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Al Campbell

Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club

1 Longdong Avenue, Pudong

Tel: 8621 5833 8888

E-mail: sales@tomson-group.com

This course has the distinction of being the closest  to the city centre.  Located in the heart of Pudong, it is golfing luxury at its best. The Japanese-designed  course is relatively long and flat, and is bordered by some of the city's most expensive homes.

It also features some the most quirky holes.  The  course has an abundance of waste bunkers and features a one-metre tall version of the Great Wall, straddling the width of the 13th hole fairway. Another oddity is a saucer-shaped bunker built  into the green of the 8th hole. A miniature version of Mount Fuji, a fitting homage to Japanese designer Shunsuke Kato, closes this Felliniesque golfing experience on the final hole.

The club will  host  the annual BMW Asia Open on the European Tour for the third time next year.  It bills itself as strictly private.

Shanghai Silport Golf Club

Dian-shan Lake, Kunshan, Jiangsu province

Tel: 86512 5748 1111

www.silport.com.cn

It is only a decade old,  but Shanghai Silport has become synonymous with tournament golf at its highest level in China. With six consecutive Volvo China Opens to its credit from 1999 to 2004, this rural club in Jiangsu province just beyond the border of Shanghai, is not content to rest on its laurels, and club officials admit they are seeking to create a legacy. The fact that they have one of the finest courses in the country is helping their cause.

The club's two courses, with a total of 27 holes, were designed by Bob J. Martin, a former United States touring pro who  worked for Jack Nicklaus' nascent design company in the early 1980s. The influence of his former employer's design style is evident at Silport, with the club  boasting one of the Golden Bear's trademarks -  huge waste bunkers - throughout the resort-style courses.

Water is another significant factor as it comes into play in some form on all 18 holes of the club's Championship Course, made up of the West and Centre layouts. With fish farms and boats operating on the canals around the perimeter of the greens, players are offered a unique experience.

Non-members can use the club's courses on Wednesdays and Thursdays for 560 yuan, which includes transportation, green fees and a caddy.

Lake Malaren Golf Club

6655 Hutai Road/ 9 Lake Meilan Road

Tel: 8621 5659 0008

www.lakemalarengolf.com

Located in the city's northeast Baoshan district, this impressive newcomer is part of the Scandinavian-themed Luodian new town, one of nine satellite  towns being developed around Shanghai.

Built by the Hong Kong-listed developer Shanghai Real Estate, Lake Malaren is pure opulence, with its five-storey Lake Malaren Golf Hotel and range of courses offering 54 holes in total.

The club's new North Forest Course  could also vie for the title of  'best course in the city' merely by virtue of the 70,000-plus trees that have been planted around  it.

The layout screams Thailand in its design features, with lush, tree-lined fairways and abundance of water holes.

The original course, the 18-hole South Lakes, was opened in August last year. Designed by Californian Peter Thompson  (not be confused with five-times British Open champion Peter Thomson), the course, as its name suggests, has a wealth of water features that increase the challenge for players.

Visitors can use the courses on weekdays for a 780 yuan fee, which includes a caddy and a cart.

Binhai Golf

Binhai Resort, Nanhui district

Tel: 8621 5805 8888

www.binhaigolf.com

This is easily the most publicly accessible club in Shanghai, with  one  of the best courses in the city.

The 36-hole club, in Shanghai's Nanhui district, near Pudong International Airport, offers yearly memberships for 4,888 yuan, an all-you-can-golf deal that has been a runaway success.

The club's main attraction is the 18-hole Fairy Lakes course designed by Peter Thomson. The Scottish-style layout was carefully designed to replicate a course on the north coast of Britain.

A former golf champion, Thomson  knows more than a thing or two about links,  having won five British Opens from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. At Binhai, the Australian has emulated the characteristics of the great British courses with deep pot bunkers and heavily undulating fairways where the play is influenced by the winds blowing off the adjacent East China Sea.

A second 18-hole course, the Forest,  opened in September and it provides a vastly different experience from the Fairy Lakes. Water comes into the play most of the holes and the course is open plan at present. That will change as the trees mature and begin to influence the play.

The club is managed by Wyndham Heyring, a former general manager of the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Weekday green fees for the public are 480 yuan while weekend fees are 880 yuan. The price includes green fee, caddy and club shuttle.

Sanyang Golf & Country Club

Luzhi Town, Wu Zhong district, Suzhou City, Jiangsu province

Tel: 86512 6501 0980

www.sanyang-golf.com

Many golf clubs are built either on the perimeter of Shanghai or just over the border in neighbouring Jiangsu or Zhejiang provinces. Sanyang, on the way to Suzhou, is worth a visit because the club features some spectacular yet short holes bordering Jin Chun Hoo (Gold Lake).

The 225-yard par-three third hole is among the best in Shanghai, while the 525-yard par-five 16th features an ultra-slick bent grass green which has a reputation as one of the most difficult in the area.

The scenic club, which is built on an old silkworm plantation, is testimony to the love Shanghai's Taiwanese community has for golf. Like most clubs in the area, Sanyang is owned by Taiwanese - in this case, the Chinfon Group, a manufacturer of plastic cosmetic cases. When the company's executives were unable to get tee times at existing courses, they decided to invest US$30 million and build their own. The course  is as challenging as it is picturesque.

Visitors can use the club's courses on weekdays for about 500 yuan, which includes use of the shuttle bus, green fee and caddy.

Shanghai SunIsland International Golf Club

2588 Shantai Road, Shenxiang, Qingpu

Tel: 8621 5983 1863

www.sunislandclub.com

The SunIsland golf brand is an ambitious undertaking that has  expanded to include three courses in the Shanghai area. Since building the original Shanghai SunIsland in the mid-1990s, the owner, a Singaporean supermarket tycoon, has  opened the  two new courses, Kunshan SunIsland and Suzhou SunIsland.

Shanghai SunIsland hosted the 1998 Volvo China Open, and the 18-hole course  is fairly wide, open and friendly. The fairways require accuracy rather than length. Nelson & Haworth, the original designers, created a  new nine-hole course in late 2002,  with plenty of water features and wild elements.

The club's driving range  is unique and one of the best in the world.

The Suzhou project is also unique in that the designer, Neil Haworth,  has created the first Irish-style links course in the mainland.  The layout features extreme dunes, with some good changes in elevation and twisting and tumbling fairways.

Canadian Haworth also designed Kunshan SunIsland, which has a parkland-style layout featuring some of the nicest homes built around any golf project in the city.

Non-members can use Shanghai SunIsland's  facilities on Mondays for 450 yuan. At Kunshan, the price is 680 yuan on weekdays.

Tianma Country Club

3958 Zhao Kun Road, Tianma, Songjiang Qu

Tel: 8621 5766 1666

www.tianmacc.com

Tianma is easily the most international of the Shanghai clubs with a healthy mix of westerners, Taiwanese, Hongkongers and mainland Chinese accounting for the majority of the 850 club members.

The club's top brass admit that its 27 holes are unlikely ever to hold a national championship, but that's just fine  with the well-heeled members, who enjoy a layout that is challenging for beginners  and expert golfers alike.

Situated about 45 minutes from the central business district, Tianma is at the base of Mount Tianma, one of the few 'mountains'  in the relatively flat confines of the Shanghai metropolis.

The tranquil location provides an ideal setting for playing golf on  land that used to be covered in rice paddies.

Following extensive earthworks on the property, Melbourne-based design outfit Pacific Coast Design - the same group that redesigned the Shek O Golf Club in Hong Kong - has created what can best be described as a very playable course.

With four sets of tees and three course configurations to choose from,  this club can accommodate players of any skill level.

The club is open to visitors from Tuesdays to Fridays. The price of 885 yuan for a day includes green fees, a caddy, a cart and a set lunch.

Shanghai Country Club

Zhu Jia Jiao, Qingpu county

Tel: 8621 5972 8111

www.scc.com.cn

The Shanghai Country Club is like the Hong Kong Golf Club in that it was the first club

in the city, and its membership has long sold out.

The club's 1991 opening marked the return of golf to the city after an absence of 42 years.

The sport had flourished in the decadent days  when there were about five courses around the city  built to cater to American, British and Japanese expatriates,  but  this was brought to a halt in 1949 when the communists took power.

At the Shanghai Country Club, an 18-hole Robert Trent Jones II design, water is in abundance with many of the holes requiring accurate shots to carry the wet stuff guarding both the fairways and greens.

Despite its exclusive image, visitors can arrange games during week days, depending on tee time availability.

Sheshan Golf Club

Linyin Avenue, Shanghai Sheshan National Holiday Zone

Tel: 8621 5779 6689

www.sheshangolf.com

Shanghai Sheshan is the new 'it' course in China's capital of cool.  Like the Hong Kong Golf Club, it is strictly private.

The opening of Sheshan in October last year significantly raised the bar for the standard of golf courses in Shanghai.

The Nelson & Haworth  course, built around an old quarry, has quickly become one of the best  in the city, and club membership - at US$90,000 - is by invitation only.  As a sign of the club's rising status, it has just hosted the US$5 million HSBC Champions tournament, attended by some of the best golfers in the world.

Elevation is a big attraction at Sheshan, again another rarity in flat Shanghai, which is built on an alluvial plain. The land has been built up to as high as 20 metres in some spots to bring some exciting shot variations to the bent grass fairways, which are fairly undulating and wide in many areas.

The old quarry, which the 16th and 17th signature holes wrap around, is another visual treat.

Shanghai Links Golf & Country Club

1600 Ling Bai Road, Pudong

Tel: 8621 5897 3068

www.shanghailinks.com.cn

Shanghai Links is a project in the making.  It opened in 1998, but is still a long way from being finished.  The showpiece of this American-style property, nevertheless,  is the excellent Jack Nicklaus-designed links-style course.

The Golden Bear dipped  into his British Open memories  to create some memorable holes at this inspired golf location bordering the East China Sea.

Heavy sand bunkers, wide-open fairways and  undulating greens abound  on this member-friendly course, which is permanently kept in semi-championship condition.

The par-five 17th and the par-four 18th are easily two of the best finishing holes in Shanghai.  The  sea bordering  the holes to the left and the ever-present wind  are two challenges players must   conquer to reach the green.



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