Course Review: Shenzhen Mission Hills Golf Resort & Zwartkop Country Club

With no Tour events this week in Europe or the USA, the world's best golfers make their way to Shenzhen's Mission Hills Golf Resort for the WGC-HSBC Champions, 45 minutes from Hong Kong. This World Golf Championship event is taking place in the golf's most dynamic environment where unprecedented numbers of golf courses have sprung up in the past decade and a half.

Appropriately, just a few weeks after Jose Maria Olazabal lead Europe to a dramatic Ryder Cup victory, this top-flight event is being hosted on the course named for the captain, at the world's biggest golf resort with 12 courses designed by golfing greats. At 6700 metres, the par 72 Olazabal is the longest of Mission Hills' courses.

The two-time Masters champion is renowned for his sand play and his design incorporates more than 160 bunkers. The layout meanders through peaceful valleys before climaxing with scenic and challenging holes along two large lakes. The 530m 15th signature hole boasts 24 bunkers and is a classic risk and reward par 5 that bends right to left around water.

The 420m 18th is reputedly the toughest finishing hole at the resort. This treacherous par 4 has water intimidating down the left from the tee. In the shadow of the gigantic clubhouse the green is perched above the water with yawning bunkers waiting for approach shots pushed to the right.

On the Sunshine Tour the ISPS Handa South African Matchplay Championship is being played over six days at Pretoria's Zwartkop Country Club. Founded in 1933 and one of the area's oldest and most prestigious clubs, the course was originally designed by Bob Grimsdell and has undergone extensive renovations by Hayes and Matkovitch in recent years.

This traditional parkland layout has tree-lined fairways and the Hennops River gently meandering through. Over past years many of the games greats - including Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros – have walked Zwartkop's fairways.

The club has also hosted more than its fair share of exhibition matches and professional tournaments, most notably the SA Open Championship. For traditionalists, Zwartkop Country Club – from the classic design of its course to the memorabilia-packed clubhouse redolent with history - is the embodiment of the essence of golf, and compares favourably to some of its more illustrious neighbours.

A Golf Weather
Editorial