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course is the most southerly in China. The terrain used to be a sand dune a long,
long time ago, and now is a classic links styled course with rolling fairways.
Greens are fast, undulating and well bunkered. The challenging layout and the
sea wind makes play demanding. |
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| A long dogleg to the right. The
second shot is gently downhill. The left of the green borders water and the right
of the green is guarded by a deep bunker, so an accurate fairway wood shot is
required. When the headwind is strong, this hole may not be reachable in 2 and
need to carry the second shot to the place where the next approach shot will be
easy to hit. |
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| A challenging par 3 over a lake.
The green is wide and well contoured with water on the front and the right. |
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| A beautiful par 3. The green is protected
by shoulder-high bushes on the left and bunkers on the right. |
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| A very short par 4, which tempts
you to hit the green in 1. The closer to the green, the narrower the landing areas
become, so if your drive is very hard, you have a good chance of getting a birdie
as well as a high risk of the ball disappearing in the hazards on either side.
To play safe, you had better use a fairway wood or a long iron off the tee. This
is a typical “risk and reward” hole. |
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| A
great & picturesque, slight dogleg to the left with water all the way along
the left. The green is swung further to the left. A straight tee shot to the narrow
looking fairway is a must. A long hitter is tempted to go for the green in 2 but
needs to hit a perfect second shot, anything less or left will find the water.
When you lay up, the second shot is also difficult because the fairway is squeezed
by a series of 100-yard-long bunkers on the right and water on the left. |
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It is difficult to hit the green
in regulation on this hole as it is very long and the green is just a little over
20 yards wide. The deep but not wide green is guarded by bunkers on both sides.
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shot. One route is over a lake, which makes this hole almost straight and reduces
the distance a great deal. However, you must hit a very long and accurate 3 wood
shot, otherwise it will disappear in the water. If the very demanding second shot
is successful, the next approach shot is easy. Another route is to hit the left
fairway, which is safer and makes this hole a dogleg to the right. The second
shot is difficult in this case, too, because the landing areas are squeezed by
the lake on the right and the bunkers on the left. The third shot is over water.
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It takes 30 minutes from Sanya Airport by car. The golf club is in front of
Sanya Beach and is located within walking distance of the Sanya Marriott Hotel
where I stayed. This hotel was superb enough to give me the illusion I was in
Hawaii.
Adjacent to the course, there is a beautiful swimming pool with a man-made
beach which was used for 2003 Miss World Competition.
The other Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed courses in China are Spring
City (春城) G&LR – Lake Course, Sunshine
（陽光）GC, Shanghai
International (上海國際) CC, Harbour Plaza
(東筦海逸) GC, Trans Strait (海峡奥林匹克) GC and in
Hong Kong Discovery
Bay (愉景灣) GC.
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2nd Par 4 480 yards (2)