
Asia
China, we profile 60 of its best courses, a number of which are located offshore, on Hainan Island. We also maintain ranking lists for layouts in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Hirono Golf Club
Kinki (Kansai), Japan
Hirono Golf Club
Hirono Golf Club has played host to all the major Japanese championships and, although it measures a mere 6,925 yards from the back tees, it’s a supreme test of golf.
Kawana Hotel (Fuji)
Chubu, Japan
Kawana Hotel (Fuji)
There are two courses on the Izu Peninsula at the Kawana Resort and the Fuji course is universally considered to be the best.
South Cape Owners Club
South Korea
South Cape Owners Club
The course at South Cape Owners Club is a Kyle Phillips design, set out on a dramatic cliff top property, with ocean views available from all eighteen golf holes.
Naruo Golf Club
Kinki (Kansai), Japan
Naruo Golf Club
Naruo shares all the traditional aspects of Japan’s older golf clubs. The continuity in tradition here is maintained by the 700 members whose average age is 71.
Lanhai International Golf Club (Yangtze Dunes)
Set out across reclaimed land on Chongming Island in the estuary of the mighty Yangtze River, the 2011 Jack Nicklaus-designed Links layout at Lanhai International Golf Resort was completely re-built by Ogilvie, Clayton, Cocking and Mead in 2018 creating Yangtze Dunes.
The Club at Nine Bridges
South Korea
The Club at Nine Bridges
The Club at Nine Bridges is located on Jeju Island, the volcanic island south of South Korea’s continental landmass sometimes referred to as Korea’s Maui.
Tokyo Golf Club
Kanto, Japan
Tokyo Golf Club
You’ll need an invite to play here at Tokyo Golf Club but if you are lucky enough to receive one, take it immediately. This is a world-class golf course that is mature way beyond its years.
Yokohama Country Club (West)
Kanto, Japan
Yokohama Country Club (West)
Yokohama Country Club was founded in 1960 and over the following six years architect Takeo Aiyama designed and built both the East and West 18-hole layouts.
Shanqin Bay Golf Club
Constructed in a manner unlike anything that’s been built before in China, the Shanqin Bay golf course just might become the benchmark for those still to come... assuming the authorities do not commandeer the fairways.
The Bluffs Grand Ho Tram
Vietnam
The Bluffs Grand Ho Tram
The Greg Norman-designed golf course at The Bluffs Gran Ho Tram, took all of ten years to come to fruition after it was first earmarked for investment back in 2004...
Ayodhya Links
Central Thailand, Thailand
Ayodhya Links
Formed in 2007 by thirty of Thailand’s wealthiest people, Ayodhya Links is one of the most exclusive golf clubs in Asia. Membership is by invitation so only the great and the good of Thai society mingle in the clubhouse...
Hoiana Shores Golf Club
Vietnam
Hoiana Shores Golf Club
The course at Hoiana Shores Golf Club lies within an enormous 2,500-acre site to the south of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as The City of Lanterns. Fittingly, the pins on every green are adorned with lanterns instead of flags.
Kasumigaseki (East)
Kanto, Japan
Kasumigaseki (East)
The East course at Kasumigaseki Country Club employs the traditional Japanese dual green system, one for the winter and one for the summer, which takes a bit of getting used if you’re not familiar with this feature.
Sentosa Golf Club (Serapong)
Singapore
Sentosa Golf Club (Serapong)
Sentosa's Serapong course fulfills Donald Ross' pithy edict: "Make each hole present a different problem. So arrange it that every stroke must be made with full concentration and attention necessary to good golf."
KN Golf Links - Cam Ranh (Links)
KN Golf Links Cam Ranh is located at the southernmost end of a long and gently curving sandy sweep, interrupted only by a naturally rugged headland where the height of the terrain allows for a number of remarkable viewpoints.
Mission Hills (Blackstone)
Venue for the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in 2011, the Blackstone course on Hainan Island covers 350 acres of a rugged landscape that’s dominated by lava rock, lakes and wetlands.
Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club (West)
West Malaysia, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club (West)
TPC Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club, or KLGCC as it is known, is located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and is one of Malaysia’s most popular golf clubs.
Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula (East)
Located on the south side of Hainan Island, a mere 60 minutes by high speed train from Haikou, the 36-hole Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula golf complex was designed by Tom Weiskopf and his associate Phil Smith.
Spring City (Lake)
China
Spring City (Lake)
For what is ostensibly a resort layout, the Lake golf course at Spring City, Kunming, is a tough test. No hole could be described as easy.
Anyang Country Club
South Korea
Anyang Country Club
Anyang Country Club, formerly known as Anyang Benest Golf Club is cut through mature trees, which not only prove a challenge for the crooked driver but also brilliance of seasonal colour.
Sheshan International
Sheshan International Golf Club is the epitome of Shanghai and it’s an intoxicating blend of Chinese tradition and international modernity.
Spring City (Mountain)
The Jack Nicklaus designed Mountain golf course at Spring City in China kept a little closer to the resort brief and is consequently a more forgiving course compared with Trent Jones Jnr's design slightly lower down the hill.
Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea
South Korea
Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea
The 18 holes at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea are situated within a modern residential development in the Songdo International Business District.
Danang Golf Resort (Norman)
Vietnam
Danang Golf Resort (Norman)
The Dunes course at Danang Golf Club (now called Norman) opened to critical acclaim in 2010 with its designer, Greg Norman, saying, “You’d be doing a very poor job to make a boring course out of a site like this”.
Taman Dayu
Java, Indonesia
Taman Dayu
Opened in 1995, Taman Dayu Golf Club has established itself as one of Indonesia’s best and most private courses and it sits in a resort spanning more than 600 hectares...
Woo Jeong Hills
South Korea
Woo Jeong Hills
Woo Jeong Hills Country Club was opened in 1993 and is as close as you can find in Asia to a big, brutish, US tournament golf course.
Laguna Golf Lang Co
Vietnam
Laguna Golf Lang Co
Officially opened by its designer, 6-time Major winner Sir Nick Faldo, in March of 2013, the Laguna Lang Co golf course is situated on the East Sea coastline...
Ba Na Hills Golf Club
Vietnam
Ba Na Hills Golf Club
Developed by Sun Group, a leading Vietnamese investor, the course at Ba Na Hills Golf Club is Luke Donald’s first foray into golf course design.
Sky Lake (Lake)
Vietnam
Sky Lake (Lake)
The Sky Lake Resort & Golf Club facility is managed by IMG and the private Lake course on the west side of the property made its debut in 2012...
Hokkaido Classic
Hokkaido, Japan
Hokkaido Classic
One of seven golf facilities operated by the same management company in Japan, the course at Hokkaido Classic Golf Club is a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that debuted in 1991.
FLC Quy Nhon (Mountain)
Vietnam
FLC Quy Nhon (Mountain)
The Mountain course at FLC Quy Nhon Beach & Golf Resort is built on a sand-based, pine scrub hillside with with wide playing corridors and ocean views from sixteen holes...
Fujizakura
Kanto, Japan
Fujizakura
Located in the northern foothills of Mount Fuji, Fujizakura Country Club is set at altitude in the heart of the popular resort area of Fuji Five Lakes.
Sentosa (New Tanjong)
Singapore
Sentosa (New Tanjong)
The New Tanjong may be slightly overshadowed by its sibling but there’s still no denying the quality of a layout that was completely redesigned by Andrew Johnston and Matt Swanson in 2016.
Ria Bintan (Ocean)
Riau Islands, Indonesia
Ria Bintan (Ocean)
Gary Player's excellent Ocean golf course at Ria Bintan offers two distinct playing atmospheres. For the most part the course cuts through the interior native jungle but also it has its seaside holes…
Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau (North)
Hong Kong
Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau (North)
The North Course at Kau Sai Chau is one of the best public golf courses in the region outside Australia and New Zealand.
Damai Indah (Bumi Serpong Damai)
Java, Indonesia
Damai Indah (Bumi Serpong Damai)
The Bumi Serpong Damai course at Damai Indah Golf Club in Tangerang was Jack Nicklaus’s inaugural Indonesia design project and the course opened for play in 1992.
FLC Quy Nhon (Ocean)
Vietnam
FLC Quy Nhon (Ocean)
FLC Quy Nhon Beach & Golf Resort offers visiting golfers a fabulous 36-hole experience, with two courses fashioned amidst a thrilling landscape of pine forest and dunes...
Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula (West)
The West course at the Dunes at Shenzhou Peninsula opened first in 2010, two years ahead of the East, and both were constructed such that a composite course can easily be configured for future tournament play.
Shimonoseki
Chugoku, Japan
Shimonoseki
Founded in 1956, the course at Shimonoseki Golf Club was designed by Osamu Ueda and proudly played host to the Japan Open in 1991 (won by Tsuneyuki Nakajima) and 2002 (won by David Smail).
The Country Club - Philippines
Philippines
The Country Club - Philippines
Tom Weiskopf was the man entrusted to transform an area of scrubland into one of the best golfing layouts in the country. The Country Club was subsequently a host venue for the 2005 South East Asian games.
Wellington (Griffin & Wyvern)
South Korea
Wellington (Griffin & Wyvern)
Built by the Hyosung Group, one of Korea’s largest industrial conglomerates, the three 9-hole circuits at Wellington Country Club are named after the Greek mythological creatures of the Griffin, Phoenix and Wyvern.
Jian Lake Blue Bay
China
Jian Lake Blue Bay
The Jian Lake Blue Bay golf course, located on Hainan Island and fashioned by Mark Hollinger of JMP Golf Design, debuted in 2012, seven years after its older sibling opened on the Chinese mainland at Shaoxing.
Whistling Rock (Temple & Cocoon)
South Korea
Whistling Rock (Temple & Cocoon)
In a feat of major engineering expertise, three quarters of a million cubic metres of rock was blasted to create the three nines at the very hilly, 425-acre, Whistling Rock property...
Tokyo Classic
Kanto, Japan
Tokyo Classic
Built on the site of a former cedar tree farm, an hour’s drive west of downtown Tokyo, the course at Tokyo Classic was more than a decade in the making.
Shanghai Links Golf & Country Club
The private Jack Nicklaus Signature course at Shanghai Links Golf & Country Club is laid out within a large residential site close to where the mighty Yangtze River empties into the East China Sea.
Royale Jakarta (West & South)
Java, Indonesia
Royale Jakarta (West & South)
The West and South nines comprise the premier 18-hole configuration at the 27-hole Royale Jakarta Golf Club. Lee Westwood claimed the Indonesian Masters title here in 2011 and 2012.
Sta. Elena (Makiling & Banahaw)
Philippines
Sta. Elena (Makiling & Banahaw)
Sta. Elena Golf & Country Club is the happy combination of lush tropical environment and the intellectual and physical rigours of a Trent Jones course.
Jade Palace (West & East)
South Korea
Jade Palace (West & East)
Built for Hanwha Group, one of Korea’s biggest engineering and construction companies, the course at Jade Palace Golf Club was designed by Harley Kruse from the Greg Norman Design team, opening in 2004.
BRG Kings Island (Kings)
Vietnam
BRG Kings Island (Kings)
Unveiled in 2018, the 19-hole Kings course is the latest addition in BRG Kings Island Golf Resort’s burgeoning golfing portfolio. Designed by Jack Nicklaus II, the wooded front side is juxtaposed by a water-laden back nine.
Kasumigaseki (West)
Kanto, Japan
Kasumigaseki (West)
A major change to the West course at Kasumigaseki Country Club was made by Taizo Kawata when he converted the traditional Japanese dual greens into conventional putting surfaces...
Pondok Indah
Java, Indonesia
Pondok Indah
Venue for the World Cup of Golf in 1983, the testing 18-hole layout at Pondok Indah Golf Course is a strategic Robert Trent Jones Jnr design.
Saujana (Palm)
West Malaysia, Malaysia
Saujana (Palm)
The Palm course at Saujana Golf & Country Club is a stern test of patience. Skew-whiff hitting is a sure recipe for a miserable day out in the unrelenting tropical heat.