A colossal playground for China’s new golfing elite

The game of golf as we know it may have been around for many centuries since Scotland in the 1400’s, but in China, it is still in its infancy. Communist leaders banned it in the 1940s, denouncing it as bourgeois, the preserve of the wealthy. The second largest economy on earth now seems to be making up for lost time, with an estimated 1,000 golf courses and between 500,000 to 1 million golfers, and those numbers keep growing.  While golf is experiencing a decline in global player participation and course development, China is bucking the trend.

Nowhere else exemplifies this better than Mission Hills. Boasting top-rated championship courses designed by some of the finest golf architects, Mission Hills has long been regarded as the cradle of golf in China. This is in no small part due to its visionary, the late Dr David Chu, who built Mission Hills long before golf club memberships became a status symbol in China.  Its two facilities have earned accolades and broken numerous world records including the largest golf club in the world (Mission Hills Shenzhen) with a dozen 18-hole courses and the largest area of hot springs (Mission Hills Haikou).

Scions Dr Ken and Tenniel Chu now helm the Mission Hills Group, and are redefining the game with their philosophy of “golf and more”. This means that not only golfers get to enjoy the immaculate green oases in Shenzhen and Haikou, but their non-golfing families can also engage in a myriad of activities and partake of the first-class amenities. The mission is simple. To make Mission Hills a truly inclusive and integrated resort for China’s nouveau riche.

To this end, Mission Hills Haikou is keeping the moneyed set fully engaged. Located on China’s only tropical island, Hainan, it features ten 18-hole championship courses designed by the acclaimed Schmidt-Curley. Since its opening in 2010, Mission Hills Haikou has transformed the capital of Hainan Island into a travel destination for the discriminating traveller. Apart from the comprehensive golf facilities, there are also 518 tastefully decorated guest rooms and suites with stunning panoramic view of golf landscape; 28 luxurious spa villas and a magnificent spa mansion nestled among lush green gardens; and the world’s largest Mission Hills Spa and Volcanic Mineral Springs spanning across 88,000 square-meters of land.

This mega development also features a 350-yard double-sided outdoor driving range grown with grass turf, and China’s first Hank Haney Golf Academy, a golf academy equipped with advanced technology and comprehensive elite golf-development programmes.

For the gourmand guests, 10 dining venues await; for the young ones, Lava Lagoon, Hainan’s only aquatic theme park; for the health and adventure buffs, indoor and outdoor wellness and recreational facilities as well as an Eco Trail and Eco Gallery constructed with the guidance of Costas Christ, one of the world’s foremost experts on sustainable tourism. Movie buffs will also enjoy the Feng Xiaogang Movie Town, a 1,400-acre site fashioned after Xichuan Chongqing in 1942. Parts of the area were designed to resemble scenes from the film “Back to 1942”.

Mission Hills not only brings golf to the next level in China, it is also setting a new standard for lifestyle for those who have already arrived.