Hainan IBL Golf Sports Club

Hainan IBL Golf Sports Clubis designed by noted Taiwanese designer Chen Qingquan. The18-hole (par 72) course at the Hainan IBL Golf Club near Haikou City provides players with a challenging game set in a lush tropical landscape. 

Hainan IBL Golf Sports Club is the golf course for the island’s main seaport just about a quarter of an hour from Haikou’s Meilan Airport. Designed by Taiwanese Chen Qingquan, it is a 10,830-yard 27-hole course consisting of three rather distinct 9s – the Mountain 9, the Lake 9 and ‘the Field’ 9 with the first two making up a total of 7,028 yards as the club’s Standard Par-72 Championship 18. Not unexpectedly of Hainan as the only part of China that can truly lay claim to be part of the tropic, the main vegetation along the Hawaiian Grass-turfed fairways is the ever-swaying coconut trees. The greens are covered with Bermuda grass.

The most memorable hole appears to be the Par-3 182-yard Hole#12 which has a front-to-back sloping, narrow green – a good test for spinning and ball control, particularly when using longer iron clubs. But the deciding factor here however is always the overhead wind. If you can’t make it to the green, this is one place you’d be fully excused for doing a ‘Mickelson’ high lob for a second landing. The Par-4 416-yard #18 is a typical finishing hole with the tee-shot landing at about the 250-yard mark, just before the sharp turn of this dogleg-right hole. High trees on the inner side of the fairway and bunkers littered around the turn are the main hazards to an otherwise straight-forward Par-4.