Set upon cliffs and ridges elevated high above Kunming’s enormous Dianchi Lake, the Pure Scene golf course is about the craziest, toughest and most unforgettable inland golf experience imaginable. Designed by Arnold Palmer and associate Eric Larsson this is a course with the most appropriate name of any in China. The site is completely unplayable and unsuitable for golf, but the scenery is stunning – from views across the lake toward the city of Kunming, to others across deep canyons and ravines and out into the vast waters.

The dizzying topography at Pure Scene is undeniably beautiful to look at, and the use of native marsh grasses give a contrast and visual appeal that is hard to deny. The problem is that many holes are essentially unplayable, even for top professionals. Here is a site exposed to high winds but with, at times, no play space and ball swallowing marsh grasses, often 6-8 feet high, sitting immediately off the cut surface. The par three 5^th, for example, is attractively bunkered on both sides but the traps are fringed by hay that swallows any balls rolling down toward the sand. It’s the same on some of the longer and broader holes. The 1^st and 10^th are both generously proportioned, but built with internal bunker/hay hazards of extreme severity. Stray 40 yards here and you’ll find cut fairways and clean lines, but miss the direct route by a foot and you risk losing your ball.

Evident touring the golf course are numerous construction problems that may have been caused by client interference or lack of care by the contractor involved. Some of the bunkers seem unplayable, with balls often shooting through traps and into the vegetation. The fairway mounding is awkward and apparently added in places at the insistence of the client, who presumable also chose to retain a number of inopportune trees that hurt playability.

Among the unforgettable moments are holes like the par five 2^nd, which features a forced lay back from the tee followed by a blind second shot across an overgrown waste area to a fairway-green falling so steeply you almost can't hold the ball. The 3^rd then horseshoes a ravine with a tiny skinny fairway to hit and a drop down to a ledge green surrounded by Pines. The 4^th takes the award for most insane. Here an all-carry canyon tee shot must avoid a tall Pine and then somehow hit the brakes before running into oblivion. The hole then turns hard right with the second shot needing to avoid another huge tree as its attempts to find a green set way down below. Pars here should be rewarded with certificates of achievement.

On the back nine, the 17^th is a sharp dogleg left along such a skinny shelf and with such severe bunkering closer to the green that the only sensible play is to layback twice and then take your chances with an approach over sand to a green angled away from you. It’s not ideal, but in truth the inward side is more palatable than the outward. Holes like the mid-length par three 14^th are quite beautiful, and the drivable par four 15^th does work for those long enough to consider hitting toward the green from the tee. There are also a couple of nicely shaped green sites on this nine, with some surprisingly subtle contours and tilts.

The problem with Pure Scene is that as nice as the scenery gets here, you can’t really take a course with this many flaws, nor this number of unplayable holes, seriously. The par threes, for example, are very dramatic and picturesque but two drop steeply and two are lined by crazy bunkers from which escape is not possible.

Pictures of Pure Scene don't tell the full story, it’s about the hardest layout we’ve seen anywhere in the world. If we ever establish a Planet Golf challenge, it will be to play this course with just one ball and get around within 10 shots of your handicap. We don’t think it can be done. Far from discouraging play, however, we would invite readers to try access the course and retell of their experiences. Only a small percentage of golfers would actually enjoy this extreme challenge, but none would forget their day at Pure Scene.