International projects

The site of the Baihua Ridge Golf Club is located in the mountainous interior of Hainan island, almost halfway between the tourist hub of Sanya and the capital, Haikou. The course will form part of a proposed health spa resort. All 18 greens will be rebuilt based on new designs, as will all tees, bunkering, irrigation and most of the drainage systems.

Double Eagle Golf Course was developed in 2005 (by the original owners) to be a brutal test of golf.  Consisting of 36 holes, the North course is over 7800 yards with some of the most extreme, difficult and ridiculous golf terrain we have ever seen! The redevelopment started with the South course. 

The original course was built with extensive ‘separation mounding’ between holes, which was both visually unappealing and gave little variation to the holes. Unfortunately, due to limitations on tree removal, many of these mounds between holes had to remain – especially on the front nine holes. But we introduced a new bunker style, designed 18 new greens, widened fairways wherever possible and created a course that has far more playing options, is more fun and interesting to play and less arduous for poorer golfers.  The course was officially opened in October 2013.

Yudakou Royal Golf Club is located seven hours drive north of Beijing, past the Ancient city of Chengde, on a site that borders Inner Mongolia. In 2009, we completed the first nine holes of the project. The site at Yudakou is blessed with natural sand dunes, sand ‘blowouts’, white birch trees and spectacular scenery.  It is an extraordinary site, given it is more than 1500 metres above sea level.  Of the holes completed, the long par 4 5th and mid-length par 4 16th are the standout holes. The par 3 12th plays at just 130 metres. 

The site is perhaps the best we have ever seen for an inland golf course, however the remoteness of the site, lack of infrastructure, harsh climate and very short golfing season always made this project's viability questionable.

Jade Island Golf Club is located in Beijing, just five kilometres from the airport. Ben Davey was a senior designer on this project from 2005-08 (for Cashmore Golf Design), and spent several months living on site, while supervising construction.

The original site was a flat, featureless paddock with virtually no elevation change. More than 500,000 cubic metres of soil was shifted to create more then six metres of elevation change across the site.  The course is considered one of the best in the Beijing area.

The Xiangyang Lumen Golf Course is a proposed 27 hole golf and residential development located in Xiangfan City, Hubei Province.  

Construction of holes 1-3 and 12-18 commenced in June 2014 and fine shaping and grassing of several holes was underway when the project was halted. 

Unfortunately the golf course has temporarily become a tree farm, with much of the shaping work destroyed.  All the irrigation and drainage infrastructure remains underground however, and the client hopes to complete the golf course someday…

Putian Mazu Golf Course is located in Fujian Province on the east coast of China. The famous island of Meizhou lies just off the coast. We designed the course as an 18 hole Championship length golf course with an additional nine hole course on a separate parcel of land to the west of the club house. In 2016, Putian Mazu hosted the PGA China Tour ‘Putian Open’. 

Located in far north China, the Fushun Golden Bay Golf Club was the first golf club in the Fushun city area. The 18 hole golf course forms part of a very large residential, commercial and recreation area, which includes a 5-star hotel and resort theme park.

The course consists of two distinct parts; the hilly forest terrain in the west half of the site and the flatter river plains in the east. The challenge was to arrange the golf holes so that there was a seamless blend in character throughout the golf course. This required extensive earth moving on the eastern half of the site and very little change to the west half.

The completed course consists of several holes where water or creeks come into play, as well as large areas of natural pine forest. The course was officially opened in 2011.

Fairytale Lake Golf Course is located about 100 kilometres west of Shanghai, near the small city of Huzhou. Construction of the golf course started in 2010. It took more than five years to complete the 18 holes, due to land and boundary issues. Golf Architect Ben Davey was responsible for the first 15 holes but the last three holes were re-routed by the client's staff due to land boundary changes. The project was complicated by the strict requirement to not use any ‘farmland’ for the golf holes.

Seven Valley golf course is located near the small city of Daegu in South Korea.

The site for the course was extremely steep, occupying the side of a mountain, and more than one million cubic metres of dirt and rock was moved to make the course playable.  The steepness of the site meant this course was always going to be compromised but the goal was to make it much better than the average Korean mountain course – of which there are many.  

Director Ben Davey was responsible for the design of this Cashmore Golf Design course, which was constructed between 2008-10, eventually opening for play in 2011.