Pine Valley

Well, I had to travel half-way around the world to do it, but I finally, finally got to play Pine Valley!

Ok, so it's not the No. 1 ranked course in the world, the one that's only about an hour and 20 minutes away from my house in New Jersey, but still.. This is literally the Pine Valley of China. A Jack Nicklaus-design, it's reputed by many to be the best course here, is very private and hosts a European Tour event. So when I was able to wrangle an invitation (thanks Butchie), I definitely knew I had to figure out a way to get there... After getting to sleep at about 2:30 in the morning, I woke up at 5:30 and caught a cab just after 6. The course is about an hour or so outside of Beijing, so wanted to make sure I got there for my 7:30 tee time.

The gate above is what greeted me when we finally got there... It's beyond over the top. That guard there then points down the road, so my driver pulls out, heads to the end and makes a turn that pretty much led us nowhere.. I start gesturing, trying to make the point that the original gate had to be the right one. He probably realized it too, so we turn around and head back, where I tell the guard "Guest." He understands. Excellent. Progress is being made. He indicates that I should wait for a cart to come pick me up. After getting picked up about 5 minutes later, I'm taken to the driving range, where I meet the director of golf, Dayong Hu. He says that I should go to the main clubhouse, so drops me off there and the fun begins.. At the main clubhouse (seen above), I go to the front desk and tell the girl that I'm a guest of Joy, the marketing director. She looks at the tee sheet and I'm nowhere on there. She's never heard of Joy -- at least that English version of her name -- and trying to comprehend marketing director? Yeah, right...

This is troublesome. I have no phone number for Joy, so I'm starting to fear this trip was all for naught. Fortunately, after some phone calls, she eventually gets in touch with the right person and Joy comes over. She's young and very nice and her english is passable. excellent.. Mr. Hu then joins us for some juice while I wait for the GM. He eventually shows up --- no joke, his name was really He -- and we talk for about 10 minutes (through Joy since he doesn't speak english). Then it's off to the posh locker room, where I changed into shorts, they hooked me up with golf shoes, and I stored my work bag. I got a set of Adams rental clubs, which were right outside the back of the clubhouse and loaded up on a cart waiting for me.. I played with the director of golf, Mr. Hu, and we each had a female caddie. Another first! As you can see in the above picture, the caddies, in addition to their myriad other duties, would even line the ball up for you on the putting greens! Amazing.

Get on that at Pebble Beach, Ian! After some VERY long work days and not enough sleep, I was a little fearful of how poorly I might play. Despite some stiffness, though, I fortunately hit it pretty decently. And the caddies were complementary pretty much no matter how I was playing.

Mr. Hu had only been playing about 3 years, but he was pretty solid. About a 10 handicap, but I think I might have edged him out on this day. He didn't speak great english and my Mandarin is woeful at best, but we had the golf in common, so shared some laughs and stories along the way. Naturally, three holes in, I got the requisite, "Tiger Woods, US Open... awesome." then a laugh.. We both agreed on that. When I came up short on a 12-foot birdie putt on the fifth hole, he says, "Ohh. Mm.." Yes, coming up feebly short on a birdie try is universally bad.



I kept thinking, "What better than to make my first hole-in-1 in China?" Alas, it never happened, even though I played on 8-18-08 and "8" is a lucky number in China. I had a couple par-3 tee shots that were right on line, but came up just short on both occassions.



I was hoping for a bit of symmetry: just 10 days before, on 8-08-08, Pops dropped the first ace of his life, at his home course of Rancho Canada. I got the news in an e-mail at 2:30 in the morning and couldn't have been happier if it happened to me...


Awesome stuff, Dad.

The course itself was good, but not great. It was well-kept and lush, but ultimately I found that the holes weren't all that memorable. If I had to compare to a course I'd played in New Jersey, it probably would be like a Fiddler's Elbow. Above you can actually see what appear to be giant Roman columns that are behind one of the holes and at the back end of the equestrian club's clubhouse.

We ended up playing two different nines. There's the main course, which hosts the European Tour stop, and then another nine. The second nine wasn't nearly as good, but one thing it did have as you can see above is lights. That's right, they had the course open for night play, which I thought was pretty cool...

I ended up shooting 44-46, which was pretty respectable. I missed a chance to crack the 80's by lipping a birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole. That's me and Mr. Hu on 18 above. I didn't drive the ball great and stubbed a few short chips around the green after not playing in a while, but was solid for the most part. Oh, and I ended up paying like $55 to get a glove and 6 pro-V1 logo balls before the round.. One good thing was that I ended up using the same ball the whole way thru. Always good.
And here are our caddies. They were great. That was my caddie on the right and she did a heck of a job reading the greens and nailing distances. That was the other thing, I thought that maybe I'd be having to do meter/yardage conversions, but fortunately everything was in yards and she was on top of that throughout the round.


It was definitely a GREAT time and an amazing experience. A most welcome break from the drudgery of the daily Olympic coverage. Just to get out in the fresh air, walk in the grass, see the mountains in the distance with the Great Wall running along their spine. Just surreal. Can't tell you how many times I'd be strolling down the fairway, looking off into the distance as I headed to my next shot and thought, "I cannot believe I'm effing playing golf in China."

After a post-round shower, I joined Mr. Hu for an authentic Chinese lunch in the clubhouse. There were a couple of things that were absolutely unidentifiable, no kidding. I have no idea what they were and he couldn't convey it.. But I tried them and everything was excellent.
After that, he drove me around the rest of the property for about30 minutes, showing me the equestrian club (above), the wedding chapel, the other clubhouse and it's golf memorabilia, the members rental houses, etc. All quite posh, but also an incredible mis-mash of styles which I found very offputting. I guess I was expecting one theme..

While I was getting the tour, he got a car to take me back to the media village. It ended up being a Pine Valley Lincoln Navigator, a strange sight here to be sure, and the guy rolls up with Heart's "What About Love?" playing on the stereo. It was absolutely surreal. Just an incredible experience all-around.

I can't believe I played golf in effing China.

Now to try and get on the NJ Pine Valley...