Recently US magazine Golf Digest selected what it considered to be China's top ten golf courses, with three of the top six courses being in Kunming. Perhaps surprisingly for those unfamiliar with golf in China, the top two courses are both located at the same resort - Spring City Golf and Lake Resort in the Yangzonghai resort area, approximately 45 kilometers southeast of Kunming.

How did Kunming end up having the two best courses in China? GoKunming spoke with Spring City General Manager Arthur Yeo - who has been involved in the Spring City project since its inception in the early 1990s - about the challenges and rewards of building a world-class travel destination in Kunming:

GoKunming: Spring City's Mountain and Lake Courses were recently named the top two courses in China - what other awards has Spring City won in the last few years?

Arthur Yeo: In the last few years we have won many awards - we average about 10 per year – it would be too lengthy to mention all of them.

However, some of the more significant awards are: Best Golf Course in China and Hong Kong by US Golf Digest [1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 - they rank once in every two years], Best 500 Holes in the World in 2000 [18th hole mountain course designed by Jack Nicklaus] awarded by US Golf Magazine, Best Golf Course in Asia awarded by Asia Golf Monthly from 2004 to 2007, 100 Best Courses outside US ranked by US Golf Digest in 2005 & 2007 [ranked once every 2 years] and Best Golf Resort in China by World Travel Award [London] from 2005 to 2007

GK: How does Spring City overcome the challenge of having the best courses in China but being far from the coast?

Yeo: The recipe is a combination of good design, good construction adhering strictly to USGA specifications, good greenskeeping practice, good service management, spring-like weather all year round and being located in a very picturesque location with mountains and a lake.

This unique combination entices people to make Spring City Golf & Lake Resort a specific must-visit destination. Once they have visited the resort, they always come back again with their friends.

GK: What regions do Spring City's guests come from these days? Where do Kunming residents fit into the picture?

Yeo: Our overseas guests are typically from Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea but we also have many local Chinese guests. We are also attracting a growing number of expatriates working and living in China – they tend to be from the USA, Australia and Europe.

Also, the number of golfers in Kunming is growing very fast and they form our bread-and-butter players.

GK: Yunnan has some of the best courses in China, do you think it can become synonymous with golf holidays like Florida in the US?

Yeo: Currently, no, as the number of golf courses in Yunnan is limited to seven at present.

However, this could happen in the future. Florida is a very established and developed golf community as compared with the Yunnan golf industry, which only started up 10 years ago.

GK: As golf becomes a more established sport in China and fewer new courses are built, what trends do you foresee for courses and golf as a sport in general around the country in the next few years?

Yeo: The development of golf has a positive impact on the economic and social development of the country - the current trend is that there are more and more golf courses popping up in China even with the central government clamping down on the development of golf courses nationwide. Also, there is a rapid increase in the number of Chinese learning and taking up golf.

Golfing in China will explode, however, the central government in my opinion should not curb the development of golf but rather monitor and control a healthy development of the golf industry in China. More emphasis should be given to:

1. Increasing education in golf maintenance and management to make sure that there are sufficient qualified people running and managing golf courses

2. Ensuring that minimal potential farmland is being used for golf development

3. Ensuring that quality golf courses are being built in a way that maximizes the use of land resources

4. Using 'green belts' within cities to develop public golf courses for public access at a reasonable price

5. Implementing strict environmental guidelines and controls for golf course developers in order to protect the environment.

Related article: China's top ten golf courses: Kunming is king

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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Yunnan's top young golfers compete at Faldo Series Asia

Lu Wins in Kunming, Young Amateurs Shine

Golf Emerging in China, and an Emerging Chinese Golfer

Lu Wen-teh's one-over-par 73 earned him the US$115,000 Kunming Championship and made him the Omega China Tour's first non-mainland champion this weekend at Lakeview Golf Club. The Taiwanese golfer said winning his first title was a "dream come true".

Equally notable was the strong showing by two teenage amateurs. Lu's playing partner, 16-year-old Benny Ye Jianfeng, finished second after winding up the day four over par, while 18-year-old amateur James Su Dong's even-par 72 lifted him to third place. The high finish by two teenagers suggests that the next generation of Chinese golfers is starting to come into its own.

After Lu was presented with a trophy and check for 150,000 yuan on Lakeview's 18th green, the three golfers were drenched by spectators and caddies in honor of the Dai Water splashing festival (泼水节), which was celebrated throughout southern Yunnan yesterday.

"I was able to hold on to my lead because I've been there before, but I was really impressed with what I saw this week," said Lu, who posted a five-under-par total of 283 to finish seven ahead of Ye and 10 clear of Su on a windy day at the Nick Faldo-designed course.

"The Chinese players are much more professional now than when I first played here more than 10 years ago. The younger generation are exceptional."

Lu went professional in 1992, the year after Ye was born, and has since won over US$1 million on the Asian Tour alone. The golf veteran had nothing but praise for the younger Ye.
"Ye Jianfeng hits the ball really well, even though he's so skinny," laughed Lu. "He played very well and is really a good player, one to watch. I had a lot of fun playing with him."

Ye closed with a 76, a full 10 strokes more than his course-record 66 on the third day. However, the Shenzhen Nanhua High School student said he was pleased with his highest finish on the Omega China Tour, improving on his tied-fourth place in last year's Sofitel Golf Championship.

"I'm so excited. I never thought I'd be here. Every time I play in professional events, my aim is to just make the cut, so this is just great. Yesterday's 66 was my best score in a pro event and I'll remember that round forever," he said.

Ye will play in next week's US$2.2 million Volvo China Open after winning last year's Volvo China Junior Championship.
Vancouver-based Su said he was surprised to finish in the top three with a 72, but acknowledged the effect that the unpredictable Kunming winds were having on everyone at Lakeview yesterday.

"It was tough today because the wind was changing every second. However, I really like this course as it encourages you to drive long," added Su, who hit his tee-shot on the 472-yard 13th hole almost 400 yards.

With Ye and Su picking up flowers instead of paycheques, Jim Johnson, Chen Dinggen and Kunming-born Liu Anlin each won RMB54,000 for sharing fourth place on six-over.

The Omega China Tour was inaugurated in 2005 with four events, and since then two tournaments have been added each season. This year's 10-event Omega China Tour offers total prize money of RMB8 million (US$1.15 million). After a 'southern swing' of six events from March to June, the tour takes a break for the Olympics before a 'northern swing' of four events in September and October.

Lu Wen-teh/Ye Jianfeng images: David Paul Morris/World Sport Group

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Local golfer Guo takes second at Mission Hills

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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.

The Omega China Tour wrapped up today at Kunming's Lakeview Golf Club, with Zheng Wengen taking the 150,000-yuan purse. It was the first victory in five years for the 41-year-old, one of the first Chinese golfers to turn professional in 1994. For Zheng, who describes golf as "boring" and doesn't enjoy practicing, it was a crucial career-validating win.

Going into the championship round, Zheng held a four-stroke lead. He widened the gap Sunday, shooting a five-under-par 67. His play was much more consistent than it was in the first round Thursday, when he shot an incredible 11 birdies but also double- and triple-bogeyed, for a score of 66. In Sunday's fourth round he notched five birdies, and managed to steer clear of the course's many bunkers and stay bogey-free. Overall, he shot a 15-under-par 273 in four rounds of play.

Zheng had a firm lead approaching the 15th tee Sunday, but the race for second place remained open until the very end. Huang Mingjie was the runner-up, six strokes behind Zheng, and there was a four-way tie for third, with all four just one stroke behind Huang.

The competition was well-attended despite the weekend's rain, with 50 to 80 fans in Zheng's gallery at any given time. It also demonstrated that Lakeview is capable of putting on a first-class golf competition, even if some spectators still haven't gotten the message about not answering their mobile phones on the course.

"It was really great," said Kunming resident Ze Huchang, who stopped runner-up Huang for an autograph and photo op. "It was my first time to go to a golf tournament."

If you want to see China's best professional golfers, now's your chance, as the Kunming leg of the Omega China Tour comes through town this weekend. It began yesterday with a pro-am tournament at Lakeview Golf Club. The professional event begins today, with the final rounds played Saturday and Sunday. Play commences at 8 am and finishes at 4 pm both days.

Kunming is the fifth of seven stops on the tour, which concludes in Beijing in October. The pros like to play here, according to Lakeview director of golf Dave Goh, because it is the only course on the tour that uses bentgrass from tee to green. This type of grass is used on golf courses because of its deep green color and its density. But it is sensitive to extreme heat, which is no problem here in the Spring City. "I think every professional player would like to experience bent grass, because especially on the putting green you get a very true roll," Goh says.

This is the tour's third year, and the third time it has included a stop in Kunming. Lakeview is located near Dianchi Lake, across the road from the Yunnan Minorities Village. It is the final stop for buses number 44 and 73.

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.

The Yunnan Provincial Stadium (省体育馆) is home to much more than the Hongta Yunnan Football Club. Located at 99 Dongfeng Dong Lu, just across the street from the Camellia Hotel, the stadium compound offers a handful of public recreation facilities.

Swimming
Tuodong Swimming Pool is among Kunming's best. The Olympic-sized (50-meter) pool is open to the public every day from 6:00 am until 10:00 pm. Swimmers receive a locker key with the 15-yuan entrance fee. For 200 yuan (plus a 20-yuan refundable deposit for your ID card), you can get a one-month pool pass; this must be purchased at the complex's main office right on Dongfeng Dong Lu. Tuodong has two pools—a 25-meter one used primarily for children's classes, and the larger one for public use. The eight-lane pool is always busy but rarely overcrowded. You may want to avoid weekend afternoons and evenings, when the lanes are somewhat crowded with kids floating around and playing games, making lap swimming an adventure.

Golf
On the stadium's north end, the side facing Dongfeng Lu, the complex's golf facility operates a driving range. One bucket of 50 balls costs 40 yuan; club rental is 10 yuan. The range opens only in the evening, from 6:00 p.m. until midnight. The tees take an elevated position several rows up in the stadium, which has the effect of making a weak drive seem to sail much further and higher than it actually does. The range also features small tables near the tee boxes so duffers can take a break and enjoy a cold beverage.

Running
If you walk up the hill toward the stadium and follow the drive to the left, you'll arrive at a soccer field and outdoor track. Both are free and open to the public, although local leagues often reserve use of the field.

Yunnan Provincial Stadium
云南省体育馆
99 Dongfeng Dong Lu
东风东路99号
Swimming Pool: 3176759
Driving Range: 3123559