Capital Courses

By AL CAMPBELL
July 25, 2008

If ever there was a city with a love/hate relationship with golf, it's Beijing.

Long the scourge of the national government, mainly for the amount of farmland that courses can consume, the sport is nonetheless popular with officials and the business elite. And despite the national government's ban on course construction since 2004, new ones continue to open. About 20 are being built around the capital, adding to the current 80 or so.

The trend has been toward ultra-exclusive clubs such as Pine Valley -- where membership, by invitation only, costs $250,000. But Olympics visitors needn't give up on the idea of a round of golf: Other clubs do let in the masses, and even offer discounts on "public days" and "ladies days." (Women are welcome on both.)

Tiger Beach Golf Links

Tiger Beach Golf Links, a sister course to Scotland's famed Carnoustie.

Beijing International (86- 10-6076-2288), whose 1986 opening marked the return of golf to the city after the Communist takeover, has a $66 Monday deal that includes greens fee, lunch and a caddie. Women can play on any weekday for the same price (no lunch, though). Set on the Ming Tomb Reservoir in Changping District, the course has 13 holes along the water, a treat in arid Beijing.

Beijing Golf Club (86-10- 8947-0005), along the Chaobai reservoir in Shunyi District, offers a memorable experience from the start: On a clear day the Great Wall is visible from the first tee. The club, which hosted the golf event of the 1990 Asian Games, has a Tuesday public day when the price is $73. Other weekdays, it's $117 including a caddie.

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Also in Shunyi, about 35 kilometers from downtown, is Beijing Country Golf Club (86-10-6940-1111), whose tree-lined fairways make good use of its setting along the Chaobai reservoir. Its 54 holes usually make getting a game easy; a round on Wednesday or Friday costs $58. On weekends, it's $140 before noon and $81 after.

Beijing is also home to two of the 15-club Orient Golf chain -- Orient Star (86-10- 8491-7999), aka Tianxing, in Chaoyang District, and Orient Pearl (86-10-6042-5799), aka Mingzhu, in Shunyi District. The chain usually builds on spots like spent industrial sites, old landfills and swamps, the cheap land allowing for less-costly memberships and lower greens fees.

Building Orient Star -- atop a dried reservoir turned landfill -- required removing a prison, a pig farm and an incinerator. Today its challenging layout mixes forest with water areas. Each Monday public day is $84; women can play for the same price on Tuesday.

At Orient Pearl, an 18-month-old course that hosted the country's top female pros for the Orient Masters Beijing in June, a round on Tuesday is $59 with caddie. Women can also play for that price on Wednesday. All summer, the weekday price for anybody is $66 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Huatang International (86-10-6159-8888), a Graham Marsh design in the Yanjiao Development Zone, is open for public play on Tuesday -- women for $57 and men for $86. Eighteen holes at Beijing Yaoshang (86-10-8032-1678), in Fangshan District, can be had on Monday and Tuesday for an unbeatable $44.

In Shanghai for Olympic soccer? Public day at Shanghai Silport (86-512-5748-1970) is Thursday -- $82, caddie included.

--Al Campbell is a Beijing-based writer.