Shanghai Country Club

I spent the day at Shanghai Country Club, a course about an hour outside of Shanghai. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and opened in 1990, making it Shanghai's first international membership club. The course plays 7,025 yards from the tips. On my way to the club, my cab driver got lost in the small town where the course is, and asked five different people where the address was. None of them knew the road name, until I said "golf course" in Chinese, and a local person pointed us in the direction of the course. My cab driver reached into his pocket and took out a cigarette, which he gave to the local man, who took out a lighter and lit the cigarette immediately. I guess this is a pretty accurate picture of how common smoking is in China. I didn't start off my round too well, as they hustled me out onto the tee immediately since they had a corporate outing starting soon. However, starting on my seventh hole of the day I had a streak of nine pars in eleven holes. I went 40 42 for an 82, which I wasn't too displeased with given that the heat index was over 95 degrees again and the greens were being aerated, so it was pretty difficult to make a putt.

The third hole, a 398-yard par 4.

My approach shot on the third hole

The fifth hole, a 351-yard par four (237 yards to carry the bunker on the right).

The sixth hole, a 554-yard par five.

The approach to the eighth hole, a 400-yard par 4.

My approach shot into the ninth hole. The huge, British colonial style clubhouse, is the building behind the green.

The approach on the tenth hole, a 421-yard par 4, the hardest hole on the course

The 393-yard eleventh hole. One needs to carry the first bunker (214 yards out), but keep the drive before the second bunker (258 yards out).

The thirteenth, a 575-yard par 5, with water down both sides of the fairway.

Another view of the thirteenth hole

The fifteenth hole, a 518-yard par 5.

Another look at the fifteenth hole, with the green on the left

The sixteenth hole, a 200-yard par 3.

The 402-yard seventeenth hole

Overall, I thought this was a really nice course. It wasn't as lush as the Tomson Shanghai golf course, and the greens were not in good shape since they were being aerated, but since the designer had more land to work with, it seemed less cramped and more natural. There were natural lakes running through the course, and natural foliage that the course was routed around. As the pictures show, there was a bit of repetitiveness in the design, with lots of holes being sharp doglegs off the tee, with water guarding the fairway. The abundance of water and the bunkering on the course forces the golfer to place his drives strategically, and with water running alongside a few greens, missed approach shots can be very penal.

After my round I wandered around the pro shop, and the prices on the stuff being sold inside were mind boggling. A few examples: a dozen Titleist ProV1 balls (normally $45 in the U.S.) is $88, one golf glove ($15 in the U.S.) is $30, a pair of footjoy shoes ($125 in the U.S.) were $230, and the most mind-numbing of all was a Titleist 975D driver (which Tiger Woods played with in 2000) was $730. I don't think that driver is worth $20 in the U.S. right now. With the internet it seems pretty easy for Chinese golfers to buy clubs on ebay, but most golfers I walked by on the course were using balls they bought at the pro shop (the balls were in a special sleeve). It's hard for me to imagine justifying spending $88 on a dozen golf balls, and even harder when almost all of these items are made in China. While the greens fees are cheaper in China, and caddy fees are significantly cheaper (about $25 for a caddy for 18 holes), equipment everywhere is exponentially more expensive than in the U.S. It seems like the price of equipment, and not accessibility to courses, might be the main limiting factor for Chinese people who want to take up golf.