Pun Hlaing Named Myanmar’s Best Golf Course

Gary Player-designed course in Yangon takes top prize

(YANGON, Myanmar) — “Of the many golf courses I have seen in the world, Pun Hlaing Golf Club has to be in the top five. It reminds me of Augusta, Georgia”.

So said golfing legend Gary Player back in 2002. Of course, he may have been patting himself on the back when he said it - for it was Player who personally designed the par-72 course two years earlier in the leafy suburbs of Yangon.

However, the South African master’s statement proved accurate last month when Pun Hlaing Golf Club was named “Best Course in Myanmar” at the Asia Pacific Golf Awards 2019 in New Delhi.

“Pun Hlaing is a testing course for all levels of golfer,” said club pro Stephen Chick. “But thanks to its outstanding drainage, the course is playable 12 months of the year, even during the monsoons.”

Pun Hlaing Golf Course has hosted the Myanmar Open three times. Known as “The Pride of Myanmar”, the 7,124-yard course is a verdant landscape of rolling palm tree-lined fairways and water hazards, the icing on the cake being the final hole, the 18th, with its island green fronting the clubhouse.

Overlooking the 18th and with vistas of several other holes is Pun Hlaing’s sister hotel, the 4-star Awei Metta, which opened in December 2018. The chic business and leisure resort also won a design award recently ‐ as Best Resort Hotel Development at the 2019 Myanmar National Real Estate Awards in October.

Together, the hotel and golf course form the foundation of a superb luxury retreat for golfers, businesspeople, and a growing number of tourists to Myanmar.

Awei Metta offers guests a spa, fitness center, swimming pool and conference room, as well as one of the city’s top restaurants, Oscar, which specializes in French and Burmese cuisines.

Many golfers will take a particular shine to the hotel’s sophisticated Cigar Bar. Furnished in low leather seats, the lounge is a thinking man’s oasis where one can smoke and drink in uninhibited fashion while watching the action on the 18th. To accompany a fine selection of Scotch whiskies and cognacs, the discerning guest may opt for a smooth BLV Royal Corona cigar or a Magnum 46, two of Cuba’s finest.

All 46 suites at the five-story Awei Metta face the golf course. Ranging from 46m² to 95m², each wood-panelled suite comes with private balcony, office space and wide-screen TV.

Awei Metta is owned by Myanmar tourism trailblazers Memories Group, which owns and operates a myriad selection of resorts and travel experiences across the country, including its own island in the Mergui Archipelago with one resort, Awei PIla; yachting tours; eco-lodges; and arguably the nation’s most iconic tourist experience, the hot-air balloon flights of Balloons Over Bagan.

Combined golf and hotel packages, as well as tailor-made tours of Myanmar, can be booked through Memories Travel. E-mail: myanmar@memories-travel.com; site: www.memories-travel.com.