Mimosa Plus: A Unique Course in philippines with Rory Young - Golfasian

When a former PGA pro from Scotland finds his way to Clark, Philippines, and transforms a once-forgotten military golf facility into one of the most acclaimed courses in the country, you know there’s a story worth hearing.

In this episode, Golfasian visits Mimosa Plus in Clark - a course consistently ranked the best in the Philippines. With upgraded greens, modern drainage, and newly launched night golf, it offers day-to-night play in peak condition. Behind it all is Rory Yong, a Scottish PGA pro whose global journey brought him to the heart of Filipino golf. As the Philippines gains ground in Asia’s golf tourism map, Mimosa Plus stands out for its history, quality, and reinvention.

Where world-class golf meets travel, Golfasian brings your dream golf trip to life. Book your experience now at www.golfasian.com

Transcript

Okay.  Today we're in Clark in the Philippines.
I'm with Rory, who's the manager of Mimosa Plus.  So welcome.  

Now, you personally are obviously not Filipino. 
What's your background?
Where have you been working before you came to here?

So originally, I was born in Montrose, east coast of Scotland.
And then when I joined the PGA when I was 18. 

Qualified, so I'm a PGA professional out of the UK then I kind of went around the world to teaching.
I worked in Channel Islands, then moved to Malaysia.
Malaysia to Indonesia, Indonesia to Thailand, then into the Middle East.
I was in Abu Dhabi, and then prior to coming here, I was in Bahrain for five years.
I moved to the Philippines in 2022.

I think golfers generally like to find new places to go for a holiday golf vacation.
The Philippines has been a bit on the back burner for a few years.
Why do you think that is?

In that sense, I would say probably.
I think access has been one for a long time.
Obviously, Manila Airport was the only main hub.  I think with the infrastructure has definitely improved.
And that's been a massive push for the Department of Tourism now, where they've got their "Love golf, love the Philippines" kind of campaign moving forward.

How many golf courses are there actually in the Philippines?

So in the Philippines, there's 105 golf courses.

Well, that's an awful lot. 

And the first golf course was built a long time ago.

Yeah, it was early 1900s with that's Iloilo Golf Club, originally known as Santa Barbara Golf Club, is built by Americans and British.

But you manage Mimosa plus now, Just briefly, the history of Mimosa is to do with Americans, isn't it?  

Yeah.
So prior to it becoming "Mimosa Plus", it used to be "Mimosa Country Club".
Prior to that, it was a Air Force facility.
It was then taken over in the early 1990s by a developer who created the Mimosa Country Club.

You have upgraded the course over the recent years, haven't you?  

Yeah.
So prior to the pandemic, the company I worked for, we took over.
That's when it became Mimosa Plus.
We invested significantly into the re turfing of the Acacia Golf Course and redesign of some holes and then also re turfing of teas and greens on the Mountain View Golf Course and changing a few bunkers to make them a little bit more in play for golfers.

Well, I've just been around in a buggy looking at the Acacia course today and it'd be fair to say that it was in very good condition considering that you had quite a lot of rain overnight.
I think people need to realize that when they come to Asia.
The courses are actually designed to cope with tropical downpours.
I mean, you can have a tropical downpour and I assume you could be out playing quite quickly. 

Yeah, correct.
I think the longest time I've been closed due to a tropical storm is about half an hour from, from close to being able to go back out.  

Yes, Obviously you're going to have bunkers that are going to have some damage and, and different things.

But the, the, one of the major things with Mimosa is the, the drainage is very, very good.

It's very large and, and we pride our trying never to close.

Yeah, well, I, I was very impressed with the quality today.

So your club now is rather special because you can actually play in the night as well as the day.  

Correct.

This year we installed late lightyear.

This year we opened up nine holes on Acacia, so we can now do golf until 10pm 

Do you find that putting floodlights you need to really adjust to the, to the setup?

I mean Barnar Hills for example, we use in Vietnam.

They have excellent lighting so there are no shadows.

The modern lighting of day night golf must be.

Have improved immensely from just putting up a light in the old days.  

Yeah, Correct.

We used a company from China who's the number one, Moscow.
I think it's probably the same one that Bana Hills used.
It was used in Dubai prior as well.
So I had previous experience of seeing what they could do.
Yeah, the night light is, is very, very good.

So you could just to finish off, you could actually come here in the afternoon, play the front nine and then carry on into the evening.  

Correct.

We offer kind of two options when it comes to playing 18 holes.

One is you can tee off up until about 4:00 - 4:15.

As long as you can make the turn obviously before it gets dark.

6:15 is roughly the cut off or something that we have several people do is they'll come here at 6:30 and they'll play the same nine holes twice, maybe changing the tees and so on.  

It's just the back nine.  

Yes.

So have there been any famous people who've played here?

Yeah, we were very fortunate.

In 1998 they had Tiger woods came to play the number one Filipino at the time.

So obviously 1998 he was world number one.

It's the only golf course he's played in the Philippines.

I believe he was on his way to playing in Johnnie Walker.

We were delighted to be able to host our Philippine Invitational this February which was a great success.

60 players came from all over the world.

Finish off.  How would you sum up Mimosa plus to an international golf vacationer? Why should they come here?

So I would sum it up in the whole area as in Clark and Angeles City.

It's our one stop shop.

You can come in, you can fly here.  Everything is here.

We have international cuisine, we have international standard hotels.  

Yes.
We have multiple golf courses in the area.

Mimosa plus in particular has been voted as the best golf course in the Philippines for the last three years.

Really?

Touch wood. We get the fourth year.

You heard it from the GM there.

The best course in in the Philippines.

I think that's enough to say thank you for coming and talking to me.

Thank you very much, Mike, and we look forward to seeing you again.