The Els Club Desaru Coast - Ocean Course — Local services in Johor

If travelling to Desaru Coast I recommend you book tee times through the Els Club website or through Troon, and don't bother with the website hotel promotion "Stay and Play" if you're playing at the Ocean course. Booking the tee times was not worth the 20% greenfee savings as the person, who works at Els Club (not sure if he works for more than the Ocean course), that handled my tee times was either far to busy with other things to deal with me, or completely incompetent. They said the guy was working and around the first day I was there, but I didn't even want to see his face. After at least 25 emails, even with bulleted questions (he could never answer more than one question per email), and this guy still forgot to arrange my hotel to course transport.

I needed to pay my hotel to drive me to the course causing me to tee off 20min late the first day. My hotel transport wasn't expensive and whoever was in charge kindly gave me a 50rm food voucher (which didn't even cover my burger and can of beer, and really just wasted more time I didn't have due to being late teeing off). If I was in charge and a player traveled to play my course had to deal with all of the lack of attention in answering simple questions and still messed up the booking, I would have compensated at least another 20% off of everything just to avoid a bad review. They must get plenty of business, but it didn't seem like it considering they would only give me a food voucher for all the hassle. Both days I was there it was dead aside from me, one other foursome and the various employees. I was the only golfer aside from that foursome that I saw for both of my rounds. All of the staff and course workers were kind, helpful, and I enjoyed talking with them.

Unfortunately I didnt have time to hang around the amazing clubhouse, which would have been nice to spend more time, but I ate as I felt I deserved to use the voucher, and left as promptly as they could get me return transport, which was longer than anticipated. I had to make the people travelling with me wait, and I couldn't do as many other things in the area due to schedule conflicts. My long thread of emails mentioned above ended with encouraging words about my return transfer being ready as soon as I was ready to leave. I had to wait the first day, but the second day, without me mentioning the previous wait, they offered to drive me back to my hotel in a car as the transport bus had gone to pick up a group from the ferry (unfortunately there were only two other flights of golfers that day, but hopefully the transport was picking up a large group to bring to their hotel, which Els Club Desaru does offer for people arriving in Desaru by ferry).

Hopefully management, and Big Easy care as much as his quote on the wall says, because it seems like the course has potential, but it is a little difficult to travel to for people flying to Kuala Lumpur and coming through Singapore. The ferry still doesn't run frequently enough to provide enough travel options, and isn't arranged by the course staff. A package deal would be appealing to overseas travelers. I hired a driver to transport me from SIN airport in Singapore to Desaru Coast as taking the ferry would have required me to stay another day to catch my fligh, or I wouldn't have able go play golf twice. So, hopefully the area continues to develop, and is more accessible to more people in the future.

The course is pretty nice and has many good challenges. In playing all three 9-hole courses I used all 13 of my clubs multiple times except my 5 wood, and all holes are unique from each other. The weather cooperated well for me, and I got to play the course dry one day, and kind of wet the next. Despite there being something left to desire in terms of course conditions (I'm curious if the course is in better condition during the high season), I'd like to come back in the future to play Ocean again, and will try my luck at the Valley...

We played the ocean course this week. It was a fantastic experience. Although we were disappointed that we could only see the ocean from 2 holes (from the green of 1, and a short par 3), in general the course is well maintained, the greens are fast, the staff friendly and helpful and the experience amazing!!

We drove into Desaru for an 8am tee time.

Drive: 4/5 2.5h drive from 2nd link, on the drive up it was still dark so we couldn’t really see much but the drive back to singapore at dusk was so pretty. Tolls racked up to be quite expensive, with the one right at Desaru being the priciest.

Bag drop: 5/5 The porter was lovely and polite, he even knew our names as we were getting off the car. Whole experience from bag drop to load up onto golf cart felt very personal

Locker room: 5/5 Clean, air-conditioned, lockers had electronic locks, lockers well maintained and clean. Lockers had our names on them. Did not look dated unlike some other club changing rooms. Showers and toilets were very clean. Quality of shampoo and soap was good. As a female, shower quality and cleanliness is so important to me and I felt this was the best shower room in JB clubs.

Pro Shop: 4/5 We didn’t purchase anything but the pro shop was well stocked, sold plenty of merchandise branded with the Els logo. Sleeves of ball can be purchased at counter. They do personalisation engraving service as well for a souvenir bag tag that they gave us at the end of our round! A nice touch we were not expecting.

Golf cart: 4/5 Comfy cart seats. Power steering abit underpowered but the GPS system was well updated and accurate distance from cart to pin. Cart screen had our names on it as well.

Caddy: 5/5 We had a brilliant caddy who bantered with us and was great at reading the greens. Sunk loads of putts based off his reads. Best putting game we’ve had in awhile. Shoutout bob!!!! Best caddy ever.

Course: 4/5 Tee boxes require a little more manicuring. Grass slightly higher than normal, affecting some of our drives with the tee. It’s recommended you tee slightly lower than normal if the grass is long. Black tee box completely neglected. Sad. Fairway well maintained. If you hit a stray ball into the long grass however, depending on your caddy, you might just have to say bye to it. Our caddy was very diligent though. Greens - good. Fast. Real fast not like Horizon hills fake fast. Very consistent, well kept, and challenging.

Cart girl/boy experience: 5/5 You can order drinks via your caddy at any point in time and keep a running tab, or pay for it in cash on the spot. Normal selection of drinks.

Clubhouse: NA/5 Restaurant looked nice but we didn’t eat there. They were showing coverage of golf games on the screens as well. Can’t rate it as I haven’t experienced it.

Overall experience: 11/10 would do again. Very value for money compared to some other golf clubs in JB. A tip the pro shop lady told us was to book on their website but change the currency to RM before booking and paying as it would be cheaper and they show u other promotion rates as well.

We drove up after our game to a seafood restaurant highly recommended by a friend called Jade Garden. It’s next to a nice little cafe called Yard&Co. which has the best aesthetic and vibes. Next time we will try the ferry route instead as it might be less tiring than...

Booked a Stay & Play with the Els Club at Desaru. It was a 1 night 2 day stay at the Westin with 2 games of golf. Service from Vijay, manager of the Els Club was excellent. We had a slight mishap in Singapore and had to delay our trip by one day. Vijay contacted me in Singapore and rearranged everything. He even offered to contact the ferry service to rebook the ferry tickets from Singapore to Desaru. On the day of our arrival, we played at the Ocean Course. It was an easy and very forgiving course that you can enjoy. My only complaint is that I only saw the ocean from 1 hole. Next day, we played at the Valley Course with lots of ups and downs and lots and lots of bunkers. It was challenging, especially back nine. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the course. Staff are very friendly. Services were great. Our names were on the lockers and on the golf cart. The cart has on board GPS, and you can drive your cart on the course right next to your ball, so you can know the exact distance between your ball and the center of the green. Caddy fees are slightly high, MYR 150 with a minimum tip of MYR 50. Going from and to the ferry terminal was very easy. We took the Els Club bus from the terminal to Club upon arrival and from the Club to terminal for our departure. The restaurant at the Ocean Course was fancier. The restaurant at the Valley Course was more intimate. Food was excellent and reasonable. We would definitely come back. BTW, we saw some resident...