It takes one and half hours from Hong Kong by
a club car. The car is better and more comfortable than a bus because you can
shorten the trevel time through immigration. I played with a single-handicap
member from the black tees or tournament tees, which should be possible to play
on weekdays. It seems that playing from the black tees is not allowed on weekends.
The black tees actually had no tees on the grounds, so we played from back tee
box next to the yardage makers. Playing from the black tees, it is a very demanding
and difficult course. When advanced players play from the blue tees of 6100 yards,
900 yards shorter, they are not only misled into thinking that the course is easy
but also tend to become bored because the hazards in proper positions such as
bunkers or lakes don’t come into play so much. There are yellow tees between black
and blues tees, so the medium & advanced players understand the course better
if they use at least the yellow tees.
This club immediately became
famous because the World Cup was held at the World Cup Course in 1995. The Dynasty
Cup, a Ryder Cup-style shootout between Asia and Japan, was also held at the World
Cup Course in 2004 & 2005.
The adjacent hotel was very comfortable and its Chinese restaurant was
very testy.
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Mission Hills GC is the world’s biggest golf complex with 10 courses or
180 holes as of 2004, overtaking the huge Pinehurst resort in North Carolina,
which has eight 18-hole courses. The picture shows the 10 designers who
are all world-famous players or a teaching pro. The 10 courses are designed
by Jack
Nicklaus, Vijay
Singh, Nick
Faldo, Jumbo
Ozaki, Ernie Els,
Annika Sorenstam, Rose
& Poulter, Jose
Maria Olazabal, David
Leadbetter and Greg
Norman. The two couses were added in 2007, Pete Dye Course and Zhang
Lian Wei Couse (Par 3s course), so the club currently holds 12 curses or
207 holes.
Co-designers,
Lee Schmidt & Brian Curley are the principal architects behind the 8 of the
10 courses. They designed the other courses in Asia, Muang
Kaew GC (remodeled), Chiang Mai Highlands G&SR, Amata Spring CC in Thailand,
Grande Hamanako GC in Japan and Agile
(雅居楽長江) G&CC - B Course in China.
Their joint designs with Jack Nicklaus in Asia are Spring
City (春城) G&LR - Mountain Course, Chung
Shan Hot Spring (中山温泉) GC - Jack Nicklaus Course
in China, Ishioka GC, Rokkou Kokusai GC (remodeled), The Tradition GC,
President GC, Sanyo GC (remodeled), New Capital GG, Sun Belgravia GC,
Bear Paws Japan GC in Japan, Sungai Long CC in Malaysia, and Springfield
Royal CC in Thailand.
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4th Par 5 582 yards (3)