Spring City Mountain Course

Today I traveled about one hour outside of Kunming to the Spring City resort, which has two great courses, the Mountain Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus, and the Lake Course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II. I had a chance to play the Mountain Course last year while I was on spring break in Kunming, but I wanted to play again, this time with my own clubs, not the graphite-shafted rental set. The weather was perfect (Kunming is known as the "spring city" for a reason), about 75 to 80 degrees, making it the first round I've played in China so far where I didn't sweat through my shirt. The course was in amazing shape, especially the greens, which were pretty fast and rolling well. Making this even more amazing is the fact that Yunnan has been going through a major drought recently, so I was surprised that the golf course was able to use all of the water necessary to keep the greens and the course in the condition that it was in.

The tee shot on number one, a 448 yard par 4 and the hardest hole on the course. I hit a pretty bad drive here, leaving myself 215 yards to the green, then put my approach shot to 25 feet and made my birdie putt, the highlight of my round

The view from the first green

Number three, a 180-yard par 3

The second shot on number 4, a 600-yard par 5

The approach to number 5, a 460-yard par 4

The tee shot on number 7, a 416-yard par 4.

Teeing off on number 7

Number 8, a 155-yard par 3

My third shot into number nine, a 597-yard par 5. You can see that the fairway splits at these bunkers, so one needs to decide on the second shot whether to lay up behind the bunkers or go to the left or right of them. I put this shot to about 10 feet but missed my birdie putt.

The tee shot on number 10, a 437-yard par 4

Number 11, a 387-yard par 4

The approach to number 12, a 573-yard par 5

Number 13, a 205-yard par 3

Tee shot on number 14, a 378-yard par 4

Number 16, a 194-yard par 3

Tee shot on number 17, a 447-yard par 4

Tee shot on number 18, a 465-yard par 4

The approach to 18

The 18th green

A statue of an ancient Chinese warrior with a golf club, the emblem of the resort.

This course is only one of a few - or perhaps the only - course in China that has worldwide recognition. Golf Digest named this course the best golf course in China and Hong Kong, and a few of my coffee table books on golf courses around the world only feature this course in their section on China. When I was planning my spring break trip last year, the reason I picked Kunming was because of this course, and it is the reason I returned to Kunming again this summer. It is definitely worth a trip, and because it's about 48 kilometers outside of the city it's pretty open and you can golf in solitude. In fact I went to the course today without a tee time and was on the first tee ten minutes after getting out of the taxi.

I was pretty happy about my birdie on the toughest hole on the course, but had two pretty straight birdie putts that I wasn't able to convert. The most frustrating part of my round came on number 8. The pin was in back today, and it was playing about 145 yards from where the tees were, so I took a 9-iron, thinking I would just play to the center of the green. I made really good contact and thought the ball would end up right next to the hole, but it flew over the stick and into the water. I have no clue how I put that in the water, and ended up doubling a hole when I should have had a look at birdie. I ended up with an 85, which I was not too happy about, but at a course like this you can only stay mad for a bit.

After my round I didn't tip my caddy, since there have been explicit no tipping policies at almost all of the courses I've played so far. After I walked into the clubhouse, my caddy came up to me and sheepishly said that I forgot to pay her, so I gave her a tip. It was a pretty awkward moment, and I felt bad because the only reason I didn't offer a tip is because of this no tipping policy at most places. I gave her a good tip, but I can't imagine a caddy in the U.S. letting a golfer know that he didn't tip him, even if tipping is almost required at most places.