Introduction
This is a little known course located in Bukit Kemuning, often overshadowed by its more illustrious brother, Kota Permai. In fact, if it wasn’t listed in the AGN clubs, I wouldn’t know of its existence. I’ve played in Kota Permai before (the course they have the Volvo Masters for the Asian PGA tour), but it was just too darn expensive to try out a whacky swing. With a whole day free, we decided to head towards Bukit Kemuning Golf and Country Resort, with little expectations on how it would be.
Travel (4/5)
We have no idea that Kemuning was so close. I mean it wasn’t so close that you could cycle over from KL or PJ, but we were settling in for a long drive, and before you know it, bam, you’re at the club. We’ve concluded that all clubs that are located near the highways are easy to access, but there are some that requires additional traveling inside, like Bangi and Kajang Hills; and some that requires a whole lot of driving before we can reach it, like Bukit Unggul.
The best way is to use the Kesas Highway to Kemuning, via LDP. Instead of turning at the Kemuning interchange, go further and turn off at Bukit Rimau. First roundabout, take a 12 and the second roundabout take a 3 and voila you’re there. In fact, the trip to return home only took us 17 minutes flat.
Here’s the map for easier reference:
Price (3/5)
We paid a reasonable RM50 ++ on a weekday, using out AGN cards. It does shoot up over the weekend to more than a 100 RM, and we were a little surprised at the pricing package. Honestly, we expected something like Kundang Lakes or something, but instead we got quite a nice course, and with the condition and maintenance, the price was fair, unlike the ridiculous sum of money we have to fork out to play in Berjaya Hills.
First thoughts
Honestly, we thought Bukit Kemuning was a poor pretender to Kota Permai. You usually have these so called inferiority complex courses; whenever you find a course next to a big name, they tend to be really crappy: case in point, Kundang Lakes: Crap; Rahman Putra: Good. Perangsang: Crap; Templers Park: Good. So there was a pleasant surprise when we drove up to the front of the club house and found it quite classy. Any clubhouse with a working fountain at the front is classy to us.
The surprise extended over to the easy registration, the clean lockers and once on the first tee, faced with a large tract of land for a fairway, we knew that this course would be fun to play on.
Service (1/5)
Here’s the golden rule. If there’s anything wrong with the course, or if it is in maintenance, you need to inform the customer. I mean it’s like renting a car and not telling them their indicator isn’t working. Or the front tyre is punctured, or you have a leak in the carburetor. I mean, wouldn’t the customer eventually find out? What’s the point of hiding?
No information about temporary greens was provided to us. That’s a minus.
Cramming 5 – 6 golf bags into a single cart like Tiara Melaka is not only stupid, it’s dangerous for the clubs and the driver. Come on, don’t be so darn lazy and make multiple trips to get our bags. Not taking out our bags for us shows us that this looks like a first class club with third class service.
Fairways (3/5)
First impressions go a long way. After the bad service encounter, we were pretty much in a ghoulish mood as we stepped onto the first tee. And then we smiled. Nothing is more welcoming than a huge fairway looking at you in your first tee shot. Well, waking up to French toast breakfast in bed is a close second. But broad fairways are first. Especially on the first tee off of the day. Predictably, I started the day with a big push into the next fairway, but this wasn’t Monterez or Berjaya Hills, so a second shot pitching wedge over the palm trees found me near the green for a bogey start.
We played in a slight drizzle but the fairways held up quite well, hardly any casual water. But mainly we liked the whole open concept golf course. It feels a lot better than courses that narrows everything down and have OB stakes all over the place; as if golf wasn’t so hard already. This course plays more like Palm Garden without the looks, in direct opposition to narrow courses that we have reviewed; aptly named the Terrible Trio: Nilai, Nameless Course in Seremban 3 and Monterez.
Greens (2/5)
I hate temp greens. In Tasik Puteri, we were given two holes with temporary greens but at least the club informed us at the registration. In Bukit Kemuning, they didn’t even bother telling us. They just sent us on our way to the first and second tee where we were hit with temp greens, and on top of that, the 10th also had temporary greens. Eventhough I birdied the 10th, it was an asterix birdie, as a solid drive found me just 20 meters away from the ‘green’. Obviously there is no roll on these greens. Even the real greens weren’t remarkable, but we were already put off by the three unannounced temporary greens, so obviously we are already biased against the greens. All the points this course got from the fairways, they offset it with their greens.
Rough (3/5)
Getting it into the rough isn’t punishable in this course. In fact, I had a lot of drives trickle out of the fairway to the rough and still managed to shoot regulation. There are a few holes bordered with OB but overall, it wasn’t challenging enough in a lot of holes where our drives couldn’t find the fairway. The sand was reasonably maintained but due to the rain, everything was typically hard packed.
Aesthetics (3/5)
Charming. That would be how we would describe it. Of course, we had the best weather possible for golf. Slight drizzle in the morning and an absolutely fantastic weather after that. Breezy, wasn’t too humid, I don’t know what people do if they don’t play golf in this weather. It’s not a beautiful course, but the wide fairways and slight elevation makes it a course you want to walk on, it makes you look forward to the holes that are about to come. It’s something in between the boringness and wideness of Tuanku Jaafar; and the sheer prettiness of Palm Garden. A little of both.
Memorable holes? The 10th forces you to hit a dogleg you can fly over the trees; and land less than 100 meters from the hole. Unfortunately, this hole was screwed up with the darn temporary greens.
Most of the holes sport runway fairways, named such that a 747 can land with space to spare. For some mystical reason, that small little white ball can’t seem to find it!!
I got a feeling the course plays really hot if we get caught in the sun, something like Gunung Raya or the Nameless course in Seremban.
Fun Factor (4/5)
After slogging through a series of misses in our golf tour, like Monterez, Nilai and Berjaya, coming back to open areas like Bukit Kemuning was like water in the desert. Don’t get me wrong, Bukit Kemuning isn’t superb or anything; there are a lot of things that could be wrong with the course, but we just caught it on a good weather day. The greens took away a bit of fun, but overall, any golfer of any level would find this course fun. It’s not sadistic, realizing that weekend hackers are not very comfortable playing championship material course; so it sort of dials down the hazards and the toughness. Don’t you love courses that condescends you?
Conclusion
It’s a course, when done, we all had something to talk about. Different levels of golfers can recall one or two or more memorable shots that we managed to pull off. This is why I think golfers are generally delusional and optimistic. Both characteristics go together. Delusion in their own skills and how they execute shots; and optimistic when the shot is NOT executed, that it would definitely be, in the next attempt. With the wide fairways and generous rough, and the course playing shorter due to the temp greens, Bukit Kemuning is definitely a course we want to come back again for another visit.
The good: Generous and well maintained fairways; easy accessibility, near to highway; course that doesn’t beat down the golfers too much; caters to golfers of all levels; reasonable pricing and aesthetics make it a course to return to.
The bad: Bad bad management doesn’t inform us of the temp greens; unchallenging rough; terrain is flat and mainly the same style; bad service, bad handling of our golf sets!
The skinny: 23 of 40 divots (57.5%). Recommended course to all levels. It plays easier than most courses, Bangi included, because of the flat terrain and vast fairways. Easy drive will definitely put you in a good mood before and after the game.
Bukit Kemuning Score Card
Bukit Kemuning Information
Address:
Lot 6031, Batu 7, Bukit Kemuning
42450, Shah Alam, Selangor.
Contact: +603-51217188
Fax: +603-51216416
Website: http://www.bkgcr.com/
layanan suck.
Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your comments on Bukit Kemuning Golf & Country Resort. In fact, we are pleased that you took notice to almost every detail that you experienced during your trip to our course. We do apologize for our shortcomings especially with regards to our bag drop buggy, which was a temporary measure (bag drop is now located next to the buggy station where you can drop your bag directly to our staff who will arrange your buggies), as well as for not informing you earlier regarding our temporary greens. We are still upgrading our greens for a better experience but are pleased to inform that the 1st, 2nd, 10th and another 7 greens have been upgraded with the new fast rolling “Bermuda Tifdwarf” greens grass. Our members and guests are pleased with the new greens as our speed roll has reached up to 9! From what you have mentioned, it seems you visited our humble course at the initial period of upgrading last year where we also realised that our temporary greens were not up to standard. We have now improved our temporary greens to ensure non-disruptive play. New trees with more foliage are being replenished into the course to ensure better aesthetics and shade. We are also pleased to mention that we are in the process of upgrading our buggy tracks to full 3 metre concrete tracks to improve your ride over the current premix tracks. The clubhouse is also experiencing a face lift and expansion to seminar rooms, swimming pool, the gym, sauna, and badminton courts. This will be complete in 10 months time. Once again, thank you for your comments and we apologize for our shortcomings. Do visit us at BKGCR once again =)
I did visit BKGC over last weekend and I must say that it’s nor a worthy course to play. Fairways are bad as they’re brown and not green in colour!!! And there are weeds everywhere. Temporary greens are still there, 2 of them. For the price paid, I’d rather pay slightly extra to go to Bandar Tasik Puteri and have a splendid time enjoying the fairways there. Best part about this club is their buggy. Guess you know what I mean.
Just played at bukit Kemuning & must say the course was better than expected. We enjoyed the big fairways and were surprised with the greens speed. Only thing was they had 2 temporary green. Clubhouse quite nice, and saw they redoing their swimming pool and building some other extension. Saw a cool army camouflage buggy and a 4 wheel bike too! Very cool!
They always seem to have some temporary green! It’s like Tasik Puteri lar…
But yeah it’s a very generous course…recommended for the mid – high handicappers..
I played few times recently at BKGCC and i think they are good, the service – good, most of the staffs are friendly enough, food & drinks are delivered quite fast – which i think very important ( few minutes from order time ), the course is ” user friendly ” and the maintenance also good, i think it is a good course, there have more facilities coming up….. so i decided to buy a membership… ha ha.
played there last week.. horrible experience. fairways are yellowish.. i think my ex-school padang is better.. too much kemuncup.. dunno what’s the word in english.. dun wan to play there anymore.. the first and the last..
just played here yesterday.
1. still no service at the bag drop. the atendents pretend you are not there. but if you wait they will eventually come over to collect yr golf bag.
2. greens 1 – 10 are still horrible to putt. they forgot to further maintain the greens after hollow tining & aeration.
3. all the fairways are brown & dry & have very good roll.
Tried to play here just today – after reading this great review. It just happened to be one of the 4 most closest golf courses on location where I am currently visiting Malaysia… But to the point – the service of this place. That’s really something – in the ugly side.
Firstly, when trying to call and ask about anything special about the club & services, I get someone being a “smart Alec” and also hanging up before the matter is really handled. I thought that what the heck, it’s only 17km, I shall drive there and ask myself if I can play there or not (and if there is rental clubs etc.).
Result? Well, there was rental clubs – but I needed RM100 cash deposit. Not very handy for a foreign dude like me who has mainly cards and only RM90 in the pocket. But that was topped by a strange rule (that they should mention clearly in their website!) that minimum 2 persons can play. So teaming me up with some other groups that are coming that day – well, I wouldn’t mind… But it would have meant that the group was okay also?
So the whole process got just way too complicated and I might have been waiting there half the day without getting to play… Nope, I just left. What a shame, the golf course itself looked tempting.
Final feedback… Why don’t you have any review on Glenmarie Golf? There is 2 times 18 holes, and at least my experience there was awesome. Registration happened easily, no fancy-pancy stuff, no needing to fill in any strange registration cards like it seems to be idea in some courses in Malaysia etc. And everything went smoothly, can choose also if want to use trolly or buggy, because I prefer to walk my way – using buggies is for lazy asses – that’s the attitude in the country where I come from, and even if it might be like in sauna here in Malaysia, I am still keeping that attitude.
So it would be great if you could add these little details in the reviews… Like can solo person go and play. Can play without annoying caddies or not. And also is it trolly and/or buggy course etc.
Thanks for the great site, best I have seen of Malaysian golf courses.
I think Glenmarie is for member guest only? Maybe the rules have changed, even if not, I got a feeling they might slaughter us with a steep price. I’d love to play there too…as for the single person rule, some clubs unfortunately have this..same reason why some crap stinks and some don’t…can’t explain it, but I agree, we generally lump any clubs that forces us to do something we don’t like, as crap that stinks. Unless of course it’s a weekend or the course is jammed up. A simple call should resolve the matter, but BK has bad rep for bad service.
Welcome to Malaysia golf!!
Well, played in BKGCC last December and have to agree on the bad service. Well, the service in the F&B area were not bad, but others (registration, bag drop, etc) was really bad. Its as if the staffs there are mad at us for coming thus they have to work.
As for Glenmarie, I think you’re able to play there if ur an SSG Links card member. However, its only applicanle on weekdays, and they still cut ur throat (at RM 160) for it…
fros, felt exactly same… Like they were hating any customers… More work for them etc.
And Glenmarie is now open to guests (at least I went there without even knowing any names of any members
, so you should try… If the pricing doesn’t scare you off. I have to admit it was pricy for me too, since it costs the same there as the average costs in European courses and then there was the caddy tip on top of that… So in the end it was big lump of cash gone. The course was so great and I had so much fun that I would say it was ALMOST worth it. 
For homeless club members, please
don’t be so demanding, otherwise all golfing cardholders will be barred to enjoy the privileges. I am a golfing cardholder too, I appreciated those golf
clubs allows us to play. Cheers!!
I played here last Sunday. Quite pleasant experience with greens in consistent speed.
but pissed off at the end, where the caddy after being tipped about RM30, came back and ask for another RM20 saying her friend got Rm50 from my golf buddies.
or am I a cheapskate?
That’s ridiculous. Bukit Kemuning is a mediocre golf course and caddies should not be tipped RM50!! This course has the most atrocious service and caddies EVER. Maybe it’s time we boycott this course.
It is indeed quite a surprise to read most of the so negative comments from you guys. Just like to list down my experience there to share.
1. Entrance – guards act very fast to open the boom gate when see our car approaching – Good
2. Bag Drop – Always attendants there to received you bags, I have played there more then 40 times and have never experience a time where the attendant pretend they didn’t see you, just sometime they are busy arranging buggies, have to wait for some second – Good
3. Registration – Always very fast, within 15 minutes – Good
4. Fair way – GUR repair progress quite slow – Need improvement
5. Green – cannot compare Glenmarrie that kind of course but is better then Kinrara – Average
6. Locker room – Clean, locker with key lock, bath room with hot water – Good
7. People – Most of them are friendly and helpful – Good
8. Marshall – Not strict in controlling the playing speed, some flight just play too slow like they are betting for million dollar – Need to improve
9. Car Park – Ample space for parking – Good
10. Buggy – Quite new and good condition, as good as Kota Permai – Good
11. Caddie – Seldom used and usually not as good as Kota Permai/Saujana – Need to improve
12. Caddie tip – RM30 here, If you want to pay more, what can I say. The guy who pay RM50 is his like but he should consider his playmate’s caddie also as it is common for the caddie to ask for same treat, even those big club caddie also the same ( experience in Saujana ) – OK
13. Club Facilities – swimming pool, badminton court, squash court, gym, sauna room all very new – Good
I must say I like the this club.
Thanks Lai for the update. Indeed, it was almost 4 years since we reviewed the course, and I am also quick to add we have seen incremental improvements here and there since then. It’s just that we’re lazy a#ses and we don’t really update clubs that we’ve reviewed
But definitely appreciate the update and we need more gilagolfers to do this for the benefit of others. Thanks!
By the way, I believe, we did recommend Bukit Kemuning to be played! Negative comments, you should read the entry for TUDM Kuantan or Frasers. Happy hacking!
voucher codes dominos
Can anyone recommend any other sources of material on this subject? Thanks in advance…
Played here on 1st day CNY. RM100 net with agssg. Didnt want caddy as we told them one of our buddies got rm200 stolen from his wallet by a caddy there a week before. Stupid of him to leave wallet in the golf bag, but still..Great price for a very decent course. Will defo play here again.
Wow, dangerous caddies..
Regardless of what the above said, this is the most memorable course since I started playing Golf. This is where as 24 handicapper, I beat nearly 40 other golfers in our closed-door stableford tournament with 42 points!….by maintaining mind-focus game of having steady bogey game plus few pars and not even thinking about the impossible birdie.
Bukit Kemuning is definitely 1 of the top on my list. We used to pay RM90 for Sunday morning slot with AGSSG, now is RM100. They don’t force caddie on you on weekend morning cause they do not have enough caddies. Fairway is basically good (except when is rainy season). Of course when it is hot like now, the fairway become brownish, what do you expect? Even those PGA course will face the same problem. Food there is pretty good as well. Now if I have to complaint, there is only 1 thing:
Flight control – especially weekend morning. I think due to economic reason, the club is taking in too many flights. I have experience queuing like 5 flights behind and end of the day, tee off almost 45 minutes later than my original tee off time. Pace control by marshall is pretty poor. On weekend morning, you will probably need to spare minimum 5 hours to complete your 18 holes, plus another 30 minutes to tee off from your original time. So you are basically looking at 6 hours (30 minutes earlier for registration, 30 minutes delay plus 5 hours for 18 holes). So plus a fast soya cincau ais and mandi, then you are looking at 7 hours in total. That is very long for golf. Just hope the flight control will get better as I will be playing there this Saturday morning.
Surprise, we tee off at 7.45am and managed to complete around 12.15pm, so it took us less around 4.5 hours which is consider reasonable for a Saturday morning tee off. The only unpleasant incident was when my flight mate (Japanese) guy hit his second shot at par 4, he pull his shot, then the ball flew over the flight in front of us. Of course we did shout “Fore” while waving frantically at them. We then went over, my Japanese friend took off his cap and in typical Japanese style, bow 90 degree and said sorry. Then the whole thing start……
One of the uncle start saying, “you all should wait. If you want to go first, we have no problem letting you go…..bla….bla….bla……”.
Feeling that he is too much bullying my Japanese friend who is only into his fourth month in Malaysia, and already bow 90 degrees and said sorry again and again, I decided to reason with the uncle, “Uncle, we hit the second shot after you all already climb into the buggy. The next hole tee off point is just next to our green, so we need to wait until you tee off only can play second shot?”
The uncle (he think he is a fucking important guy?) start saying, “I don’t want to talk to you. You go talk to Vincent Teh….bla….bla….bla….” (who is Vincent Teh by the way?). I duly 4 putted the hole for a double bogey (my first 4 putt for a long time).
Now you see, before this incident, the flight behind us hit his second shot while we were putting, landing his shot just at the apron of the green (actually quite far from us as we were putting at blue pin). I turned back and shouted, “Hey, you guys are getting too close”. Then while waiting to tee off at the next hole, I just told the caddie for that flight, “woi, control sikit Korea tu lah, Par 4, mana boleh main second shot bila orang putting”.
They didn’t came over to apologize, we didn’t make a big fuss either. So we have many golfers who probably thinking that hacking around over weekend in their big beer belly and betting probably RM10 bucks per hole means that they are someone important? Crap.
Anyway, overall experience is very good. The green speed is not so much faster (8 according to the caddie) as compared to previous. Registration as usual is fast. Bugging is good, fairway reasonably well maintained. Bunker is big improvement with soft sand. Food as usual is serve fast enough and taste reasonable well (but I prefer the KGSAAS fried chicken wing over BK). I would say this course should be elevated to a must play course. Maybe Gilagolf can update your blog with a new review and new experience?
I mean the green speed now is so much faster than it used to be.
Gilagolf will need to have another look…when I pick up my club again! Now gilagolf has become giladad.