US-based Golf Digest magazine has released its annual list of what it considers to be the China's top ten golf courses. According to the magazine's editors, if you're looking for China's best courses, forget Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen – the best golf in China is in Kunming.

Kunming took three of the top six spots on Golf Digest's list, here are the results:

1. Spring City Golf & Lake Resort (Lake course), Kunming, Yunnan province

2. Spring City Golf & Lake Resort (Mountain course), Kunming, Yunnan province

3. Sheshan Golf Club, Shanghai

4. Shenzhen Golf Club, Shenzhen, Guangdong province

5. Tiger Beach Golf Links, Haiyang, Shandong province

6. Lakeview Golf Club, Kunming, Yunnan province

7. Jian Lake Golf & Country Club, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province

8. Trans Strait Golf Club, Fuzhou, Fujian province

9. Pine Valley Golf Resort & Country Club (Old course), Beijing

10. Mission Hills Golf Club (Norman course), Shenzhen, Guangdong province

Kunming ended up beating out the big coastal cities with the top two courses – both at Spring City Golf and Lake Resort. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, Spring City's Lake course was named best in China, beating out Spring City's other championship course, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Mountain course.

Kunming reappears at the number six spot on the list with Lakeview Golf Club, which has been the site of the Yunnan stops of the Omega China Tour as well as the Faldo Series Asia.

Shanghai's Sheshan Golf course rounded out the top three.

Shenzhen is the only other city with multiple courses in Golf Digest's top ten – Shenzhen Golf Club was named number four, while Mission Hills Golf Club's Greg Norman-designed course came in tenth.

Editor's note: This story was cross-posted on China Sports Today

Image: Spring City Golf & Lake Resort

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Kunming native Guo Caizhu placed second in the under-21 age group at last weekend's Faldo Series Asia Final at Mission Hills in Shenzhen. It was the conclusion of an amateur series that began in the fall. Fifty-nine golfers from 10 Asian countries, as well as five European golfers, competed in Shenzhen.

After winning the Kunming leg of the Faldo Series, Guo finished 19 strokes behind Taiwanese golfer Lin Tzu Chi over three rounds at Mission Hills. Lin was the competition's top female golfer, which means she secured an invite to the European final of the Faldo Series 2008 and an event on the European Ladies Tour 2008.

The tournament's overall winner was Rashid Khan, a 16-year-old from Delhi, India. In addition to an invite to the European event, Khan played his way into the Volvo Masters Asia 2008 and won a scholarship to Asian Tour Qualifying School.

Guo said her performance could have been better, but that her opponent had a great tournament.

"She played extremely well," Guo said of Lin. "I'm a little disappointed because of course I would have liked to play in Europe. But hopefully next year I can do better." Guo is now back in Kunming, practicing and teaching at Lakeview Golf Club.

Despite the continuing rains, Yunnan's top young golfers competed in the inaugural provincial championship of the Faldo Series Asia in Kunming Friday. Forty competitors, aged seven to 21, managed to squeeze in two rounds of golf over two days, between bouts of rain.

The tournament was held at Lakeview Golf Club, designed by British golfer and six-time Major winner Nick Faldo. It is one of 10 events composing the Faldo Series Asia, launched in January of 2006 as the Asian counterpart to the Faldo Series Europe. The series kicked off last week in Shenzen, and will visit locations throughout Asia before returning to Shenzen's Mission Hills for the grand final.

"[Faldo] wants to nurture young players—the fitness side, the mental side, the professional side," says Tom Phillips, CEO of Faldo Enterprises Asia, based in Hong Kong. "The idea is to increase general interest and help the best move on to the professional level."

One player who hopes to compete at the next level is 20-year-old Guo Caizhu. She shot a 76 on Thursday and a 74 on Friday to emerge the overall winner of the Yunnan championship.

"The rain delay helped me," Guo said of the weather woes that plagued the event. "I was nervous in the beginning but I felt better after the break." She picked up golf just two years ago after taking a job caddying at Lakeview so she could practice her English with foreign employees there. But instead of enhancing her vocabulary, she picked up a mean tee shot. Guo and five other local golfers played their way into the field of 60 for the series championship at Mission Hills in Shenzen in December. She hopes to improve on her performance last year, when she placed second in the girls' 19-to-21 division.

Joining Guo in representing Yunnan will be Gyin Qin. The 15-year-old won the 15-and-under division with a total score of 155, and will compete in the boys' field at Mission Hills. "I learned quite a lot today," Gyin said. "I learned more about the rules of the game." Gyin, Guo and the other winners were honored with a championship ceremony, and all of the players were invited back to Lakeview for a clinic to be given by Faldo in December.

The series' goals are to increase interest in the game among young players, and to identify and develop Asia's top amateurs. To that end, all the events include education along with competition. At Lakeview, participants were evaluated by a golf fitness specialist, who will provide each of them with an individual assessment of strengths and weaknesses.

In addition to the 40 tournament entrants, about 15 local school children attended the event. They received instruction on driving and putting from Lakeview Director of Golf Dave Goh and other pros, and stood by the 18th hole to watch as the golfers finished their rounds.

Lakeview will host a pro event August 23 through 26, when the Omega China Tour comes to Kunming.