Among its many claims to fame, Kunming is the winter home of millions of seagulls, which migrate from freezing Siberia in December and January, making a temporary home around the city’s majestic Green Lake. Now the cawing of visiting seagulls is complemented by the ooing and aahing of visiting golfers.
Two stunning 36-hole complexes - Stoneforest International Country Club and Sky Oasis Resort - both founding members of the Kunming Golf group, now complement Spring City’s acclaimed Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones Jnr layouts.
The three clubs, along with Honghe Spring Golf Club, and another founding Kunming Golf group member - Brilliant Resort & Spa - offer a combined golf and relaxation experience that few, if any, in Asia can match.
Numerous other new courses are also on the drawing board, are being developed or have already opened. The latter includes twin layouts designed by current Open champion Phil Mickelson, in a development known as The Aqua. With two hotels on site, an equestrian centre and fishing ponds, The Aqua adds considerably to the lustre of golf in the region. Featuring a championship layout and imposing wetlands course, it perfectly complements Spring City and Stoneforest in style and presentation.
Despite these recent new developments, Spring City remains the undisputed standard-bearer of Kunming golf. Its stature is confirmed by both the Lake and Mountain courses being ranked in the top 100 courses in the world by Golf Digest - rare honour indeed.
Spring City was built when there were fewer than a hundred courses in China. Despite unprecedented growth of golf, with perhaps 600 courses now in play, Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s Lake layout has been rated the number one or two course in the country for more than a decade. Its sister Mountain course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, has never been far behind.
The longer Mountain Course, which plays up to 7,453 yards from the back tees, features great variety as it winds its way around a mountainside, while offering occasional glimpses of Lake Yangzonghai, above which the resort is built.
The slightly shorter (7,201 yards from the tips) but tighter and more difficult Lake Course is a totally different experience, with the lake almost always in sight. The terraced fairways of the first seven holes step gradually towards the lake until dramatically reaching the par-3 eighth hole, which plays steeply downhill to the water’s edge. The following par-5 ninth, which plays along the lake shore, is among the best of all.
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