Golfing at Kunming's Wanda Golf Club

On morning of day 5, my buddies left for Spore while I paid RMB300 to take a pte cab (arranged thru the caddy at Spring City; otherwise the resort charges RMB550!) to Kunming City for a 2 nights complimentary stay at Grand Park Hotel, courtesy of a lucky draw prize won at the FAS Charity Golf in Spore. The journey took just over an hour as we encountered heavy rain on the highway. The hotel is located next to Green Lake Park and the room I had was spacious and clean. The next morning after the complimentary buffet bfast which was also good, I set out by cab for Wanda Golf Club. I actually intended to play at Lakeview Golf Club (designed by Faldo) but was told they were having competition that Friday and as I did not want to travel too far, I chose Wanda that is located in the same vicinity. The cab ride to the club was just shy of 30 mins. The clubhouse was impressive and the changing room, nice. The driving range was some distance away and you will need a buggy to send you there. This club was built by the developer that developed the bungalows, apartments and shophouses surrounding the golf course. The course is short (6,638 yds fr blue, 5,623yds fr white & 5,141 fr red) and flat. There are many ponds and at almost every hole, water comes into play. The fairways and greens were well maintained though the green speed was slower than Spring City. Buggy was restricted on track and the young female caddy was good at reading the greens. IMHO, high handicapers will probably like this course but for low handicapers, the challenge is lacking. Overall, ok for a first time play and the green fee of RMB730 was relatively cheap. But I think I would have enjoyed Lakeview GC more.

Pretty much as I expected. Wanda is a relatively easy and flat course, even though water hazards are common. I played there once for same reason, it was conveniently located and easily accessed compared with Spring City and Stone Forest. But I will not play Wanda again.

You may or may not enjoy Lakeview..the Faldo course. Lakeview is a lot tougher than Wanda, long narrow fairways with water running most of the lengths from tee to green. But the course conditioning is much better than Wanda.

The packahed deal for stay and play in Lakewview villas are good deal, although you still need to drive to downtown for food but it's only 15 minutes. The villas are equipped with automatic mahjong sets so if you have 4 balls sharing the villas and you play mahjong as well, then you will have full activities of golf, booze and mahjong.