The Els Club Teluk Datai

Few golf courses in Southeast Asia can claim a setting quite like this one. Designed by Ernie Els and opened in 2014, The Els Club Teluk Datai sits within the ancient rainforest of Langkawi's northwest coast, where the Machinchang mountain range — one of the oldest geological formations on Earth — rises behind the fairways and the Andaman Sea fills the horizon. The course replaced the original Datai Bay Golf Club that occupied the same extraordinary site, and Els's design leans into the drama of the landscape rather than taming it.

The routing threads through protected rainforest, with macaques, hornbills, and monitor lizards as regular spectators. Several holes play along or toward the coastline, and the elevation changes are genuine — this is not a flat resort layout dressed up with bunkers. The design rewards strategic thinking, with approach angles and wind off the sea making club selection a real conversation.

Langkawi's duty-free island status draws visitors from across Malaysia and beyond, but the golf here feels genuinely remote — a round defined as much by the surrounding wilderness as by the course itself.