Camp John Hay

Overview: Camp John Hay is a mountain course in Baguio's pine-covered highlands, where the cooler air and hilly ground create a very different round from the lowland clubs around Manila. The 18-hole Jack Nicklaus design is identified by the club as a Golden Bear International project and plays to par 69 at 5,517 yards from the tips. Pine trees frame the fairways, elevation changes complicate club selection and the routing rewards a controlled approach game rather than a purely aggressive one.

History: The golf course is part of the former American base at Camp John Hay, a 625-hectare reservation whose management was transferred into the Philippine government framework in the early 1990s. The exact original opening year of the golf routing is not established by the sources reviewed here. More recently, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority has described interim operation and continuing facility improvements, so the profile separates the site's long history from the course's present operating status.

Did You Know? Camp John Hay's greens are bentgrass, a surface the club describes as unique in the Philippines. The fairways use Tifton 419, creating a deliberate contrast between the warm-season fairway turf and the cooler-climate putting surfaces. That turf combination is not just a technical footnote: at altitude, it is part of what makes the course feel unlike most Philippine golf destinations.