While few golf courses in China are truly inspiring, there are enough glimpses of quality and fun at times to give hope to those passionate about the strongest virtues of our game. Sadly that is not the case at Poly Golf Club in Xindu, outside the city of Chengdu, one of the most disappointing resort courses in recent years.

Designed principally by Lee Schmidt from Schmidt and Curley, one suspects here that the client, the Poly Group, were far less interested in decent design outcomes than real estate yields and hotel occupancy. The site is mostly flat and although dotted with lakes, ponds and heroic holes on paper, there is a lack of attention here to the finishing detail work and no real strategic interest built into the vast playing corridors.

Given the site and, presumably, the client, the designers had their work cut out trying to make this place interesting, but even so the work is fairly ordinary and looks to have been completed without excessive effort. There is nothing new here. Most of the large, simple bunker shapes are unsightly and the green contours appear to have been constructed from a computer printout. They hold balls, shed water and function the way modern greens are supposed to, but appear to have been randomly selected to conclude each individual hole.

Local golfers might enjoy Poly Xindu, but experienced foreigners will want to play elsewhere.