Dino Putt

Dino Putt is an 18-hole mini golf course at clubFACE on Upper Jurong Road, about ten minutes’ walk from Joo Koon station, and you play it among life-sized animatronic dinosaurs that move and roar as you go past.

Staff hand you a putter, a ball and a scorecard, and there is a practice green to warm up on first. The holes get harder as you work round — bends, humps and bunkers — but the slopes stay gentle enough that a child who has never held a putter will finish, and a round runs to about an hour. The dinosaurs line the pathways with signboards explaining each species rather than standing in the way of your ball, so you play beside them rather than through them. Leave time for the dino rides at the end: they are the part most people remember, and they are charged separately from the golf. There is a bouncy castle too.

Go early or go in the evening. The course is entirely outdoors under netting rather than shade, so a Saturday afternoon means an hour in full sun — take a cap, and an umbrella if the sky looks heavy, though there is sunscreen and mosquito repellent at the counter if you arrive without either. The paths take a pram, parking is easy, and the turf is soft enough to sit on while you wait.