World’s Largest Golf Complex
Mission Hills Shenzhen: World’s Largest Golf Complex Featuring 396 Holes
The world’s largest golf resort was the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, featuring 10 different courses totaling 171 Holes. This record has since been broken by the Mission Hills Golf Resort located in China. Mission Hills boasts 22 courses for a grand total of 396 holes!
The Origins of Mission Hills
Founded in 1992 by Dr. David Chu after he visited a golf course in Toronto. His experience in Toronto inspired him to build the first course at Mission Hills, the World Cup Course. When Chu founded Mission Hills his “vision was to promote international goodwill through golf. By creating the world’s largest golf facility, with championship courses designed by signature players, and international events attended by world-famous golfers and celebrities. His mission was to bring China to the world and the world to China” (Tenniel Chu). Years later Chu’s mission has been fulfilled as people from around the world come to play one of many iconic Mission Hills Courses.
The World Cup Course
Chu decided that he would not just build any course, but he had to build a course designed by a golf legend. This led him to approach none other than Jack Nicklaus with an offer to design the World Cup Course. Its name comes from the fact that it hosted the 1995 World Cup. This tournament is a marker in golf history as it was the first-ever international golf tournament held in China. According to the mission hills website, the course has won multiple international awards and has been heralded by the authoritative US golf publication LINKS as “one of the ten most significant and influential courses of the last 20 years.” Mission Hills’ World Cup course is widely hailed as one of the best golfing experiences in Asia as well as the world.
The Courses
Mission Hills of course continued to build more courses and develop into the world’s largest golf comlpex. It now has courses designed by golf legends from around the globe including Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, and Annika Sorenstam – to name a few. It is also the only golf complex to feature architects from five different continents. Its diversity in architects makes the facility a true representation of the collective world of golf. Since 1995 the Mission Hills courses have hosted over 100 major international tournaments. If you would like to read more about each of the 22 courses check out this article.
Mission Hills is surely a titan in the world of golf that will likely hold this status for generations to come. It is unlikely that a facility will take its title as the world’s largest golf complex. At least not anytime soon as Mission Hills is over double the size of the next largest resort. While many of us will likely never journey to Mission Hills, Haggin Oaks Golf Complex is the next best thing for Sacramento golfers. Haggin Oaks is the largest golf complex in Sacramento and the Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop is one of the largest in the nation. Though Haggin Oaks is hardly comparable to the monstrous size of Mission Hills Shenzhen, the world’s largest golf complex.
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