QIANDAOHU, China -- When the course architects at Golfplan first drew up the plans for Qiandaohu Country Club, here on the shores of Lake Qiandao south of Hangzhou, the emergence of another golf club in China was not so remarkable. At that time, in 2005, Golfplan was at work on projects in 15 different countries and the worldwide golf economy was humming across North America, Europe and Asia.

When Qiandaohu CC opened for play in 2008, the landscape had changed. The world golf economy has soured, but Golfplan (www.golfplan.com) remains in demand across Asia and Europe. The firm is at work in 11 different countries including the Peoples Republic of China, which stands out as perhaps the healthiest, most promising golf market in the world.

In that market, Golfplan is forging a lasting legacy. This winter, when China Golf announced its China Golf Awards for 2008, the magazine named Qiandaohu Country Club the country's top new course. [The stunning Weihai Point Golf Resort in Shandong Province, another Golfplan design, opened too late in the calendar year to be considered.] Qiandaohu CC also came second among all Chinese courses, old and new, in the Best Golf Course Design category, behind Pine Valley Golf Club in Beijing.

This second place finish in the Best Course Design competition was music to the ears of Golfplan partner Kevin Ramsey, who directed the Qiandaohu project.

"This was a very difficult site to work upon, so it's extra gratifying to see Chinese golfers and course raters drawn to it," said Ramsey. "Lake Qiandao is a vast body of water, but the authorities have only allowed a few parcels to be developed along the shores. The Qiandaohu owners wisely chose the property closest to Hangzhou, meaning we are only an hour from the city.

"However, the terrain around this reservoir is very steep and we moved almost 2 million cubic meters of rock, which is a big undertaking in China. They moved millions and millions in the building of Mission Hills, for example. But that was clay and sand. This was rock, and we worked under a very short construction timetable to coincide with the finish of a new freeway from Hangzhou."

Golfers (and the course raters from Golf China) would never know of these challenges. Qiandaohu Country Club unfolds gracefully and dramatically over some 7,000 yards along the shores of Lake Qiandao, Chinese for "lake of a thousand islands". Actually, there are 1,078 large islands in the lake and a few thousand more smaller ones. It covers an area of some 573 square kilometers.

At Qiandaohu CC, one third of the holes play directly along the shores of Lake Qiandao, while the steep terrain affords the remaining holes longer, arguably more spectacular views of the freshwater archipelago. The hillsides here stand out for another reason: They are heavily forested in spots, giving the terrain a colorful and varied texture.

One of Ramsey's favorite holes is 18, a stern par-4 that plays along the lake before doglegging uphill to the clubhouse. "It's a very dramatic-looking hole, with the green sitting in the shadow of the clubhouse, which features some wonderful architecture in its own right," Ramsey said. "But what I like about the hole are the choices a player must make while playing it. From the tee, for example, a lesser player can negotiate this hole around the bunkers at the dogleg, but a good player is tempted to fly them off the tee, or shape a drive around them.

"This sort of nuance is important to me. Technology has changed the game in that length trumps all. No one shapes shots anymore. A lot of good players aren't 'shot-makers'."

This both rankles and inspires Ramsey, a former scratch player and runner-up All-American golfer at the University of California at Davis.

"I see the equation from both sides because I used to be a good golfer. I've played at a high level — but I can relate to average players more and more as my handicap goes up! This understanding means we leave putting surfaces open at the front, so lesser players can roll the ball onto the green. On a hole like 18 at Qiandaohu, it means wrapping the fairway around the dogleg bunkers so that 15-handicappers — if they are playing the right tee — are tempted to take their drives over that corner, too."

Holes 2 and 3 at Qiandaohu CC reveal another important tenet of the Golfplan philosophy: Using the terrain to create golf holes that players remember long after the round is over. No. 2 is a stunning par-3 that plays to a small, peninsular green, while no. 3 is a horseshoe-shaped par-5 with multiple landing areas and water everywhere.

"We normally wouldn't create a second-hold par-3, but the land called for it," Ramsey explained. "The par-5 was created for the same reasons: We were using the reservoir to the golfer's best advantage.

"This is another way the deterioration of my own golf game has made me a better course architect: I don't play much anymore. Work, travel and family require so much of my time. As a result, I want my golf to be special. I want to remember it. Qiandaohu is a course full of golf holes you can't forget."

[For more information on this and other projects from Golfplan-Fream, Dale & Ramsey, call +1.207.526.7190, or visit www.golfplan.com]

About Golfplan-Fream, Dale & Ramsey
David Dale and partner Kevin Ramsey are based out of Golfplan's U.S. headquarters in Santa Rosa, Calif., while the famously globetrotting Ron Fream now operates a satellite office from his home in Johor Bahru, just over the border from Singapore in Malaysia.

Since its founding, by Fream in 1972, the firm has built some of the world's most celebrated courses, in some of golf's most exotic locations: Pezula, on South African cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean; Bali Handara and Jagorawi, in the tropical jungles of Indonesia; Shore Gate, in the storied sand barrens just a few miles from Pine Valley and the boardwalks of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the United States; the 27 holes at Disneyland Paris; the mountainous Bonari Kogen GC, Japan's top-rated resort course and recently rated no. 4 in the country; and The Club at Nine Bridges in Korea, host to the Samsung World Championship and now firmly ensconced on the world Top 100 lists at both Golf Digest and Golf Magazine.

Golfplan was recently retained to handle 36 holes of renovation work at the 72-hole Singapore Island Country Club, perhaps the most exclusive private club in Asia. The firm also retooled the Serapong Course on the Island of Sentosa, which sits in Singapore Harbor; the Serapong is host of the Barclay's Singapore Open and was recently named the top tournament course in all of Asia by Asian Golf Monthly magazine. In fact, Golfplan designs played host to the 2009 Singapore Open (The Serapong), the 2009 Malaysian Open (Saujana CC in Kuala Lumpur), and the 2009 Indonesian Open (New Kuta GC on Bali).