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| This is a hillside course
with moderate ups and downs. Strategy is important on this course as the landing
areas are guarded by bunkers, bushes, lakes and slopes. You must manage your shots
carefully not to let your balls hit the bunkers in order to have a good score,
as they are very deep. The course layout is excellent but it is regrettable that
the greens were slow and not well maintained.
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| A par 3 over water. |
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| A
slight dogleg to the right. This hole is beautiful but difficult. Accuracy of
the tee shot is a must on this relatively short par 4 because the landing area
off the tee is tight and guarded by water on 3 sides, forming as if it were an
island fairway. The second shot is gently uphill. |
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| A gentle uphill, dogleg to the
left. The fairway bunkers on the both sides off the tee come into play. You should
hit long rather than short on the second shot because a huge bunker shaped like
a hand guards the front side of the green. |
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| A
long, beautiful dogleg to the left. The tee shot is a gentle uphill one and the
second shot is gently downhill. It is difficult to hit the green in regulation
because a 250-yard drive is needed and the green is guarded by water on the left
and bunkers on the right. The second shots will have downhill lies and the longer
it remains, the harder it becomes to hit the green. |
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| A
demanding par 4 with an uphill tee shot. The fairway bunker on the right and cumbersome,
long roughs on the left come into play. The wide, not deep, green is a little
elevated and guarded by two deep bunkers in front. |
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A slightly downhill, neat par
3. The right half of the front side of the green faces a lake. The green is divided
into 2 faces by a sharp mound. When the pin position is on the right, this hole
becomes difficult, as it requires carrying over water. Also, the left side of
the green is not a safety zone. It is hard to save par by putting or chipping
over the mound from the left side. |
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| A gentle uphill dogleg to the
left. Bunkers on both left and right sides of the fairway come into play, so a
long and accurate drive is needed off the tee. The green is big and slopes steeply
from the back to the front. The green is guarded by deep bunkers. |
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| It takes 40 minutes from Xiamen and 30 minutes
from the airport by car. Xiamen is an island and doesn’t have any golf courses
inside the city. All the golf courses are on the mainland, across the sea. I
could freely choose the tees to play.
The other Greg Norman designed courses in Asia are Nirwana
Bali GC, Laguna
Bintan GC, River Side GC, Tering Bay G&CC in Indonesia, Thana
City G&CC in Thailand, The
Bluffs Ho Tram Strip GC, Danang GC in Vietnam, Shirasagi GC in Japan,
Jade Palace in Korea and Mission
Hills (觀瀾湖) GC (Norman Course) in China.
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7th Par 4 375 yards (1)