No. 1, North Road, Round Island, Heng Qin District, Zhuhai

The course opened for business in early 2004, Orient is a Taiwanese company and is the first 'chain' golf courses operator in China, this one is very convenient to get to from Zhuhai Ferry pier - just 1 hour 10 minutes and 20-25 minutes on a taxi (the fare is about 60 RMB).

For those who wants to hang around til late, you can go from Macau too, the border from Macau to the course is even closer at 16-18 minutes and 40 RMB on a taxi.

A typhoon caused severe flooding destroyed the old club in 09 so they had to refurnish the club and added another floor to the building, now it is a 2 story building with more bigger function & conference rooms. Basic facilities such as locker, shower, cafe & proshop are more or less the same as before, I am also pleased to report that the service level of staff & cleanliness of the club remain excellent.

The course designer is the boss of the company; the course is similar to other links course built by the sea & on a relatively flat piece of land with lots of water around, wind from the coast is the main features of the course here.

There are a couple of features on course A that you don't find on other courses too often, A). twin fairways and there are 3 of them, which will give you plenty to think about (usually one is tougher but shorter, the other is wider but longer to the green, it's kind of risk & reward layout. B). There are 2 sets of blue tee boxes from both course A & B, the longer one is respectable 6,795 yards! and the shorter one is a more 'friendly' 6,470 yards. Take a look at the Scorecard here.....your score will depend very much on the superintendent's mood of the day. All index 1, 2, 3 & 4 are quite long and with tight landing area, the par 3s are relatively long too from 170-180 yards up, average golfers should be happy getting a bogey on these holes and try to make up the score from other 'easier' holes instead.

For the new course C, is a bit more straight forward in design & shorter at 3,070 from the blue tee which is 300 yards or so shorter than the other 2.

As mentioned, the course was flooded before but when I returned to play, the course iss back in superb shape.

As most greens are surrounded by water, you may see unexpected guests sometimes......click the pic on the left & you will see what I mean.

Caddies are getting more experienced, knowledge of the course is not bad & service are very good & friendly.

One other thing, they don't accept tips, if you like their service buy them a drink instead.

I usually prefer to play parkland & mountain course as I find them a bit more interesting & has more variations but this links is unexpectedly interesting to play, may be due to the twin fairways or some of risk & rewards holes....I was able to conquered on the day : )

As said, the course can be very tough - if the wind is up & the tees moved to the back, Fortunately, the designer decided to give us some' easier' flat greens to putt on.

Overall, I am quite happy with the course design, service of the staff & the landscaping also improved a lot.

Finally, I am happy to see Orient is back to normal, Zhuhai now offers plenty of choice (5 now, they are Golden Gulf, Lakewood, Zhuhai Golf Club & Pine Valley), Golfers in Hong Kong is now able to either take a short one day trip or go for an overnight package with any one of the above courses... perfect for those who prefers to travel by ferry.

Eagle，5/10