The Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) will reopen the back nine of the Island course for limited play in summer 2025 following a renovation by Nelson & Haworth.

The project – estimated to cost S$30 million (US$22 million) – is the last design work of the late Neil Haworth and is being overseen by Brett Mogg, a longtime partner at Nelson & Haworth.

“Golf in Singapore has been under pressure lately, with several courses closing,” said Mogg. The Singapore government has been reviewing land use and, as a result, it has reduced and will likely continue to reduce the number of golf courses in the country over the next ten years. “SICC decided it had to act to renovate the Island course to maintain its position as Singapore’s premier private club and had to provide more all-weather golfing alternatives for its membership. The Island course, while much loved by the members, was an old-style clay-based and cowgrass layout that had to often close due to wet weather.”

The Island course was originally designed by Scottish professional Peter Robertson and opened in 1932. Australian Peter Thomson oversaw changes, including rebunkering the course, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with only minor renovations made since then.

The aim of Nelson & Haworth’s project is to improve the course’s playability, walkability and drainage, while retaining the course’s historical roots and character. This project follows a 2017 renovation of the club’s Bukit course and the creation of a 27-hole New course on the site of two former 18-hole courses in 2021.

“Our work includes reducing steep fairway slopes and unwalkable areas, sandcapping to help the course cope with tropical rain events, new drainage, retaining playing corridors and mature trees, limited routing changes, improve views to Pierce Reservoir and to maintain the traditional look and feel of the course through new, push-up style greens and EcoBunker’s revetted bunkers,” said Mogg. “Another consideration has been to provide full cart path access for the club’s ageing membership, while also improving the course’s walkability.”

Construction is being carried out by TEHC International, and Chris Gray, the R&A’s head of sustainability and agronomy for Asia Pacific, is acting as a consultant. Ivan Chua, chairman of the redevelopment project committee, is overseeing the project for the club.

Key work relating to the back nine’s walkability includes filling valleys and lowering ridges on holes ten, thirteen, fourteen and sixteen (the carries have also been shortened) and eliminating steep slopes up to tees on eleven and twelve.

Playability has been aided by the elimination of blind shots on ten and thirteen as well as the construction of new forward tees on most holes.

A few of the biggest changes on the back nine come at the eleven-to-thirteen stretch of holes. “At the eleventh, the cross slope has been entirely eliminated, the u-drain that goes along the right side of the fairway and cuts across to the left has been raised and turned into a natural stream,” said Mogg. “The green has been shifted left to create a slight dogleg left at the end of the hole and a new back tee has been added to make this a true par five for the better players.”

The twelfth is now a long par three playing downhill to a green guarded on the left side by two rectangular-shaped bunkers as well as a water hazard, while the right has a generous bailout area. Players also hit from elevated tees at the par-four thirteenth to a fairway but that then rises up to a green framed by large, mature trees.

Another of the design team’s changes has come at the course’s final short hole. “The sixteenth has been lengthened into the longest par three on the course with the large trees on both sides of the fairway adding character and challenge,” said Mogg. “The Redan green template design will add strategy to the golf hole.”

Primo Zoysia grass from Sports Turf Solutions (STS)has been selected for tees and greens. “It’s very, very good on the tees, especially those getting limited direct sunlight,” said Nigel Taylor, a general manager at STS. “That is also the case for the greens that receive limited sunlight. It’s worth noting that the nutritional programme being used on both greens and tees is about 75 per cent Floratine, maybe more.”

Greens now feature a new SubAir ventilation system underneath them, and a new Toro irrigation system has been installed across the course. The project team has also included irrigation specialist Aqua Turf International, civil engineer JYC Consultants and surveyor WT Partnership. Centaur Asia Pacific has helped to deliver Profile Products’ porous ceramic (PPC) that has been used for greens construction, and the Loksand solution, which is being used for stability and wear control around bunkers.

Read more: a case study about Profile’s PPC solution, which was used on SICC’s New and Millenium courses.

Work continues on the front nine, with the project expected to be complete by the third quarter of 2025.