Dalit Bay Golf & Country Club

Two rivers, a river mouth and Mount Kinabalu on the skyline.

Dalit Bay fills the land between the Tambalang and Mengkabong rivers at Pantai Dalit, inside the 400-acre grounds of the Shangri-La Rasa Ria resort. Ted Parslow designed it, and it opened in 1996. Water touches almost every hole, from wetland and nibong palms on the front nine to a tee shot across a river mouth on the back. Visitors book online and pay one published nett rate, with a caddie on top. That makes Dalit Bay easy to budget, if not the cheapest round in Sabah.

Dalit Bay Golf & Country Club green fees and tee times.

The club’s website links to an online booking engine at booking.dalitbaygolf.com.my. For tee times by email, write to dalitproshop.rrr@shangri-la.com, or call the resort on +60 88 797 888 and ask for extension 6706 or 6707. Group and tournament enquiries go to dalitbaygolf.rrr@shangri-la.com. Golfasian also confirms tee times and caps groups at four. The rates page lists one published rate with no weekday or weekend split, so a Saturday round costs the same as a Tuesday. The same page lists the caddie service as compulsory. You can request a caddie by WhatsApp in advance and pay for it at the pro shop counter.

The round, in perspective.

The club’s own history page credits the Australian architect Ted Parslow and dates the opening to 1996, which Golfasian confirms. The club’s hole-by-hole guide adds up to 6,967 yards, par 72. Golfasian quotes a shorter 6,369 yards, so check which tees you are on. The 4th is a short par three to an island green, reached from the tee by a wooden bridge through wetland and nibong palms. The 11th is the signature hole: a 185-yard par three with the South China Sea around the tee and a carry across the mouth of the Tambalang river. Mount Kinabalu stands behind the green. The 13th, stroke index 2, needs a 180-metre carry to a narrow strip of fairway with the Tambalang river all down the left. The 14th, a 558-yard par five, tees off among mangroves, and the 18th has water the whole way down the right. The 9th, a 419-yard par four, is stroke index 1.

Know before you go.

Buggy

Twin-share buggy included in the green fee

Caddies

Compulsory; one caddie serves at most two golfers

Group size

Up to four players

Booking

Online booking engine, or +60 88 797 888 ext 6706/6707

Make the trip work.

Allow about RM585 a head for 18 holes if two of you share a caddie, or RM660 with a caddie to yourself, plus a tip. The rates page lists a Titleist rental set at RM220 and FootJoy shoes at RM60, so bring your own clubs if you can. Golfasian warns that monitor lizards and monkeys turn up on the course, and one reviewer on its site mentions crocodiles near the water. Leave a ball that runs into the rivers or mangroves where it is. The Golfers’ Terrace in the clubhouse serves lunch after the round.

The club says the drive from Kota Kinabalu International Airport (BKI) usually takes about 40 minutes, crossing the Tuaran bridge and following the Mengkabong river. Golfasian puts the course about 30 km from the city. The resort runs transfers for its guests, and taxis and Grab cars cover the trip from Kota Kinabalu hotels.

Where it is.

Nearby: 1. Nexus Golf Resort Karambunai (7 km) · 2. Sabah Golf & Country Club (23 km) · 3. Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club (23 km)

Somewhere to settle in.

Shangri-La Rasa Ria sits beside the course on Pantai Dalit, a long beach facing the South China Sea, and has restaurants including Kozan Teppan-yaki, Tepi Laut and Oceano Modern Grill. It also runs Rasa Ria Reserve, its own nature reserve. Nexus Resort & Spa Karambunai, a few kilometres south, is the other large beach resort on this coast and has its own course. Tuaran town, inland across the river, has simpler guesthouses.

Make a trip of it.

Nexus Golf Resort Karambunai is a few minutes south along the same coast and its weekday rate is a little over half of Dalit Bay’s, so the two make an easy pair. Sutera Harbour and Sabah Golf & Country Club are both in Kota Kinabalu, 40 minutes away. For a day off, ask the resort about visits to Rasa Ria Reserve, its patch of protected coastal forest. The club’s directions follow the Mengkabong river, whose estuary is lined with water villages, so the drive in is worth taking slowly.

Find your season.

February to April is usually the driest period, with light winds and clear views of Mount Kinabalu early in the day. Rain increases from May and is heaviest between October and January, when the low wetland holes drain slowly. The club’s hole guide singles out the wind off the sea on the 10th, which plays very differently from the black tee.