A new golf course has opened for play near the city of Zhangzhou, China.

The 7,579-yard, 18-hole course at Blue Bay International Golf Club has been designed by Donald Knott of Knott & Linn Golf Design.

The course lies close to the coastline of the Taiwan Straits, with wind likely to play a major part of any round at Blue Bay.

“The combination of existing lakes, sandy soils, and native vegetation offer a spectacular golfing venue,” said Donald Knott. “The design makes maximum use of existing Lakes to produce a strategic, visually spectacular, and sometimes intimidating front nine. The back nine will play through a mixture of wooded forests and dunes with the thirteenth hole arriving at the sandy beach of Taiwan Straits.”

The course will form part of a major development in the Gulei port development district of Zhangzhou, which will also comprise a marina, a number of hotels, a water theme park and real estate.

A second course will also be created at Blue Bay International Golf Club, with Robert Trent Jones Jnr brought in to design the layout. Work is set to get underway on this project next month.