Golf Courses in Zhuhai, China
Course-by-Course Introduction to Golf in-&-around Zhuhai – a stone’s throw away from the former Portuguese colony of Macau!
Lakewood Golf Club of Zhuhai – J Michael Poellot made full use of the 150 hactares of land covering the landmark South Hill of Zhuhai and built on it two superb championship courses – the Par72 7,212-yard Mountain Course and the Par72 6,730-yard Lake Course. The Lakewood Golf Club is just a mere 15 minutes’ drive along the new multi-lane highway from downtown and about an hour or so from the border with Hong Kong. While a lot of the original features on the land like the wild plants and the lakes have been retained for good use on the courses, artificial aesthetics have also been added either to enhance the environment or act as obstacles.
Not entirely unexpected, the Mountain Course is the more testy not only in yardage but also because of the frequent elevational changes. The fairways snake along the slope of the hill demanding at times creative paly. The 398-yard Par-4 Hole#6 tees-off downhill. The fairway is fairly generous but bunkers guard the dog-leg right making laying up for the green difficult. With the green not readily visible until way down, accuracy is key to a successful ending. Some regard this hole the Signature Hole of Lakewood Golf Club.
The Lake Course is a rather flat and a much more forgiving one than the previous. It does not even have the frequency of water obstacles typical of most other ‘Lake Courses’ elsewhere. The front nine is the more undulating of the two halves. Yardage is mostly short here with several Par-5s reachable in two for most amateurs. All said it is still a pleasant course to play particularly if everyone is heading for the other.
Zhuhai Golden Gulf Golf Club of The Pearl River Delta, Guangdong – Built on 500 hectares of reclaimed land, Golden Gulf is a mere half an hour’s drive from downtown Zhuhai. Perhaps as a wish to add flavour of his homeland to Asia, Colin Montgomerie incorporated much of the links-style feature in the design of this course. The clubhouse decor too has a very strong Scottish feel.
As the name suggests, the course is characterised by the strong presence of water. In fact a first impression would be that the course was completely surrounded by water. And yet, only three of the 27 holes in this course of bent grass-covered fairways and Tifdwarf’ed greens require an across the water hit. In addition to the brilliant emerald-blue of the surrounding sea contrasting with the silky green of the greens, it is generally a very ‘golfer-friendly’ course. Most would enjoy a round here. A 9-hole night golf is also available.