Golf in Shanghai with Meiwa Corp!

December 8th I went with Matsui, Iwashita, and Takahashi to the Shanghai West Golf Club to play golf. It turned out to be a whole-day affair, and was an awesome day. We started early, leaving Shanghai at 5:30am and arriving at the golf course about one hour later. After some breakfast, renting clubs/shoes we hit the links. And it was COLD. Right at freezing when we teed off, it reminded me of golfing with ‘the boys’ during many Tri-Cities winters. My hands hurt just thinking about it.

One difference between golf in Asia and golf in America are some grounds rules. In America, as long as there is frost on the ground no one will be allowed to go out on the course (to avoid damaging the grass). Not so in China. When we started there was frost and a ground-covering fog about 6 feet deep. So, white grass and fog. Our first question: “How are we going to find our golf balls?!”

But after the second hole (at which point I had already lost three of the four balls Matsui-san gave me) it was smooth sailing. Sunny and beautiful. The course was laid out along a lake, with barges, fish hatcheries, and houses on stilts. Very interactive scenery. And just like on TV, the course was golden and beautiful. Only the tees and greens were green (and very well kept). The contrast was very vivid.

And of course, after golf we had a 3.5 hour lunch with about 12 Japanese dishes, beer, and Johnny Walker. I’m just glad the bai-jiu never made an appearance...we all slept well on the drive home!