Forum: Good that golfers can play longer at Mandai, pity that Marina Bay course is closing

I agree with those interviewed in the article “Golf may become an exclusive sport in Singapore, warns community” (April 6), and am glad the authorities have decided to give Mandai Executive Golf Course a two-year tenancy extension.

Golf is generally seen as a game for the rich, but in many countries, along with the exclusive golf and country clubs, there are affordable and accessible public courses. Admittedly, these countries have a lot more land to spare than Singapore.

Marina Bay Golf Course (MBGC), the only 18-hole public golf course in Singapore, is due to close on June 30.

The course is in Tanjong Rhu – close to the Singapore Sports Hub and the financial and tourist heart of the city. It is well designed and well run; it is by Singapore’s standards affordable, and managed by NTUC Club.

We have a public golf course run by the organisation that represents the interests, and works for the welfare, of workers in Singapore. There is a patch of prime land where ordinary people can play golf.

As pointed out in the letter “Affordable access to golf facilities for national servicemen, families” (April 11), there are two National Service Resort and Country Club courses, and this is good. But they are still clubs, and only for national servicemen and their families. Not everyone in Singapore is doing or has done national service or is a member of a national serviceman’s family.

MBGC is a fully public course. Anyone with a golf handicap can book a game. Foreigners pay slightly more, and business visitors and tourists do pop in too.

For a global city, having a public golf course so close to its centre is a great asset. And all the more so when we can tell visitors it is run by the labour movement.

Margaret Thomas