Enhance Anting Golf Club

Robert Trent Jones II’s Enhance Anting Golf Club offers a tranquil retreat from Shanghai’s fast-paced lifestyle. Adding Enhance Anting to our portfolio of more than 80 courses throughout Asia enhances RTJ II’s reputation for designing natural and playable golf courses on even the most difficult terrain. We were also pleased to return to Shanghai, where we created the city's first golf course in 1989.

Design Challenges and Solutions

Designing Enhance Anting presented a number of challenges, not the least of which was to develop a secure, secluded golf experience on a flat site set amidst automobile research and development centers and their associated roads and power lines. Our solution was to keep the golf course low while elevating the boundaries to shield players from the industrial surroundings. We accomplished this by digging out an inter-connected system of lakes that generated nearly one million cubic meters of soil, which we used to build mounds and hills and create the experience of playing through rolling terrain. We landscaped the site with a plant palette consisting of native grasses such as love grass and fescues- natural, aesthetic elements that also help to define lines of play. The grasses turn golden in the fall, beautifully contrasting with the vibrant greens of the playing areas. We also planted cedar, camphor, and magnolia trees to add strategy, lend a unified appearance, and offer additional privacy for Enhance Anting’s members.

Environmental Solution at Enhance Anting Golf Club

The poor quality of the water available and the degraded soils on site also required creative solutions. The irrigation water available at Enhance Anting contained toxic levels of pollutants. We devised a tertiary treatment system using biological sand filters to treat the water before it enters the golf course. Turf grass provides additional bioremediation. Newly created wetlands on the site are a haven for wildlife and waterfowl, and constitute a natural sanctuary within an industrial zone. The entire course was also capped with a layer of sand that acts as an additional filter while providing ideal turf conditions that allow members to play even during the monsoon months.