Category Archives: Golf

The Business of Golf

Being avid golfers, it’s impossible to keep our minds off of this year’s US Open held at Bethpage Black, even as the players are kept from the green due to heavy rain.

People who don’t play golf always ask us why anyone would bother picking up the sport. Is it a status thing? Is it just for business networking? Perhaps for some people these are the reasons, for us they are entirely different.

Golf, to us, is an incredible sport because it has a built in equalizer called the “handicap” which allows people of differing abilities to play against one another evenly. No other sport has such a thing. Secondly, the game is always different, no matter how good you get at it. While a seasoned player can expect to play a decent game every time he or she picks up a tennis, badminton, squash racket or kick a soccer ball, with golf, the terrain, the weather, and especially your mental state, determine how well or how badly you’re going to do that day. You can be very terrible and you can be very good, it’s never a sure thing, just like business.

While other sports strive for predictability (well oiled lanes, same ball, no wind, etc.), golf is always better when it is new and you have to strategize every hole in your mind when you can’t see the pin or what lies beyond the initial turn. Which club do you use? Just because you can hit 180 meters doesn’t mean you should given the strong winds that day, or rain, or even just how you’re feeling. Conversely, you could be doing well, better than ever before, so maybe there’s no better time to take the risk. Again, a lot like business.

And don’t just take it from us either, as BT Frontline’s CEO, Lim Chin Hu, so eloquently put it, “In both golf and business, you need to have the right vision, strategy and the ability to execute. In golf, you envision where your ball is going to end up, and develop a course strategy. But just like in business, the execution phase – where the clubhead strikes the ball- counts the most. In golf, you can get into difficult situations- in the rough and having to take a 200 meter shot across the water. Do you take the risk and hit it with a wood or do you use an iron and lay up? There are similar decisions in business, you have to take risks, but only calculated ones where you have a fair chance of winning.”

Singapore Golf Membership Prices

Singapore Island Country Club
180 Island Club Road, S578774
Tel: 6459-2222 Fax: 6458-3796
Latest membership price: $130,000 – $140,000.

Tanah Merah Country Club
25 Changi Coast Road S499803
Tel: 6549-3040 Fax: 6542-9294
Latest membership price: $115,000 – $120,000.
Two 18-hole courses

Sentosa Golf Club
27 Bukit Manis Rd, Sentosa S 099082
Tel: 6275-0022 Fax: 6275-0005
Latest membership price: $90,000.
Two 18-hole courses

Laguna National Golf and Country Club
11 Laguna Golf Green S488047
Tel: 6542-6888 Fax: 6542-1132
Latest membership price: $83,000.
Two 18-hole courses

Jurong Country Club
9 Science Centre Road S609078
Tel: 6560-5655 Fax: 6567-1900
Latest membership price: $61,000 ($8,000 social membership).
Fully-lit 18-hole course + one 5-hole beginners/practice course

Orchid Country Club
1 Orchid Club Road S 769162
Tel: 6755-9811 Fax: 6752-7147
Latest membership price: $52,000 ($6,500 social membership).
Three 9-hole courses

Seletar Country Club
3 Park Lane Seletar Air Base S798273
Tel: 6481-4745 Fax: 6481-3000
Latest membership price: $45,000 ($13,000 social membership).

Raffles Country Club
450 Jln Ahmad Ibrahim S639932
Tel: 6861-7649 Fax: 6861-5293
Latest membership price: $43,000.
Two 18-hole courses

Keppel Club
Bukit Chermin Road S109918
Tel: 6273-5522 Fax: 6278-1148
Latest membership price: $32,000.
18-hole course, first 9 floodlit

Warren Golf Club
Folkstone Road S139599
Tel: 6777-6533 Fax: 6778-5502
Latest membership price: $45,000 ($12,000 social membership).
One 9-hole course

Changi Golf Club
20 Netheravon Rd S 508505
Tel: 6545-5133 Fax: 6545-2531
Latest membership price: $13,000
One 9-hole course; no swimming pool