Pebble Beach ... China

When the owners of California’s Pebble Beach Golf Club got wind that Golden Pebble Beach Golf Club had opened in China to rave reviews, the American club hastily sent off a letter demanding the Dalian upstart cease from using its “Pebble Beach” name. Honored the famed club had recognized its existence, the Liaoning newcomer wrote back that the area had been called “Pebble Beach” for about 5,000 years and suggested they change their name. The matter was quickly dropped.

It’s a nice little anecdote. But, is it completely accurate? Kind of. Sort of. I’m not so sure. It’s true the golf course exists inside a coastal tourism area near the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian known as 金石滩 (jīn shí tān), which directly translates into “golden stone beach.” Now, was choosing “pebble” instead of “stone” for the English translation an accident? Or was it perhaps influenced by the famous name of the 91-year-old Pebble Beach Golf Links, site of this week’s U.S. Open? I’ve never visited, so I can’t be sure. But I do know the Chinese name of the golf club is simply 金石 (jīn shí) or “golden stone” — no “beach.” And I also know the Chinese name for the Pebble Beach in California is 圆石滩 (yuán shí tān), literally “round stone beach.” The common Chinese word for “pebble,” by the way, is 卵石 (luǎn shí).

Quibbles over the course’s English name aside, the Peter L.H. Thompson-designed course, which opened in 1995, sure does occupy a beautiful piece of land. China International Business calls it one of “China’s hidden beauties,” although it’s been recognized before. CIB notes “a weekday round at the 36-hole Golden Pebble Beach can be enjoyed for about a fifth of the price of its more famous namesake.”

Another recent blog post by Chris Santella goes into a little more detail about the origins of the Chinese Pebble Beach course. Here’s an observation from golf photographer John R. Johnson, who was present during the course’s construction:

They had hundreds of people working on course, many husband and wife teams. These people had no concept of what a golf course was. They were shown pictures of what they were building and followed instructions. They had some heavy equipment but were not making much use of it. I remember the image of a backhoe sitting idle, with people working all around it, digging irrigation ditches by hand. The husband would swing a pickax, and his wife would scoop out the dirt in between swings.

Finally, a rave review by one Thomas L. Friedman — yes, that Thomas L. Friedman — from back in 2001:

After playing China’s spectacular Golden Pebble Beach Golf & Country Club, located on a rocky coastline outside Dalian, in northeastern China, I flew home to Washington, D.C., and described it this way to my regular foursome: “Guys, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that I’ve found a links course more beautiful than Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula. The green fees are only $80, you don’t need a tee time and the caddies are all women. The bad news is, it’s a 20-hour flight from here.”

Seriously, if the half-dozen holes at China’s Golden Pebble that weave along the Yellow Sea–including a dramatic downhill par 3 perched on a cliff, where losing your balance could cost you your life–were in America, the green fees would be $300.

The episode, filmed during Typhoon Ketsana in the fall of 2009, is worth watching (and thanks to the wonders of Chinese piracy, it’s available in full at Youku.com — it’s also embedded in this post).

A little digging tells us the show was shot for $250,000 and that it represents the start of a 52-episode sponsorship of the series in China by Snow Beer.

A little more digging and we are blessed with this gem of a quote from Wang Qun, managing director of Snow Beer: “Bear Grylls and the Man vs. Wild series demonstrate strong determination and the strength of the human spirit in overcoming tough environments and difficulties, which embodies the brand spirit of Snow Beer.”

For those unfamiliar with Snow Beer, it’s awful. If you are offered Snow Beer for free at a hot pot restaurant, refuse it. But don’t take my word: RateBeer.com puts Snow in the 8th percentile for pale lagers and it gets a D- over at BeerAdvocate.com, where one reviewer noted: “Aroma smells faintly of steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Hints of plastic like chemicals.”

Perhaps Snow chose Man vs. Wild for a reason. Anything’s got to taste good after eating rats, bats and still-twitching frogs.

Don't worry, they aren't traveling together

A couple days ago, Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported that the country’s highest-earning sportsman was closing his only office in Australia to “chase the Asian golfing dollar through China.” The paper continued, “[T]he design company has opened a new sales and marketing office in Beijing, China, signalling Asia as its key area of growth.”

This is just the latest sign that China is the golf course construction industry at the moment. As nearly every designer or project manager I talk to says: If you aren’t working in China, you probably aren’t working. Not bad, considering their line of work is technically illegal here.

The Greg Norman Golf Course Design website lists three completed Norman designs in China, the most recent being the 2004 Norman Course at Mission Hills in Shenzhen. Although Norman was in China last March for the grand opening of Mission Hills Hainan, his site does not list any China courses under construction or planned. I assume that is about to change.

But don’t hang your heads, Aussies. According to Norman’s spokesman: “Greg’s a proud Australian: that’s why he had an office in Australia. Greg’s always going to be passionate about Australia.” So, you’ve got that going for you.

In unrelated news, gossip rags are reporting that Tiger Woods’ “fully independent” wife Elin is “planning an extended trip to China within the next few months.” Call it a hunch, but I bet she won’t be waiting in line at the Shanghai World Expo’s Swedish Pavilion.

Ian Poulter would rather be lying on a green in Shanghai

The 34-year-old said the greens at Shanghai’s Sheshan International Golf Club, site of the WGC-HSBC Champions event every November, are “probably the best surface we putt on all year.” He added, “They’ve spent an awful lot of money in developing that golf course.”

Poulter’s other China pick is the Olazabal Course at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, where he has thrice represented England in golf’s World Cup. “[It's] a clever golf course,” the 2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship winner said. He added: “They need an Ian Poulter course now.”

Greg Norman and Tenniel Chu at Mission Hills Hainan

Mission Hills Group, owner of the world’s largest golf club, will boost investment sixfold in a golfing complex on China’s Hainan island as the nation’s economic rebound spurs a tourism and property boom.

Mission Hills, based in Shenzhen, the southern city adjacent to Hong Kong, is to spend a further 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) by adding more golfing, retail and community facilities at its 5 billion-yuan club in Haikou, in the island’s north, Vice Chairman Ken Chu said in an interview in Hong Kong.

So that’s 30 billion yuan already, and it looks like that will cover less than half of what Mission Hills eventually has planned for its Hainan mega-complex. Further on in the story:

The Hainan club, built on top of a volcano, opened in March offering an initial six courses, according to company data. The group is operating it as a public, rather than a members-only, facility to attract more golfers, Chu said.

When fully completed, the Hainan club will feature 10 courses, according to the company, and will be similar in size to the Shenzhen complex, which spreads across 20 square kilometers (5,000 acres), or equivalent to the combined size of six Central Parks in New York City. The Hainan government, meanwhile, suggests on its website that the development may eventually have 30 courses.

OK, first let’s clear a couple things up:

• Mission Hills is not “on top of a volcano.” That’s like saying my dad’s house in Honolulu is built on top of Diamond Head. Part of the Mission Hills land in Hainan is east of a 42-square-mile national geological park built around the crater of an extinct volcano. The Mission Hills land is home to lots and lots of lava rock, however.
• The “30 courses” nugget is old news, and no longer accurate. It’s true that the English version of the Hainan Foreign Affairs Office website includes a story that says, “rumor has it that the project will feature upwards of 30 courses.” What Bloomberg does not mention is that the government website simply copied and pasted a story called “The Greening of Hainan” from the January 2010 issue of China International Business. That story, written by Al Campbell, was likely filed sometime in late 2009, long before Mission Hills admitted even having plans for a project in Hainan (that admission came just in time for the grand opening in March) and before Al had a chance to read my January exposé on Mission Hills Hainan for Financial Times Weekend Magazine, which stated the new estimate at around 22 courses. It’s true that 36 courses were originally planned, but a part of the land deal fell through and Mission Hills had to settle for only 31 square miles.
• UPDATE: I forgot to comment on “operating it as a public, rather than a members-only.” Without knowing the greens fees Mission Hills is charging, this statement could be meaningless. Most “private” golf clubs in China still allow non-members to play — for a price. I’d be surprised, but pleasantly surprised, if Mission Hills Hainan offers anything near public course costs on any of its courses. Can anyone whose played there give us an idea of the fees?

What’s most jaw-dropping, to me at least, is that apparently the $4.4 billion is only enough to cover the development around the initial 10 courses. Add in those final 12 courses (currently delayed by — no surprise in China — land issues) and we could be looking at a total price tag of about $10 billion, a figure greater than the GDPs of at least 60 countries.

Near the end of the story we learn:

Since golf was added to the Olympics program in October, the number of people playing the game has risen to 5 million from 3 million, according to China Golf Association.

As the Wall Street Journal’s Jamie Miyazaki recently discovered, trying to pin down an accurate number of golfers in China in no easy task. But here’s some advice, disregard any statistic that says China added 2 million golfers in seven months … during winter.

Finally, a note to people writing about golf in China: Mission Hills in Shenzhen is not “the world’s largest golf club.” From my FT piece:

For now, Mission Hills Shenzhen touts itself as the “World’s No. 1”, and Guinness World Records plays along, labelling the 20sq km, 12-course golf club the largest on the planet, even though Nanshan International Golf Club in north-eastern China has 63 more holes.

Although, if what I’ve heard of Nanshan is accurate, Mission Hills could easily be “the world’s largest quality golf club.”

Having the world’s No. 1 as a client magnified his profile dramatically. He has added the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy. The program prepares junior players for college scholarships with golf training, academics and competition.

He will soon be announcing a similar program in China and will spend a considerable amount of time there.

Hugh Grant, top, and Matthew McConaughey

Movie stars Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey will headline a bevy of celebrities taking part in a new tournament in China that will offer the richest individual prize in Asian golf.

The Hollywood A-listers will play in the pro-am at the Mission Hills Star Trophy on Hainan Island in October, ahead of the tournament proper that will feature 20 men and women golfers with a 1.28-million-US-dollar winner-takes-all prize.

Two-time Major winner Greg Norman, China’s multiple Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Li Ning and Japan’s top comedian and talk show host Akashiya Sanma will serve as ambassadors for the pro-am event, organisers said.

Norman and China’s golfing trailblazer, Zhang Liangwei, will play for the top prize, along with 2010 Ryder Cup captains Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin.

The professional field will also include two of the game’s biggest female superstars, Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak.

In other Hainan golf news, Xinhua ran a story today headlined “Hainan aims to be China’s golf capital.” The short item, filed from the Boao International Tourism Forum, is noteworthy for this quote:

“China encourages well-planned environment-friendly development of golf tourism, especially in Hainan, the country’s only tropical island province,” said Du Jiang, deputy head of the National Tourism Administration.

Emphasis mine. The Chinese government really needs to get its story straight.

UPDATE: Mission Hills now acknowledges Mission Hills Hainan on its website. Limitless prestige.

Photo by Ryan Pyle
Mission Hills Hainan: No longer top secret?

Some quick takeaways before I leave my hotel:

• Prize money will go up from US$5.5 million to US$7.5 million (but with the way the dollar is tanking against the yuan, those might end up being the same next year).
• We learn the official name of what I’ve been referring to as the “tournament course”: Blackstone, named for the dark lava rock that can be seen throughout the layout (UPDATE: Or could these guys be investors?). Here’s the press release’s description:
  

  The Omega Mission Hills World Cup will be hosted on the Blackstone course, a spectacular, 350-acre layout that weaves through a striking landscape of mature trees, expansive wetlands, ancient town ruins and ever-present lava rock, the 7,777-yard Blackstone features a myriad of risk / reward opportunities throughout the back nine. The course is set in front of the 525-room 5-star resort complex and the 238,000 square-feet clubhouse, making it ideal for hosting the world’s foremost golf tournaments.

  Here’s how I described it in the FT:

  The tournament course is stunning. With its irregular lines and eroded sand traps, it manages to appear rugged and natural, even though there is little natural about it. Incorporated into the design are old, overgrown lava-rock walls and archways left over from the land’s previous occupants, along with some mature lychee, ficus and acacia trees that managed to elude the clear-cutter. The result is a landscape that looks like it has been there for decades, maybe centuries, not months. A drive along the cart path, made from crushed lava rock, has the flavour of a Jurassic safari – that is, until you see the massive hotel and clubhouse looming on the horizon.

  It is all remarkably telegenic, and by design. The talk is that in 2011 the Mission Hills Hainan tournament course will become the new location for either golf’s Omega-sponsored World Cup, currently a fixture at Mission Hills Shenzhen, or of the HSBC Champions, the tournament dubbed “Asia’s Major”.

• What I’ve been referring to as Mission Hills Hainan is now officially called “Mission Hills Resort Hainan,” so I was close. Here’s the boilerplate description:
  

  Mission Hills Resort Hainan lies on the volcanic region of exotic Hainan Island, China. The resort sets a new standard in leisure, recreation and wellness experiences. Nestled amid lush, green gardens, the resort caters to golf enthusiasts and comprises specially-designed golf courses, each one incorporating the native lava rock formations. Other state-of-the-art features include 525 tastefully appointed guest rooms and suites, a three-storey clubhouse, meeting facilities, 12 world-class restaurants, a fully-equipped sports and recreation center, Hainan’s only aquatic theme park, therapeutic natural mineral springs, a spa oasis, and a shopping arcade. A magnificent addition to Hainan’s tropical island paradise, Mission Hills Resort Hainan is poised to be the island’s premier sanctuary, attracting visitors from around the globe.

  Conveniently located in Haikou city, the administrative and legislative hub of Hainan, Mission Hills Resort Hainan is just 15 minutes from the city center and Haikou Meilan International Airport.

• You have to wonder what Omega, the World Cup’s title sponsor gets out of this. The World Cup was originally locked in for a 12-year stay at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, which benefited greatly from its proximity to Hong Kong. There is a built-in golf audience there. This was the main concern of almost everyone I spoke to about the possibility of bringing a major international golf event to Hainan: Where would the spectators come from? Hainan is a poor province, home to a couple thousand golfers. Will golf fans fly in for the World Cup? Logistics — the number of flights in and out of Hainan, transportation on the island — are also concerns, but perhaps they will be sorted out by 2011. I think the Sanya-Haikou high-speed train might be operational by then.
• What’s Haikou weather like in late November? Take a look. Should be pretty nice.
• With the World Cup now off of Mission Hills Shenzhen, don’t be surprised if you see the WGC-HSBC Champions ditch Shanghai for Shenzhen in the coming years. It’s the next step in Mission Hills’ plan for global domination.

I believe Mission Hills Resort Hainan is paying host to a “golf forum” this weekend, perhaps in conjunction with the Boao International Tourism Forum. So expect to see lots and lots of media reports about Mission Hills Hainan in the near future. (I don’t see anything yet on the official Mission Hills website, however. But I don’t have time to do too much digging.)

Green Leisure Harmonious Living Quarters?

China is requiring a down payment for land purchases equal to 50 percent of a plot’s price and prohibited the supply of land for villas as the government sought to increase affordable housing. …

The Land Ministry said in its statement that not less than 70 percent of new land supply should be used for affordable housing and smaller apartments, and that plots for villa construction is “strictly prohibited.”

Fearing an asset bubble about to burst, this is just one of the moves China is making in an effort to “rein in speculation and increase the amount of affordable housing.” One must to wonder what effect this will have on China’s “explosive” and “booming” golf course construction industry (well, those of us covering the development of golf in China must wonder). As I have mentioned before, much of China’s golf course growth is inextricably linked to the luxury villa market.

“It is all about selling vacation houses and having it full three to four months of the year,” one golf course architect explained to me last year in Hainan. “Three years ago, everyone you talked to was, ‘I want to build the best golf course in China!’ Now there are a lot more developers out there saying this golf course is an amenity to my project. It is not my project; it is a part of it. It is as important as the swimming pool. It is as important as the hotel. It just happens to take up a lot more space.”

So with villa construction seemingly “strictly prohibited,” what happens to all of these planned golf courses (which, I guess I should point out, are also technically prohibited)? Well, here’s what one golf course construction professional told me: “If golf courses can find a way around many other much more serious issues and keep going, then surely the name ‘villas’ is not going to stop golf.”

So, if a golf course can get around regulations by calling itself a “Ecotourism and Fitness Center,” what do you think they’ll start calling the villas? Green Leisure Harmonious Living Quarters? Other ideas?

Nick Kristof in 1993. (He's so good even his 17-year-old stories ring true today.)

Pressing ahead with its clampdown on runaway economic growth, the Chinese Government has banned new golf courses and announced that work on some luxury hotels and villas will be halted even though they are already partly built. …

The document said the Government would impose strict limits on the amount of land that can be leased for development and particularly crack down on the rush to build luxury villas, hotels, office buildings and country clubs. Some of those now being built are supposed to be converted into standard apartments, to ease the housing shortage, and into regular commercial buildings. …

“The Government will sternly punish those who engage in speculative activities with the aim of making quick money rather than a long-term investment,” the New China News Agency said Saturday night in announcing the crackdown.

This story was written by Nick Kristof … in 1993.

I dug this one out of the archives to illustrate a point: This Tom-and-Jerry routine between the Chinese government and the golf industry has been going on for a while now. The supposed 2004 moratorium on golf course construction gets a lot of the attention — it’s relatively recent and probably the most official anti-golf legislation — but there have been several stoppages, crackdowns, whatever you want to call them, pretty much since golf reemerged on the Chinese scene in 1984. None, it would seem, has been too serious or successful.

“The first couple used to scare me a bit,” said one industry veteran. “But now I hear about a crackdown and I get 25 leads right behind it. So I don’t know what to tell you. I’d lose sleep trying to think about what is going to happen, because I surely can’t control it.”

The most recent crackdown, which I wrote about in Slate this week, could have more teeth than previous attempts, but it’s too early to tell. Still, talk of “golf police” and bulldozed fairways is bound to catch the attention of those who rely on golf’s growth for their livelihood — due to changes in the global marketplace, China is pretty much the only country building new golf courses these days.

“I think right now they are just cracking down a little bit — that’s my take on it,” said my source, who works in the golf course construction industry. “But what I don’t like is that all our eggs are in one basket right now. If somebody stepped up and shut the doors in China on golf, wow, the entire industry is gone. Because right now everyone is after that one market that’s over there.”