The World's Largest Practice Green

Schmidt-Curley Design announces it has built the world's largest putting course at China 's Mission Hills Golf Club. Draped across more than 17 acres, the putting course is punctuated by wild, rugged bunkering and dramatic humps and hollows. Framed by bursts of flowers, dense groundcovers and native grasses, it evokes the feel of a miniature, quarter-scale golf course.  

Unlike most putting courses that are effectively oversized putting greens or bear a close resemblance to miniature golf, the Mission Hills course traverses the rolling countryside, snaking around bunkers, mounds and thickets of landscaping. The putting surface is a contiguous, six-acre ribbon of platinum paspalum turf, ideal for practice with the flat stick, wedge or both. The course does not have a prescribed routing, so players are free to jump on and off wherever and whenever they'd like, just as one would with a standard practice green.

"There is nothing on the planet that comes close to the course's size, appearance or playing alternatives," says Brian Curley. "The possibilities are limitless. It can play as a putting course requiring negotiation of hazards and putts of 100 feet or more. Or, players can sharpen their chipping and pitching, incorporating lofted ball flights over the myriad bunkers and swales turning the facility into more of a short-game course. Regular use of the course will cultivate shot-making creativity that's sure to shave-off handicap strokes."