Long Gang Public Golf Course

Today I went to Shenzhen to play Long Gang Public Golf Course, the first truly public course in China. While it was farther away than Chung Shang, it was a lot easier to get to. I walked about ten minutes to the subway from my hotel, took the subway to the last stop, and then boarded a train to Shenzhen. It wasn't a bullet train, but it was pretty fast, going 180 km/h, so it only took about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Shenzhen. I then took a cab about thirty minutes to the course, where I was paired with three Chinese men. All three are originally from Hong Kong, but one of them relocated to Shenzhen for work. The other two frequently travel across the border to places like Shenzhen to play golf, because golf here is a lot cheaper than Hong Kong, and there's more courses to choose from.

I enjoyed playing with the three Chinese men. They had varying skill - one took his game very seriously, had a mechanical swing, and was pretty decent, the other two had very weird swings, one of them swinging the club like a baseball bat, without a hinge, the other just stabbing at the ball. The serious golfer started talking to me about clubs, comparing iron shafts and asking me about differences between iron sets. The worst golfer of the three hit more balls into the forest than in play. Probably the funniest part of the round was when I took out my Bushnell rangefinder to get a yardage on the first hole. All four of the caddies and my three playing partners had never seen one before and were totally amazed. They all asked for it and for about five holes on every shot they passed it around and looked up yardages to random spots on the course.

Long Gang, unlike the other courses I've played, was pretty packed. We were behind a foursome, with a twosome right behind us, and there were groups on every hole. There are three sets of nine holes, A, B and C, and we played the B and C courses. To pay for everything - greens fees, a cart for 18 holes (the other three insisted on riding in a cart) and a caddy - it was only 400 kuai, which is about $59. Definitely the best golf deal I've ever had, and the course was actually pretty nice.

Tee shot on the first hole, a 345-yard par 4

The tee shot on number two, a 398-yard par 4

The third hole, a 179-yard par 3

The fourth hole, a 500-yard par 5

Number six, a 202-yard par 3

The approach to number 7, a 608-yard par 5

Number 10, a 390-yard par 4

Number 11, a 403-yard par 4 with a sharp dogleg left

Number 12, a 229-yard par 3. The stadium in the background is a bicycle stadium that was built for the upcoming Asian Games, being held in Guangzhou.

Tee shot on number 18, a 512-yard par 5

The second shot on 18, before the hole sharply turns left

My Chinese playing partners

The 18th green

I really enjoyed playing this course, especially with my playing partners. The weather was also the best it's been so far, it was probably only 85 degrees while we played. I didn't start off great on the front nine, but put together a pretty good back nine. On 17, a par-3, I put my tee shot to about 20 feet and made the birdie putt. 18 is a very birdie-able hole, and I hit a really good second shot over the brush, cutting off most of the dogleg and leaving myself 70-yards to the green. I hit a wedge to about 8 feet, and had a pretty easy putt for birdie. I thought the putt was good all the way, and it hit the hole but lipped up, which was disappointing. I shot a 41 on the back, but was really hurt by a double on a pretty easy par-5. On a side-note, when I arrived for my round the clubhouse didn't have me down for a tee time, even though I had made one. They couldn't find my name, but let me go off anyway. When I got my bill after the round (in China you get a card before your round, and you charge drinks, balls, etc. on that card, then pay it all at the end), my name was listed as "Doul Sacoss" so I then understood why they couldn't find "David Sacks" in the system.