I toured the Singapore golf club that charges $720,000 for membership. It looks like it's stuck in the 90s.

Singapore's golf clubs are exclusive, expensive, and extremely hard to get memberships to.

The city-state is home to 14 golf clubs, but unquestionably, the creme de la creme is Sentosa Golf Club.

It's the most expensive golf club in Singapore: Membership for foreign residents costs as much as $990,000 Singapore dollars, or around $720,000, reported The Straits Times in August, citing the local brokerage Active Golf Services. For Singaporeans and Permanent Residents, membership is slightly lower at S$580,000, per the report. Sentosa Golf Club declined to confirm membership prices to Insider.

In comparison, the famed Augusta National in Georgia — one of the most prestigious and exclusive golf clubs in the US — has an initiation fee of $40,000, per Golf.com. Augusta National has never publicly disclosed how much its membership fee costs.

What makes membership at Sentosa Golf Club so expensive? Well, like many exclusive social clubs, a limited number of memberships is available at any given time. So those looking to join have to buy out an existing member's spot in the club.

Bloomberg reported in December that it's the wealthy China-born golfers who are pushing membership prices to record highs at Sentosa Golf Club. But it was never cheap to be a member of the club. According to the local brokerage Singolf Service Pte, membership at Sentosa Golf Club already cost some S$200,000 back in 1993, which is around S$319,300 today.

Currently, the club has more than 1,600 members.

Singapore is the world's most expensive city, alongside New York City, according to a 2022 study of 172 cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

A 2023 study by the UK immigration firm Henley & Partners found that there are more than 240,100 millionaires and billionaires living in the city-state. Over 320 of these individuals have a net worth of at least $100 million.

Sentosa Golf Club is located in Sentosa Cove. The wealthy enclave is about a 20-minute drive from Singapore's Central Business District, but looks-wise, it's a world away: Instead of the glossy high-rises of downtown, Sentosa Cove is full of beach-side condos, single-family homes called bungalows — status symbols in land-scarce Singapore — and a marina full of sailboats and yachts.

Many of Singapore's top 1% live in Sentosa Cove, and in May, I spent a night at the yacht club there, where I had a glimpse into the lives of Singapore's richest residents. There, nearby W Singapore resort, I found million-dollar superyachts, towering condominiums, and marina-front restaurants where people spend their day lounging about. The enclave is surrounded by the ocean and felt more like a yacht town in Europe than a neighborhood in Southeast Asia.

Curious about what the golf club would be like — and if the aesthetics of the club would reflect the pricey membership — I spent a couple of hours at the club on a recent weekend.

As Sentosa Golf Club is a private club, access to the vicinity comes with a price. On weekends and holidays, members can bring along one guest to play golf at a cost of S$320 per day. Visitors have to pay S$500 per day.

To avoid the heavy fee, I booked a table at Panamericana, a Latin-inspired restaurant at the club that's open to the public where a bottle of Corona beer costs S$15 and a small plate of ceviche was S$32. On that day, the customers were mostly tourists and expats, many of whom were celebrating special occasions like birthdays. I didn't see a single person in a golf outfit. I took the opportunity to wander around the club before and after lunch.

For a weekend afternoon, the club was surprisingly empty. Outside, luxury cars lined the roundabout, including Ferraris and a handful of Mercedes-Benzes. Singapore is the most expensive city in the world to own a car. A Mercedes AMG E-53 — which costs some $75,000 in the US — costs S$510,888, or $368,652 in the city-state.

Security was low-key at the club. Outside, I saw two staff members taking care of the golfers' cart bags. It was quiet, and it looked like most people there were also heading for meals at one of the golf club's five restaurants.

Before we get any further, let me make one thing clear: I'm not a golf club expert. This is only the second golf club I've visited. In June last year, I spent three nights at a golf resort in Forest City, a development in southern Malaysia with a reputation for being a ghost town. There, the buildings were modern and massive, with the lobby overlooking the vast golf course, man-made lake, and mountains in the distance.

In comparison, Sentosa Golf Club felt underwhelming, with the entrance's basic, white pillars and black-framed doors blocking the view of the golf course and the harbor.

But according to reviews, visitors to the club don't have issues regarding the club's aesthetics — it's got 4.7 stars over 590 reviews on Google, with many people praising the golf course for being "spectacular," having comfortable facilities and offering great views of the Singapore harbor.

The interior was bright, with natural light pouring in from the big windows at the center of the lobby. The color scheme was muted, with shades of brown, white, and beige dominating the walls and furniture. The carpet was the exception — it was a plaid green color that gave the space a fittingly preppy vibe.

One thing that stood out to me was the Rolex-branded clocks around the club. It was a not-so-subtle reminder of the pedigree of the club.

But all in all, the club looked, simply, dated.

One of the hallways inside the club resembled a college lecture theatre, with the VIP boardroom flanked by two yellowish pillars. According to a Sentosa Golf Club brochure I found online, this boardroom is often used to host functions including banquets and weddings.

There were several places to lounge about inside the club, which comprised coffee tables and fabric chairs made out of wood. Beside them was a newspaper rack and a colorful, stylized portrait of Rory McIlroy, a Northern Irish golfer who's won four major championships. In one of the hallways, several framed portraits of esteemed female golfers and a trophy cabinet filled with silverware were on display.

To Sentosa Golf Club's credit, its golf courses — the Serapong and the Tanjong — are used for competitions including the HSBC Women's World Championship and Singapore Open. The Serapong was even included on Golf Digest's list of the world's 100 best golf courses. Sentosa Golf Club ranked 55, although the list was limited to courses outside the US.

As a woman in my 20s — dressed in a blue sundress and sandals — I stuck out like a sore thumb. The golfers I spotted were all men, dressed in sporty golf gear — including white visors — and appeared to be at least 30 years my senior.

Nonetheless, the demeanor of the golfers was surprisingly friendly. I met one golfer, who looked to be in his 70s. When I shared that I was a journalist, he wasn't willing to chat, especially after all the controversy that's engulfed the club in recent months.

In August, Singapore authorities took control of some S$1 billion in a money laundering bust from several wealthy Sentosa Cove residents — and five of the 10 foreigners who were arrested in connection with the case were found to be members of the Sentosa Golf Club, per an investigation by The Straits Times.

Sentosa Golf Club declined to comment on Insider's story.

Even for a non-golfer like me, I could appreciate the golf course — it was vast, perfectly maintained, and idyllic, especially in a city that's known for being densely packed with concrete, skyscrapers, and people. I spotted several buggies zooming around the course, and a handful of golfers teeing off.

At the Golfer's Terrace — an alfresco restaurant at the club — I was treated to a panoramic view of the golf course. And from Panamericana, on the club's second floor, I could see the Singapore Strait and many ships passing through.

While I felt out of place roaming the large hallways of the club — acutely aware that even spending one day hitting balls on the course would be out of my budget, it was fascinating to see where the rich hung out. I learned that being wealthy doesn't necessarily mean being opulent, but it definitely means having expensive hobbies.