Coaches disheartened by 'sudden' plans to shut Mandai public golf course, a 'perfect place' to learn the sport

SINGAPORE: Opened in 1993, Mandai Executive Golf Course at Upper Seletar Reservoir has been a go-to place for players both young and old. 

Long-time patron, Mr Daren Lim, first started golfing at the Mandai course about 30 years ago when he was still a junior player. 

The 43-year-old, who is now a full-time golf coach at Tanah Merah Country Club, still visits the golf course once a week.

But he will soon have to bid farewell to the public golf course, as a new outdoor adventure learning centre is set to be developed on the site it currently occupies after the tenancy expires on Dec 31. 

This move comes as the Ministry of Education (MOE) consolidates eight outdoor adventure education sites to four locations, to allow all schools to conduct upper primary and lower secondary cohort camps at those locales.

The four consolidated locations include the existing MOE outdoor adventure learning centre at Dairy Farm, which is in Bukit Timah, as well as two new centres to be built in Mandai and Sembawang, the ministry announced last Friday (Feb 23). 

Golf coaches CNA spoke to pointed out that the announcement was “sudden” and came with no prior notice.  

Drawing comparisons to Toa Payoh Golf Range, which ceased operations in 2018 for residential use, professional golfer Dalston Koh said: “All of us thought it was a safe place … that Mandai will never be gone.” 

“(The news) was quite shocking to us,” said the 33-year-old, who runs SG Golf Coach Academy at Mandai.

Mr Koh added that it was “very disheartening” given the string of golf courses and ranges in Singapore that have closed over the past few years.

Before the closures, Singapore had 14 private and three public golf courses - including Mandai Executive Golf Course -  taking up 1,500ha of