Noodle bowl for new Chinese course

10 July 2012

A noodle bowl lake is planned (pic courtesy Harris Kalinka Golf)

American architecture firm Schmidt-Curley is to create a noodle bowl lake as part of a fantasy miniature golf course design at Mission Hills’ Hainan Island resort in Haikou, China.

One of the main features of the volcanic region’s full-scale course is to be the 80-metre wide lake which will be formed to represent a noodle bowl complete with 75-metre chopsticks. Other iconic elements include a 400-yard tee-to-green version of the country’s Great Wall, a par three playing over a dip that contains terracotta warriors and a par five through Mayan ruins.

Designer Brian Curley said: “Unlike mini-golf on artificial grass, the fantasy course is played at full-scale with standard equipment on real turf. Other regulation courses frame holes with trees, bunkers and lakes. This course will incorporate many unique visuals while still requiring players to execute full shots and hole putts.”

The new design, one of 10 layouts by Schmidt-Curley, is intended to introduce a sense of family fun to the game when it opens in 2014.

Chairman and CEO of Mission Hills Group Dr Ken Chu said: “Golf is typically a very conservative, tradition-filled game, yet there are many calls to make it more fun. We are taking this desire for change to the extreme, feeling many golfers will seek out this new adventure and while here, play our other wonderful courses."