Sijori Wondergolf: Exploring an abandoned mini golf course

30 December 2021

I was intrigued when I found out about an abandoned mini golf course. At the point in the time, Holey Moley was a popular indoor mini golf course, featuring interesting themed set-ups, some of which even glowed in the dark. Although had never heard of any other mini golf courses in Singapore prior, I was curious to explore the abandoned outdoor mini golf course.

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History

Touted as Sentosa's first miniature golf theme park, Sijori Wondergolf was a 15,153 msq park featured three courses, two 18-hole and one nine-hole. The American course (9-hole), and the Betong and Eternit courses (18-hole). They were all built on this really hilly terrain, which was quite different from other minigolf courses. The total cost for the park was estimated to be around S$15 million. To put it in perspective, Sijori Resort itself, including renovation and consultation costs, cost around S$10 million.

In 1999, just three years after opening, visitor numbers were already quite concerning. The minigolf park attracted less than a third of the 1.5 million annual visitors to Sentosa. This worsened due to the SARS pandemic in 2003, eventually Sijori Resort accumulated losses of $10,822,347 under shareholders' funds and was finally closed in April 2008. Adapted from: https://mothership.sg/2022/06/sijori-wondergolf-ruins/

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Exploring Sijori Wondergolf

1430	Explore the Mini Golf Course
1500	Walking through the Reception Hall

1430 | Explore the Mini Golf Course

We walked up a small trail to the side of the road, and after going up a few slopes we spotted the first sign of the mini golf course. Each hole set-up was distinctively marked by a striking yellow border, and to one end was a hole where the ball is supposed to go into. There were dead leaves scattered all over, but I imagined if I had painstakingly cleared the leaves, I could still play with a golf club and ball.

We walked around the hilly terrains, and while we could barely make out the trails in the forest, we would spot a hole set-up every few metres or so. Each set-up had its own distinctive feature, there were slides, waves and even one with a volcano. Some of them still retained their sign with their assigned hole number and name, such as 'surfer's paradise'. It was quite surreal to see the mini golf course blending entirely into the surrounding forest, as old photos showed that the place was once a well manicure park.

1500 | Walking through the Reception Hall

After walking around the hilly mini golf course, we walked into the building just beside. The stairs led down into a reception area. Venturing further in, we came to a corridor with walls painted in gold and modelled to look like a cave. It looked pretty gaudy imo. We left after exploring the now vacant and lonesome mini golf course.

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My Thoughts

I imagined how fun it would have been to be playing mini golf at the park in the past. But putting it into perspective, it is pretty niche activity and more of a novelty which is hard to attract repeat patrons. Maybe I would buy a cheap mini golf club and ball, just so I can some back here to play next time heheh.