Chongqing International Golf Club

I took a high-speed train yesterday from Chengdu to Chongqing and decided that the first nice day I had I would play golf, since I've been rained out for over a week. Today was a clear day, and while temperatures were hovering around 100 degrees with lots of humidity (Chongqing is known as one of China's "three furnaces" and walking outside is like walking into a sauna) I went to Chongqing International Golf Club for a round. I've pretty much given up on tee times by now, since the courses at this time of year get so little play I can tee off almost instantly once I arrive at the course. I couldn't see anyone at the course when I arrived and just like that I was on the first tee.

The course is right up against a mountain range, which isn't that hard to find in Sichuan, and the course tries to imitate the mountains, with lots of elevation changes and rolling fairways. I could see that the sprinkler system was on in front of me for the first few holes, and as I stepped onto the greens it was like stepping into puddles. I had no clue why they were keeping the sprinkler system on when the greens already had so much water, and I just assumed they set this schedule without thinking about the condition of the course. So for a few holes in the middle of my front nine it was almost impossible to get a putt to the hole and some of my chips were in casual water, which made me really frustrated. In terms of the condition of the course around the greens, it reminded me of the course I played in Bagan, Burma, where the staff really had no clue what they were doing.

My driving range session in Kunming paid off, as I was hitting my tee shots really solidly and I played pretty well. I went 40-40 for an 80, missing my 6-foot birdie putt on 18 by one rotation for the 79. Since there was literally nobody else on the course (again just like Burma) I played in well under three hours, which was really nice considering the heat today.

The tee shot on number 1, a 417-yard par 4

The first green

The second green, a 389-yard par 4

The tee shot on number 3, a 584-yard par 5

The fifth hole, a 187-yard par 3

The approach to number 7, a 345-yard par 4

The tee shot on number 9, a really short 475-yard par 5. I only had 170 yards left into this green for my second shot, flew the green but got up-and-down for birdie

A side-view of the ninth green

Number 10, a 184-yard par 3. You can start to see the massive floodlights that line the back nine. The back nine is playable at night, which my caddy told me is the preferred time for Chongqing residents to play during the summer (I don't blame them)

The tee shot on number 11, a 413-yard par 4, with lights lining the fairway

The tee shot on number 14, a dogleg left 404-yard par 4 (the best line for a drive is over the trees left of the cart path)

The approach to number 14

The approach to number 18, a 553-yard par 5, with my caddy on the green. I hit a drive in the rough, and then hit a blind shot trying to lay up short of the water but put it in a fairway bunker, then hit a 155-yard shot out of the bunker to six feet...but missed the putt for a 79

I wanted to get a sense of a more typical Chinese course, and I think this is a good example of one. I don't think this course caters to tourists or Westerners, as it was tucked about 45 minutes away from the city center, has relatively modest facilities and not a single staff member spoke English. There definitely seems to be a bit of a lag between how this course is maintained in comparison to all the other courses I've played, but I'll have to play some other local courses to see if it's just this particular course or maybe the region as a whole. My hotel is right next to the Olympic Stadium in Chongqing, which was built to commemorate the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and I noticed there's a driving range right next to the stadium. Hopefully I will make it over there, hit some balls and talk to people before I leave Chongqing.