After a 75-minute drive from Hong Kong through the city of Shenzhen, a high-tech hub studded with skyscrapers, I arrived at the front gates of Mission Hills Resort brimming with anticipation. What would “The World's Largest Golf Club” (according to Guinness World Records) be like?

The first impression is as grand as the scale of this 6,000-acre mega-resort. The entrance is immaculately landscaped and lined with flowers. Huge, spectacular clubhouses overlook the American-style golf courses with marquee designer names such as Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, and Greg Norman. These are supremely maintained, verdant layouts that look as if they were air-dropped in from Pinehurst or Ponte Vedra Beach.

Mission Hills' statistics are mind-boggling: 12 golf courses; 3,000 caddies; nearly 10,000 members; and the world's largest clubhouse, the massive, 630,000-square-foot Dongguan Clubhouse.

Enhancing the resort's appeal is a lineup of amenities that includes nine restaurants and lounges, a spa, and an assortment of meeting and function rooms in its three clubhouses.

They Know Meetings

With its proximity to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, the 315-room Mission Hills is adept at coordinating meetings for corporate groups from these two large cities. The phenomenal Dongguan Clubhouse, with its marble floors, exotic, rich wood appointments, and fresh flowers at every glance, has a 24,000-square-foot ballroom that can accommodate 1,500 theater-style. Thirty-eight meeting rooms range from 236 square feet to 2,000 square feet. The Shenzhen Clubhouse can accommodate up to 500 people for a sit-down dinner and up to 350 for a reception in its Valley Room, which has stunning golf course views.

I love playing golf, but I must admit that my plush accommodations were difficult to leave each day. Hardwood floors, marble bathrooms, and lush European-style bedding were just some of the highlights. The private balcony had magnificent views of the fairways, lakes, and surrounding mountains.

Top Name Designers

The 216 holes at Mission Hills are designed by a star-studded lineup of the biggest names in golf, including Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Vijay Singh, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, Ernie Els, Jose Maria Olazabal, Jumbo Ozaki, David Duval, Pete Dye, David Leadbetter, and China's Zhang Lian Wei.

Even the golf instruction offerings employ the star system, with a David Leadbetter Golf Academy headed by his son, Andy, and the Mission Hills Golf Academy by Cindy Reid, the former director of instruction at the PGA Tour's TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

The golf courses at Mission Hills are as different as the personalities who designed them. Taking advantage of hilly terrain, forests, and indigenous vegetation, the designers fashioned a series of courses, each of which is distinguishable from the others. What they have in common is fast, evenly mowed greens, well-tended tee boxes, meticulously raked bunkers, and other elements of top-quality maintenance.

Magnificent Mission Hills far exceeded my pre-conceived image of a Chinese golf and meetings resort. I'm looking forward to a return visit. After all, I still have five more courses to play.