Dali Stone Mountain Golf Club (Lake)

Overview: The Lake Course at Dali Stone Mountain Golf Club sits between Erhai Lake and the Cangshan range, with Dali's Three Pagodas and ancient city landscape nearby. Nick Faldo designed the 18-hole, par-72 layout, listed at 7,651 yards from the back tees. Wide fairways and moderate elevation changes make the routing readable, but wind across the lake, bunkers around the approaches and water on selected holes keep the course from becoming a purely scenic round.

History: Dali Stone Mountain opened in 2005 as one of the first golf destinations in Dali and developed into a 36-hole facility. The directory separates Lake and Mountain, and the course references identify both as 18-hole routings within the same club. The Lake course's identity comes from its water views and more open relationship with the valley.

Did You Know? The course uses two natural landmarks as a visual frame on almost every hole: the lake in front and Cangshan behind. That makes the strategy unusually sensitive to wind direction, because air moving through the valley can change from the front nine to the back. The scenery is constant, but playing conditions are not.