china Island Fantasies

After a two-year delay, it appears that work on Tom Doak’s golf courses on Hainan Island will finally begin this year.

One will be a private course on a 300-acre island in the Nandu River, within spitting distance of the city of Haikou. Tentatively dubbed the Island Club, the track will be accompanied by what’s been described as “a few home sites” and a golf lodge.

The second course, a public track, will be part of a large community along Mulan Bay on Hainan’s northern coast. In a recent interview with Planet Golf, Doak said that it’ll “probably” have “three or four golf courses and hotels and everything else.”

Both courses are being developed by Han Xiding (sometimes spelled Ziding), a former ad man who owns the Golf Channel of China. Doak, who’s based in Traverse City, Michigan, has described Xiding as “our kind of developer,” one who believes that “the Chinese golfer is becoming more sophisticated and is ready to embrace a different type of course.”

The courses will be Doak’s first in China -– or anywhere else in Asia, for that matter.