A LEGEND is lost as Kelab Rekreasi Angkatan Tentera shuts down its storied nine-hole course in Sungai Besi, but there’s a silver lining as a new layout in Sendayan nears completion
By Loo Keng Yip
Being philosophical helps one cope and stay positive when faced with situations beyond our control, such as the loss of a friend.
And so it was with the final day of play and subsequent official closure of the nine-hole course of Kelab Rekreasi Angkatan Tentera (KRAT) in Sungai Besi on March 15.
KRAT was best known as one of the most cost-effective courses to get in a proper round of golf, if not the cheapest. Likewise, the clubhouse bar was one of the most economical, if not the most inexpensive joint of them all, where you could quaff multiple rounds of beer to your heart’s content.
Early morning light breaks through the trees at the 6th hole of KRAT Sungai Besi
With the permanent closure of this unique and historic nine-hole gem, all that is left for golfers, bar patrons, club members and the fun-loving civilian public alike, is to ruminate over the ‘needs’ versus the ‘wants’ of golfers and society in general. They are related, like a pair of siblings from the family called … desire.
Satisfying ‘needs’ is what essentially keeps you happy and alive. Its cousin, the more seductive ‘wants’, is invariably very pleasing in the short term but taken to extremes is almost always unsustainable for the long haul. Adding to its woes, poorer cousin ‘needs’ is usually rather unattractive from a financial standpoint.
Set amongst the low forested hills next to the former Royal Malaysian Air Force base, which was Kuala Lumpur’s first airport, the beautiful old KRAT course satisfied a need. It satisfied one’s soul. There was almost a spiritual feel to the place.
But market forces and the potential for high returns associated to this prime piece of real estate enticed the ‘wants’ crowd to pounce. KRAT Sungai Besi and its surroundings will be redeveloped into a mixed use transit-oriented complex. It will be a hub for interconnecting high speed rail, MRT and KTM Komuter services.
There will be the inevitable attendant shopping mall, entertainment centres, ritzy hotels and luxury apartments. It is what some have figured Kuala Lumpur ‘wants’. Or, perhaps, it might include a vast sprawling home and vocational training centre that orphans and the underprivileged ‘need’… but will not get. It would be nice to be proven wrong.
A torrent of well-worn though fitting clichés can’t help but flow freely when one tries to describe the golf at KRAT Sungai Besi … a cool lush garden, an oasis of peace and tranquillity. A soothing place where one could find immediate respite from the harsh realities of making a living in the city. True. All true.
The well-bunkered green of the par-three 2nd hole at KRAT Sungai Besi
Being primarily a club for armed forces personnel, the cost of membership and fees of all kinds was considerably lower than you would find at a typical golf club. The running of the course was a ‘civilian’ matter, but a bit of military efficiency must have rubbed off. KRAT manager Ranjit Singh and his small, highly-skilled team did a stellar job of maintaining good playing conditions, all whilst staying in the black on what must have surely been a limited budget.
KRAT Sungai Besi was by no means easy to play. Elevated greens perched high above eye level, false fronts, turtle backed fairways, sloping putting surfaces, tiny landing areas and huge old growth trees positioned smack in the middle of fairways. There was very little in the way of rough or a first cut buffer. Like most hilly courses, there wasn’t much of a transition at all between the trimmed grass and ‘lost ball forever’ territory.
The 6th green and 7th teebox, the highest parts of the KRAT Sungai Besi course
And then there was the kerengga. As though we needed any additional reminders that we were playing golf within a military complex, if you found yourself standing stationary, ‘marking time’ below some of the trees, you could be attacked by, pardon the pun, an army of weaver ants. The painful bites of these large angry kerengga made playing ‘air force’ golf all the more important.
If ‘army golf’ is the playful albeit slightly demeaning term for repeatedly scattering your shots left and right, then air force golf is all about flying straight. You had to hit it straight along your intended line. This was a course that insisted on precision.
Golfers are often friendly towards each other. There is often a nod of acknowledgement, even between strangers. At KRAT Sungai Besi, they made the extra effort to verbalise this. The friendly, relaxed atmosphere made it entirely natural to say ‘good morning’ or ‘hello’ whilst smiling broadly.
Here trust and security were taken for granted. The course was after all within a military complex. Cars could be left unlocked. Golf bags were left unattended on the sides of fairways, their owners lugging just a few clubs they knew would suffice for negotiating the next few holes.
A couple of the fairways cross over each other. The golfers and the rest of their equipment that had stood waiting patiently by the side would soon be reunited as the flow of play wound back and traversed over the previous hole. This worked especially well for a large contingent of regulars who preferred to walk the course and made it quite a busy place on most mornings and evenings.
The proshop and golfer’s terrace at KRAT Sungai Besi open onto the practice green; pool table at the rec room (right)
KRAT’s historical significance need not take a back seat to anyone. Notable professionals, from the Ramayahs and Nellans of old, through to Danny Chia and even on to present day Gavin Green, they have all honed their skills on the green stuff here.
Sports and golf equipment icons Car & Co built the old proshop and an extension to the original plain Jane ‘four walls and a roof’ clubhouse at no cost to the club. That could only happen back in an earlier, more innocent time where a tight-knit golfing community made deals and promises at the clubhouse bar and sealed it with little more than a handshake.
A sizable pirate’s treasure trove of silverware and trophies was housed in several large display cases. They, along with the multiple wooden plaques that adorned the walls as records of achievement, stood testament to the slew of club and amateur tournaments that have taken place here.
KRAT Sungai Besi’s tight downhill par-three 5th
Just nine holes, par-33 (4 par-fours, 4 par-threes and 1 par-five) and 2,333 yards off its extremities, but the course included a difficult uphill par-three (Hole 4) with a giant forest hardwood smack in the middle of the fairway. If the pin was cut on the left, it blocked the direct line of flight to the flag. There was also a short par-three (Hole 2) guarded by so much bunkering it would have made a desert camel feel right at home.
There was a cheeky drivable par-four (Hole 7) whose green was protected by … you guessed it, a big tree. And let’s not forget the difficult par-five sixth with that same giant hardwood, also smack in the middle of this fairway. It served as a formidable mid-fairway obstacle for both holes, but from different directions.
The two holes were so unyielding and troublesome that perhaps only a mother, or in this case the British army officers who designed and built the course in the early 1960s, could love. And the view of the city from the sixth green was spectacular.
No doubt the course was tough, but it never failed to satisfy the ‘needs’ of a real golfer. Despite being trounced by this difficult ‘if-you-can-play-here, you-can-play-anywhere’ course, a true golfer would gladly return time and time again.
Challenging courses satisfy that internal yearning “to be all that you can be”. If that sounded vaguely familiar, it should. It is from an old army recruitment advertisement.
Perhaps the best way for us to bid a proper adieu is to lean on yet another military themed cliché – one that can be cloyingly, almost embarrassingly, inappropriate when used on anything outside the realm of a B-grade war movie script … but definitely not so in this case. And so, ‘it has been my humble honour and absolute privilege to be counted as one amongst the thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of golfers over the years, who have played the marvellous KRAT, Sungai Besi’. Farewell.
New apartments have sprung up on the fringes of KRAT Sungai Besi even as golfers play the 8th hole for the last time
Excessive sentimentality, however, is not exactly a desirable trait to have in the armed forces. The military has to keep marching on, so to speak, and so KRAT has moved to a brand new location in Sendayan near Seremban. On a good day with light traffic we were door to door from ParGolf’s offices in the vicinity of Jalan Kuchai Lama to KRAT, Sendayan in under 40 minutes, observing the various speed limits the entire way.
KRAT manager Ranjit Singh (left) with project manager Lt Col (R) Lim Ong Hong
Ranjit and his team will be there. They will be ably complemented by the very experienced project manager, master golf teaching pro Lt Col (R) Lim Ong Hong.
Perhaps more by ‘accident’ (natural lay of the land) than by design, there is a distinct similarity between the two courses. Both are very hilly. That bit of original character from Sungai Besi seems to have been carried over to the Sendayan layout, crafted by Aussie architect Nigel Douglas.
The major difference, for now at least, is that the new course is far more open. This is largely because the trees here will take many decades to be anywhere as mature as those found at the former venue.
There are several man-made lakes, but thankfully, no giant trees to be found smack in the middle of the fairway. This looks like it could be a reasonably stern test as well. There is a proper ‘three-on’ par five, unless you can drive 270-plus metres over one of the lakes.
KRAT Sendayan – 9th green in the foreground flanked by the 1st hole to the left of frame
KRAT Sendayan is also a nine-hole course for now, with enough land held in reserve for future expansion. The golf course perimeter fencing sits right up against the new Royal Malaysian Air Force base which serves as a training facility, as close as it can get without being inside the military facility. That’s a good thing. You will not have to go through the same check point hassles that some may have experienced back in Sungai Besi.
It looks promising. All the necessary ingredients seem to be present, accounted for and well turned out. All the boots, buckles, uniforms, buggies, turf mates, fairways, greens and swimming pool have been cleaned, ironed, polished and trimmed to a high standard. They are ready for inspection. There is even a sizable bar and a vastly improved driving range.
We eagerly await the official opening of KRAT Sendayan. Stay tuned!
