Orna Golf & Country Club : one of Malaysia’s most challenging courses
Orna Golf & Country Club (OGCC) is located on an undulating site just seven minutes from the Ayer Keroh interchanged of the North South Highway and 25 minutes from Malacca city. The Club has gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the most challenging golf courses in West Malaysia since it opened for play in late 1997. The 27-hole Malacca golf course has hosted numerous professional events and is a regular fixture for the Asian Tour qualifying school.
Comprising three nine-hole loops – East (Holes 1 – 9), West ( Holes 10 – 18) and North (Holes 19 – 27), American Andy Dye’s sweeping creation is characterized by heavily mounded fairways, significant elevation changes, large waste bunkers, and lakes and creeks that bisect many holes. Trees and jungle vegetation feature less than on most other Malaysian golf courses. The generous width fairways offer something of a big-hitter’s paradise, but key challenges at Orna are to be found around the well-protected greens. The greens themselves are undulated with many roller-coaster slopes that getting down in two often difficult.
Orna Golf & Country Club three nine-hole loops play away from and back towards the clubhouse. The championship combination of the East and West Courses weighs in at a super heavy weight length of 6,697 meters. This combination has parallel finishing holes, played either side of a small lake, with Dye’s most spectacular earth mounding on show just beneath the stylish and large red-roofed clubhouse.
The East Course measures 3297 meters and challenges golfers with a healthy dose of water. One of the highlights here is the par-5 7th, a double dogleg right that tempts long hitters to cut across the dogleg and the lake to attack the green in two.
The West Course is the longest of the three nines, measuring a back breaking 3400 meters. This tract includes the signature hole. The 183 meter par-3 12th plays from elevated tees to small island-green and demands tee shot accuracy to have any chance for par. Another gem is the unconventional par-5 16th. This hole has a split fairway that allows golfers to hit left or right of a small lake that runs from tee-to-green. The elevated green if reached at the end of the lake.
The North Course is designed to be the shortest and easiest of the three, but golfers will be well advised not to under estimate the 2911 meter length as it is no pushover.
The entire West Course (Holes #10 – #18) as well as the last holes of the East Course (Hole #9) and North Course (Hole # 27) are fully lit for night golfing from Wednesdays to Fridays.
The OGCC clubhouse is its unique clubhouse, undoubtedly one of the most distinctive looking in the country. Recreational facilities include a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, and tennis courts and karaoke rooms. The on-site Chinese restaurant serves high-end Chinese cuisine with great views of the golf course, albeit with no pork on the menu. Other facilities include a golfer’s terrace, on-course kiosks, locker rooms, and pro shop, all of which are only average.