Golf in Indonesia: A Dying Sport or a New Beginning?

Indonesia is known for being the fourth most populous country in the world. There's an estimate of around 273 million people living in the country. Plus, there is a general consensus among those 273 million people that the most popular sport is without doubt badminton. Indonesia has gained a tremendous amount of success internationally when it comes to badminton. But what about golf? Is golf in Indonesia a dying sport or perhaps a new beginning? Well, keep on reading to find out!

The Best Places To Golf in Indonesia

1. Royal Jakarta Golf Club

This Indonesian golf club located in Jakarta is famously known as one of the top-rated golf courses. They offer three sets of 9 holes (the North, the South, and the West) adding up to a total of 27 holes. Plus, the golf course boasts gorgeous greens and fairways and panoramic views of Mount Salak and Mount Gede. In addition to that, the course has been proven to offer various challenges fitted for various skill levels. Every golfer will find new nuances in each golf course which therefore adds a ton of excitement to every single game. It's not enough to just read about it; you must give Royal Jakarta Golf Club a try whenever you're in Jakarta, Indonesia.

2. Klub Golf Bogor Raya

Another amazing golf course in Indonesia is one that many will find extremely tempting. Klub Golf Bogor Raya is located just 30 minutes away from Jakarta and is regarded as one of the most well-designed golf courses in Indonesia. Of course, when it comes to amazing golf course designs, Graham V. Marsh is the architect you'd expect nothing less from. He designed the course in such a way that accentuates the beauty of Indonesia while incorporating elements from Indonesia's mature vegetation to create such a beautiful spectacle. All in all, this 18-hole Indonesian golf course is definitely worth a try.

3. Taman Dayu Golf Club & Resort

Next on the list is Taman Dayu Golf Club & Resort, one of the most esteemed golf courses in Indonesia that are situated only 60 minutes away from Surabaya International Airport. Part of the reason why this golf course is held at such a high status is of course due to the designer, Jack Nicklaus. He managed to create such a masterpiece that does not skimp on the facilities and provides an abundance of services to better fill each golfer's needs. In other words, Jack Nicklaus created heaven for golfers since all their important needs will be provided for. It's safe to say that this 18-hole masterpiece is a golf course that every golfer should get themselves into at some point in their lives.

The Most Famous Indonesian Golfers

1. Rory Hie

By far one of the most successful professional golfers in Indonesia is none other than Rory Hie. In his young years as a golfer, Rory Hie was the number one ranked junior player in the US. Later in his professional career, he won a total of 4 professional tournaments including the 2019 Asian Tour and the 2013 China Tour. Hence, there is no doubt that Rory Hie will go down in history as a legend of the sport in Indonesia.

2. Danny Masrin

To most Indonesian golfers, the name Danny Masrin will for sure ring a bell. He has gained immense popularity and stardom after his amazing performance at the 2019 Indonesian Masters in which he finished tied fifth. Hence, his performance can be considered one of the best if not the best for an Indonesian player by far. Although he had only started playing professionally in 2016, he has made such a huge leap of success in the short amount of time he has played as a pro so far. Therefore, it is exciting to see what is next for this Indonesian prodigy.

3. Naraajie Emerald Ramadhan Putra

This talented 22-year-old golfer from Bandung has been praised for his brilliant come-up as Indonesia's up-and-coming professional golfer. One of the highlights of his career was during the Bank BRI Indonesia Open 2019 in which he finished 4th with Argentina's Miguel Carballo taking the win. However, this young lad is way beyond his age when it comes to skill and yet he still has so much time ahead of him to make any sort of improvements.

Golf Packages in Indonesia

Most people often overlook how incredible Indonesia is as a golf retreat. Indonesia offers a wide variety of fun destinations at which people can choose to spend their precious holiday. Here are some of the best golf packages for those looking for a fun and exciting getaway in Indonesia.

The Best Driving Ranges in Indonesia

1. Damai Indah Golf - Pantai Indah Kapuk Course

Pantai Indah Kapuk Course has an exceptional driving range for practicing before tee-off.

In the evening, the range is floodlit for practice. To enhance your short game skills, they provide practice green and practice bunker.

2. Matoa Driving Range in Jakarta

This affordable Matoa Driving Range is located south of Jakarta open to both Club members and public visitors to train their skills.

Equipped with 24 bays, a putting greens area to practice, a coffee shop, and a golf shop, these are some facilities available at Matoa Driving Range that you can expect.

3. Royale Jakarta Driving Range

Lucky for you (golf lovers), this luxury golf course is well-considered and affordable for you to practice.

Boasting 300 meters (International Standard) Practice Range with 24-lanes is another reason why Royale Jakarta Driving Range offers unmatched distinction in its class.

The Best Golf Booking Service in Indonesia - Deemples Golf App

To help aid this problem that stops golfers from golfing more, we found a platform out there that does exactly that. It’s no wonder thousands of golfers have been using it to find golfing buddies whenever they’re available for a game.

It’s built-in a form of a mobile application and is available free on both the App Store and Google Play. It's available for golf courses across Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, and Malaysia. There are plans to expand to even more countries to assist the needs of even more golfers.

We had a chat with David Wong, the founder of Deemples, to find out why they’re building something like this. “There are many applications, and platforms out there to help golfers find cheap rates and facilitate the booking. But we realized that golfers can’t even get to that part of the core problem that wasn’t solved - finding available golf buddies. So to help the industry (golf clubs, agents, booking platforms, equipment, retail, academies, etc) grow as a whole, we wanted to solve the core problem, and enable everyone to golf whenever, and wherever they want.”

Golf Tournaments in Indonesia

In Indonesia, there have been quite a few major golf tournaments that are traditionally held in the country. Some of which are listed below:

• The Indonesia Open at Pondok Indah Golf Course
• Indonesia PGA Championship at Damai Indah Golf Club

Pro Shops in Indonesia

Every golfer needs a pro shop in close proximity similar to how every student needs a library nearby. Without it, we can't reach our fullest potential. Luckily, Indonesia is full of amazing pro shops from which golfers can choose. Golfers are highly advised to purchase golf equipment in a physical store to get a better feel of the item before making a decision. Below are pro shops in Indonesia:

• Golf House
• Raja Golf
• Asia Golf
• Topindo Lucky Sport
• Pondok Indah Golf Course Pro Shop

The Golf Market in Indonesia

There are just over 100 golf courses in Indonesia, almost 50 of them in the Greater Jakarta area. They cater to about 200 thousand golfers in the country. This means, that in a population of 260 million (almost the size of the USA), there is less than 0.1% that play golf in Indonesia.

The Time Commitment Golf Takes

A round of golf takes up a good 4-5 hours. Traffic in Jakarta doesn’t help but adds another 2-3 hours of traveling time (round trip) to the golf course. Plus, another 1-2 hours to eat, shower, and get ready, golf is now a 9-hour full-day activity.

Pricing of Golf in Indonesia

Golf in Indonesia is priced at a slight premium because of its amazing service, good course conditions, lavish clubhouses, and attractive caddies. Weekday golf will cost you about IDR 400,000 - IDR 700,000 (USD 30-50). While a round on the weekend at a decent course will set you back IDR 900,000 up to IDR 2,000,000 (USD 60-140).

Demographics of Golfers in Indonesia

Because of the high cost of golf in Indonesia, the sport is played by the more affluent segment. At an average of IDR 1 million per round of golf, one would need to have a monthly salary of at least IDR 50 million to enjoy golf without breaking the bank.

This leads to a higher average golfer age of between 40-60 years old. Golf is definitely out of reach for fresh grads as their average salaries are within the IDR 4-5M range.

Barriers To Golf in Indonesia:

1. Money
2. Buddies

The demographics for golfers are usually focused around the 40-70-year-old bunch, where disposable income and flexibility in time are both higher. There are also more golfers ceasing to play than more golfers can pick it up.

Younger folks now tend to have less patience and a bigger appetite for more extreme activities that take up less time and money. For example, cross-fit, MMA, wakeboarding, muay Thai, cycling, diving, hiking, etc.

However, even with all these barriers and obstacles, golf still commands its premium-ness. There are still small pockets of people who are currently still playing and some are just getting into the game, for business, for health, and for mastery of a much precision-needed, mind-challenging sport.

A Sense of Community and Platforms To Enable Them

To put it bluntly, golfers continue/start to golf, because their friends/family are also golfing. It’s the community that continues to bring people together and keep them together. Traditional ways of building and growing communities are unscalable, which is why technologies are here to enable faster growth of it.

Just a mere 10 years ago, we were still trying to keep in touch with people through phone numbers, flag cabs down, travel to restaurants to be able to eat, and find potential future partners at bars. These days, while the older generation still practices the above, platforms have emerged to help technology adopters to achieve their objectives much faster. Phone numbers are a thing of the past with Facebook, cars come to you with Uber/Grab, food comes to you with FoodPanda/Go-Food, and find love at scale on Tinder.

So the question is, why hasn’t anything been built for golf? Golfers want to get a game in and expand their network in the process. It’s highly annoying when your small bunch of golf friends can’t make it for golf when you want to play, or you can’t make it when they ask you.

What It Is and What’s More To Come

Deemples now is a pretty simple app, where golfers go on and find available games to join, or create games and let others join them. Golf clubs and tournament organizers have started using Deemples for the ease of handling multi-flights and communicating/engaging with participants. Golf academies are also using Deemples to provide free clinics to help improve the skill level of golfers.

Deemples has a small team of product developers that continuously build features that will help golfers be able to golf more, assisting the golf industry as a whole. “We won’t be competing with what’s already out there, but enabling the growth of all golf suppliers." David adds "Golf suppliers include booking agents, social clubs, golf courses, academies, equipment brands; by breaking barriers that stop golfers from golfing more.”

A New Beginning - With Deemples

Golf has always been associated with the aged and deemed a slow-moving industry. Perhaps it can now breathe a sigh of relief as more tech platforms like Deemples come in to save the day and hopefully provide a whole new meaning to the sport.

The more golfers are on it, the better it is for the rest of us golfers.

This article was first published on OB Golf by David Wong, founder of Deemples on 20 Aug 2018.