Standing on the seventh tee of Nirwana Bali Golf Club's signature par-three hole, I wasn't humming a song from the movie South Pacific, which the island inspired. I was more inclined to mutter a prayer as I gazed at the Lot Sea Temple situated on a tiny island just left of the undulating green and confronted a hole with raging surf in front of me, not to mention a putting surface well defended by bunkers.
This 194-yard hole (from the championship tee) on the Greg Norman-designed layout is just as beautiful and intimidating as Pebble Beach's signature seventh, which I saw during a visit to the famous Californian course. At about US$500, including a caddie, to play the links, Pebble Beach would have cleaned out my wallet, so here I was on the island paradise of Bali.
While former world number one Norman's challenging hole suggested I hit a low note, the gods must have been with me as my three-iron shot sailed over the ocean and landed softly on the green. I now had a chance to make a birdie, but my ball, scampering across the green like a mouse, just missed and I settled for a par.
My intention was to play four courses in Bali, and the par-72, 6,805-yard Nirwana (green fee US$140), which is about a 45-minute drive northwest from Denpasar airport, gave me my first encounter with one of Asia's finest layouts.
Like much of the island it was decidedly quiet; a GO, or gentil organisateur, at Club Med in Nusa Dua told me the club was bereft of Americans, many of whom had continued to stay away on the advice of the US government. So at dinner I talked to French, Austrian, German, Italian, Australian and South African fellow guests. 'We're going river-rafting tomorrow, then taking a tour of the island,' said one. As for Club Med, which has a capacity of about 1,200, the week's guest list ran to only 250.
What the Americans and others don't realise, perhaps, is that a magical world awaits when you leave behind the hotels, beaches and fake souvenirs of Nusa Dua, Kuta, Legian and Seminyak.