'People will just give up hope about playing this sport': Golf community laments impending closure of courses

SINGAPORE: The news that six golf courses will not have their leases renewed in the coming years has raised concerns within the golfing community about potentially stifling development in a sport that has earned global accolades for Singapore athletes.

One of the facilities, Mandai Executive Golf Course, is currently Singapore's only public golf course.

It will close at the end of 2026, resulting in the lack of a dedicated public golf course until after 2030. That's when the leases of two private courses - Keppel Club’s Sime course and Singapore Island Country Club’s (SICC) Bukit course - expire. 

Thereafter, the two sites will be turned into a dedicated 18-hole public golf course. Part of it may be used by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) for its members, given that the lease for NTUC’s Orchid Country Club will not be renewed after 2030.

The fifth and sixth golf courses whose leases will not be renewed are Warren Golf & Country Club, which will shut in October 2030, and Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden course, which will close at the end of 2035.

Singapore currently has 16 golf courses sitting on about 1,072ha of land, or less than 1.5 per cent of the total land area in Singapore, according to the Ministry of Law.

"I think people will just give up hope about playing this sport," said Mr Dalston Koh, who runs SG Golf Coach Academy at Mandai Executive Golf Course.

Mr Koh, 34, believes people's attitudes toward golf would reflect what is seen as a lack of government support for golf, pointing to the dwindling number of courses.

The nine-hole Mandai Executive Golf Course, which opened in 1993, is a place where almost all golf beginners in Singapore start their journey, he said.

While Keppel Club runs a public-private