Keppel Club Driving Range

The driving range looks quite ordinary, I mean, it’s nothing much to crow about except for the fact that it registers high on the usability factor. For a range that serves its purpose of being a range, YES, Keppel is the place to go. It has more than sufficient bays on both levels; 23 in the lower level and 26 in the upper level; tee off mats that look and smell much newer than most ranges dotted all over the island; and reasonable rental rates for golf balls compared to the other courses reviewed.

However, what the other ranges may lack, Keppel, as a country club, is well adorned with. It has ample restaurants to entice even the most discerning taste buds, and watering holes that serve up beers and other fanciful alcoholic drinks to numb our senses, especially after a bad day at the office.

As I review the driving range, I cannot help but be reminded also of the variety of food places on offer at Keppel. Straight up, you have a Japanese restaurant, followed by a Peranakan, and a coffee house, so aptly named as the Mangrove, well tucked in one corner beside a real life mangrove swamp. Without prejudice, I think the Mangrove offers some of the best Western and Local delights at wildly reasonable prices. I mean, no where, I can vouch, can you soak in the sheer beauty and ambience of the sea view, and enjoy the faint smell of the sea salt and the caress of the sea breeze without leaving feeling that you have guiltily and extravagantly spent away every cent that you have slogged through, blood, sweat and tears, the whole month. In land scare Singapore, views such as this command a premium and not many of us, that includes me as well, can well afford the luxury. But, fret not, as the Mangrove, situated at the very tip of southern Singapore, has a view that many other restaurants would die and crave to have. It is, in many respects, one of the last few remaining secrets where one can dine reasonably, yet enjoy a view, without having to pay a million dollars for it.