Orchid Country Club

Orchid Country Club: Located in the northern part of Singapore this 27-hole course plays directly alongside the shoreline of the expansive Lower Seletar Reservoir. Its three nine-hole loops, each named after a famous orchid, all have holes flanked by the reservoir, and all 27-holes are available for night golf.

The Dendro, Vanda and Aranda nines offer wonderfully open, linksy, lakeside golf. Playing alongside the wide reservoir creates a distinctly seaside feel at times, while the relatively sparse population of trees, square-cut tee-boxes, rolling fairways and excellent bunkering reinforce Orchid's links-like credentials.

The gently undulating, open terrain provides several nicely elevated tee-boxes, as well as wonderful views onto the lake, with Seletar Country Club in the distance on the opposite bank. Water hazards are often in play here, either the lake itself or creeks cutting in from it. The most dangerous of these creeks meanders through Vanda's short par-5 6th hole (a hole that also boasts an orchid shaped bunker).

With plenty of breezes coming off the lake, there are times, not least on the occasionally narrower Vanda course, when accuracy rather than length is what's needed from the tee. The mainly elevated greens usually require a high approach shot into them to clear the ever-present (and often deep) greenside bunkering. When safely on the putting surface the challenge lies in unravelling their many slopes and borrows.