia, Video Glass Indonesia, Akzo Nobel and Stark.

Aside from being developed into an industrial estate and a center for sports facilities, Jababeka also has the Jababeka Central Business District, an area measuring some 16 hectares. On April 5, 2003, Plaza JB Mal Jababeka and Jababeka Center were officially opened here. This business district is a new landmark in Jababeka with a labyrinth of roads where you can find stalls offering various necessities, ranging from fashion and beauty products to cell phones and banking facilities. Meanwhile, the construction of the Capital Business Park, including the President Executive Club, is still under way and is expected to be completed later this year.

It is really beyond imagination that the Cikarang area, which was just a stretch of fields and unexploited plots of land some two decades ago, has now completely changed into an expensive area. Factories, offices, residential estates, a golf course, shopping centers, hotels and posh houses are found sprawling everywhere across Cikarang. " Developing Cikarang is just like developing Las Vegas, the world's most sparkling city which was formerly just a barren plot of land," said Darmono.

As for Cikarang, however, Darmono said he did not aspire to turn it into a city with a "sparkling" nightlife. Born in Yogyakarta on April 26, 1949, he said he was setting his eyes on the educational sector. The setting up of the President University Educational Foundation, President Senior General High School and the Jababeka Educational Park are testament to his great concern to promote education.

Besides, Jababeka is also home to, among others, the Industrial Engineering College (ATMI), MBA of the Bandung Institute of Technology, the Continuing Education Program (CEP) of the Engineering School of the University of Indonesia, Gunadarma University, Dwipayana Economic Higher Learning School (STIE), Proven Force Indonesia, Al Azhar kindergarten, elementary school and junior high school and BPK Penabur elementary school and junior high school. "Education is the fundamental asset for our long-term economic development. Without intellectual skills and good morality, we are nothing," said Darmono, a professional, businessman and educator.

The Jababeka Education Park enjoys full support from the companies operating in the Jababeka Techno Park. Meanwhile, President University, where English is the medium of instruction, also enjoys a warm response from the international community. In its third year now, this university, which has its own student dormitory, now boasts 400 students hailing not only from several places in Indonesia but also from as far away as China and Vietnam.

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