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

Fri, 15 Jul 2005, 00:00 WIB

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.

View JSON | Print