Borneo. The very name conjures up images of steamy jungles, palm-fringed beaches washed by a tropical sea, of a blistering sun beating mercilessly down from an azure sky. Well, it's all true. But add impeccable service in luxurious hotels, wonderful food cooked in tropical spices, and, for our benefit, a dozen beautiful golf courses that would be the envy of any golf resort in the world. Welcome to Borneo - or to be more precise, one part of it, the State of Sabah. Borneo, the world's largest tropical island, contains part of two nations - Malaysia and Indonesia - and the whole of a third, Brunei, whose Sultan is the richest man on earth. Bill Gates, join the queue. Sabah is the Malaysian state furthest east on the map, in the north-east tip of the island. Borneo contains the only known habitat of the orang-utan in the wild: the white sandy beaches welcome the leatherback turtles as they lay their eggs and you can watch the whale shark swimming just off shore in the warm waters of the South China Sea. And just inland in the tropical rainforest you can find the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia, as well as many other exotic plants including the insect-eating pitcher plant. Sounds like paradise, doesn't it? Well, the truth is, it is.

After a non-stop flight from the UK to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's bustling capital, the flight to Kota Kinabalu takes just a couple of hours. This close to the equator temperatures remain pretty static year-round, hovering around 32°C but with quite high humidity, though the sea-breezes do act as a coolant and the occasional tropical thunderstorm, as well as being spectacular, is refreshing. Sheet lightning is less dangerous than the fork lightning we normally experience in the UK but it's necessary to take cover in a building from the rain, which will normally only last half an hour - then the sun comes out again. Quite close to Kota Kinabalu - KK as it's known locally - airport is the Sutera Harbour hotel and golf complex, two beautiful hotels, a marina and 27 holes of Graham Marsh designed championship golf. The course is in immaculate condition and runs close to and in some cases alongside the waterfront, so the wind, warm as it blows, can play havoc at certain times. Overall the fairways are easy to hit though the greens are pretty fast. Water comes into play on some holes though is never that threatening and there is always a way round. Green fees are RM230 (about £44) in the week, rising to RM295 at weekends, including golf carts though hotel guests receive a 30% discount in the week.

An hour from KK is the Borneo Golf & Country Club, a Jack Nicklaus course that rates at the top end of the difficult scale. At over 7,200 yards it is long, but the difficulty comes more from the approaches to the greens than anything else. Whilst the fairways are fairly generous and not difficult to hit, getting to the green in regulation on the longer holes can be difficult as they are almost all protected by bunkers that cut in across the front of the greens. The front nine is, by comparison with what comes later, fairly gentle with water only coming into play if you are really wayward to the right. The fun begins on eleven with a big drive required to carry a lake and land well to the left of the fairway to get a clear shot into the green - but it is a par-5. The thirteenth is definitely unlucky for some, or rather for many! The hole measures 377 yards from the tournament tees (410 from the back). You can either play straight to the fairway, which is very narrow and will leave you a 160-yard approach directly over water to a green guarded at the front by a deep bunker, or you can take the direct approach and hit 200 yards across the lake to a tiny piece of fairway. The boldness of that shot - if you pull it off - will reward you with just a wedge to the green avoiding carrying the bunker. A real test!

Rated as one of the toughest courses in south-east Asia the Sabah Golf & Country Club is the oldest 18-hole course in Borneo. It has that traditional look to it, not new and glitzy but secure and mature. Carved out of a former rubber plantation and jungle it has hilly fairways, large lakes, hidden bunkers and the added complication of a strong wind swirling round the course at various points. The 14th, a 620-yard par-5 is much talked-about and will remain in your memory long after you have played it. With out-of-bounds all down the left you need a 220-yard tee shot to reach the top of the fairway, followed by a good second to reach the dogleg. Bunkers and a lake guard the green for your mid-iron approach. The 15th plays off an elevated tee, with two lakes to drive across before hitting to a well protected, small green. This is tough, but should not be missed.

Bays and Mountains

Dalit Bay Golf club is located within the Shangi-La resort in Tuaran, just 40 minutes from KK. A beautiful course that runs through mangrove swamps - a perfect place for twitchers with 275 species of bird - and down to the sea, but always with the mountains in the background, this is a challenging course with plenty of water hazards. The target areas off the tees are fairly tight, nowhere more so than on the tenth, a long hole that runs right down to a tiny bay, the waves of the South China Sea lazily splashing onto the shore. The tee shot needs to be held tight left against the line of the overhanging cliffs. The next hole is also a huge challenge, often regarded as the signature hole, a par-3 of 175 yards across the mouth of the Tambalang river to a contoured green guarded on both sides by bunkers. A delightful course run under the careful guidance of Australian Laurie Walsh. Mount Kinabalu Golf Club, designed by Robert M Graves (who also designed Sabah G & CC) is the highest altitude golf course in south-east Asia, just one more reason for playing it. At 5,000 feet, in the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, its 18 holes offer not only a great challenge but magnificent views. The two-hour drive from KK is well worth it. The 7,000 yard layout starts with a very long par-5 with a blind tee-shot, not the best way to start a round of golf but one that will have you concentrating from the word go. If you do get a good tee-shot away you do have the possibility of going for the green on the second shot, though a stream across the front awaits any shorter shots. It might be sensible to lay up. The start of the back nine is also tough with a 410-yard par-4 that has a huge boulder - almost the size of a small mountain - in the middle of the fairway. You can either carry it if you hit long or bail out to the right. Anything going left may well be lost in dense vegetation, a feature of this course and one that, unusually, is classified as a hazard. The advice here is to take a lot of extra golf balls. The 14th is regarded as the signature hole and is one of the most spectacular you will find anywhere in the world. A par-3 of 160 yards, it plays across a very deep ravine, filled with a rushing mountain stream, to a miniscule green perched on the edge of the cliff. The green also slopes back to front so anything long, and the temptation is not to be short, will require a downhill putt on a lighning fast green. The bunkers at the front of the green catch many a misjudged downhill putt.

And finally the Karambunai Resort Golf Club, located within the grounds of the beautiful Nexus hotel. This spectacular Ronald Fream design just 40 minutes from KK - though why not stay here and enjoy the superb luxury of this beachfront hotel? - opened in 1996 against the natural backdrop of the rainforest, Mount Kinabalu and the South China Sea. Water is used fairly extensively on the course, nowhere more so than on the toughest hole, a 220-yard par-3 across a lake. Fream has, however, put a bail-out area right for those who do not feel they can hit this far. The greens are generous but undulating and fast. The next three holes run along the beach, giving some welcome relief in the way of cooling breezes, but the respite is needed as the holes then toughen up again, with tight landing areas, well guarded greens and treacherous putting surfaces. The clubhouse which, like the majority of clubhouses in Asia, is roofed but has no outer walls as such, allowing the scented breeze to waft gently through, offers marvellous food but I would always recommend the local cuisine rather than so-called western food. The freshness of the ingredients and the beautiful use of spices just make you feel so good. One tiny word of warning though - take plenty of water on each round of golf - I was averaging four litres of bottled water a round. With the heat and humidity, your body needs it. All courses in Borneo have soft-spikes rulings. Borneo also has wonderful eco-tourism opportunities including a visit to fishing villages built on stilts over the water, an orang-utan rehabilitation cenre, the rainforest itself, superb birdlife and flora, and perfect diving in the Celebes Sea, renowned as having more marine life than anywhere else on the planet, particularly close to the 2,000 feet vertical underwater cliff where turtles, lionfish and other marine life congregate. You can also watch the turtles laying their eggs on the beaches along the water's edge at certain times of the year. White water rafting, mountain climbing and fishing all add up to make this one of the most memorable holiday experiences of all time. And that's even without the spectacular golf.