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Welcome to hole 9 of our Hacker’s Guide to Handara. Hopefully by this point in your round you’ve kept your game plan intact and are sitting somewhere around 39 strokes taken. Hole 9 at Handara Golf & Resort Bali is a challenging par 5 hole that usually requires all my available willpower to avoid going off script.

Hole 9 at Handara Golf & Resort Bali

Hole 9 at Handara Golf & Resort Bali
Hole 9 at Handara Golf & Resort Bali

Tracking back up the hill toward the clubhouse, the ninth hole is a dogleg left with fairway bunkers on the right side of the dogleg. Huge trees in front and left of the tee box prevent any reasonable attempt to cut the corner. A sensible first shot is a driving iron or fairway wood straight out toward the fairway bunkers. If you have a *reliable* draw, you can use it to your advantage off the tee on this hole.

Depending on your lie after the first shot, consider hitting a fairway wood or long iron up the hill, staying to the right to avoid the left-side bunkers as you get to approach distance. If you can get within 150 yards of the green in your second shot, you may have a chance at getting on in 3. However, if your second shot leaves you much more than 180 out from the green, considering that it is uphill, you may choose to lay up at a “go-to” distance.

Hole 9 of Handara Golf & Resort Bali
The view at 9th Hole of Handara Golf & Resort Bali

For me, that distance is 100 yards for a nice smooth 56* wedge shot. As this approach is uphill, I often play the 52* on a 100-yard approach, especially if the blue flag is flying that day. Be careful to aim a bit to the right of the pin on this left-sloping green and try to get the ball as close to the correct distance as possible. The green is deceivingly large and overly long or short approaches can lead to three putts if you are not careful.