Lanhai International Golf Club (Links)

Overview: Lanhai International Golf Club’s Links Course occupies a distinctive landscape on Chongming Island, east of Shanghai. Nicklaus Design’s original work and the later refinement associated with Ogilvy & Clayton give the layout a broad architectural vocabulary: open ground, wind-exposed lines, firm-running fairways and hazards that ask players to think about angles rather than simply chase distance. The course has a recognisably links-like relationship with its surroundings, but its identity is also tied to Chongming’s low-lying island environment. The best holes invite a ground game, while the changing breeze can alter the safest line from one round to the next.

History: Lanhai’s Links Course opened in 2011 as part of the club’s larger golf development on Chongming. Nicklaus Design established the original course, and later work by the Ogilvy Clayton Cocking Mead team revisited the layout’s strategic and visual character. That work is described as an extensive renovation rather than a completely separate course, so the current profile combines the original 2011 opening with the subsequent design refinement. The club is also associated with a second, forest-oriented course, making the Links Course one half of a broader 36-hole setting.

Did You Know? Lanhai sits on Chongming, an island formed at the mouth of the Yangtze River. The Links Course is therefore not just a seaside-themed design: its sense of openness comes from a real island setting, where wind, distant horizons and low coastal land are central to the playing experience.