Part of a unique luxury hotel and golf retreat, the Pinx Golf Club is an exclusive facility set within pleasant surroundings on South Korea’s Jeju Island. With outlooks across the island’s blue coastline and a number of holes boasting views of the impressive Mt. Halla, this golf course is pure resort fare with lush green playing surfaces, cart paths and an abundance of manufactured water hazards.

The core of the course is quite good with the greens a standout, many are actually built up and designed with clever breaks and interesting contours. The best of the attractive complexes are those on the 5th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 14th and 18th. What hurts Pinx, however, is the lack of detail in the fairways, with almost no internal fairway shaping done despite vast amounts of earth being pushed to the sides to create symmetrical mounding. Bunkering is also a problem, the haphazard look and location of the round or sprawling bunker shapes often means that bad shots are unlucky to find trouble instead of being lucky to avoid it.

This successful and popular golf club has many positives, especially the clubhouse facilities and the incredible hotel, but serious shaping and construction shortfalls on the course ultimately keep it from being one of Asia’s absolute elite.