The Els Club Desaru Coast (Valley Course)

Few golf destinations in Southeast Asia have arrived with quite the ambition of Desaru Coast — a billion-dollar integrated resort carved from the forested coastline of eastern Johor, launched in the late 2010s as Malaysia's answer to Sentosa and Bintan. The Els Club here is the anchor attraction, designed by Ernie Els and his design team and opened in 2018, delivering 2 courses on a site of dramatic topographic variety. The Valley Course, as its name suggests, occupies the more sheltered, inland character of the property — tree-lined, undulating, and playing through natural ravines and elevation changes that give it a distinctly different personality from its Ocean Course sibling.

Where the Ocean Course courts the drama of sea breezes and coastal exposure, the Valley leans into shade and strategy — fairways bending through stands of mature tropical vegetation, with water hazards and contoured greens rewarding precise shot-shaping over raw power.

Desaru Coast sits roughly 100 kilometres east of Johor Bahru, reachable by ferry from Singapore's Tanah Merah terminal — which makes it a legitimate weekend destination for the enormous golfing population of the island city-state next door.