SEOUL, South Korea — It’s called differentiation. When a firm has designed 22 separate golf courses in a particular market, the 23rd must somehow set itself apart. This was the task facing course architect David Dale and his colleagues at Golfplan, whose 23rd design in South Korea — Haesley Nine Bridges — opened very quietly last fall and has drawn a steady crescendo of acclaim each day since.

The job of differentiation at Haesley Nine Bridges was particularly difficult because, in a sense, developers Cheil Jedang Corp. were competing with themselves. In 2001, Cheil Jedang opened The Club at Nine Bridges on JejuIsland, another Golfplan design that is considered the country’s top course (it has cracked GOLF Magazine’s most recent World Top 100, at #60).

South Korea is arguably the world’s most dynamic golf course market. More projects are being built here, at a faster pace, than anywhere in the world. Haesley Nine Bridges was undertaken specifically to leverage the Nine Bridges brand in the economic center of that market, Seoul.

This effort required a big splash and Haesley delivers —with its golf course and its striking, modernist clubhouse, which, in March 2010, earned a World Architecture Award for designer Kyeong-sik Yoon of Seoul-based KACI International. The Haesley clubhouse was one of 20 projects so honored, from a field of more than 5,600 entries in 127 different countries.

The course design at Haesley Nine Bridges is equally high-concept. Indeed, Dale says the layout was crafted in direct response to its sister design on Jeju. “There is a concept for each hole at Haesley, and those were informed by the concepts we used at Nine Bridges,” Dale explained. “We adapted these ideas, refined and improved upon them.”

At Haesley, there’s a “sky” hole with a horizon green surrounded by bunkers (the 15th), a speed slot hole (12th), a Cape hole (the 9th), an island hole (the 16th), even a two-island hole — the inimitable 10th. Dale is particular proud of the way these concepts work on their own, and then together in the context of an 18-hole routing: “For example, the 10th is a short par-4, just 300 meters or so, but hazards totally surround the fairway and green. It’s risk-reward taken to the highest degree. However, the 11th hole — a 530-meter par-5 —features a single central fairway bunker that really serves more as a target. It’s wide open. After the 10th, it’s a liberating experience to hit away on 11.

“At 12 and 13, the lateral hazards are reintroduced and I love the bunker complexes guarding both greens. I love all the bunkers at Haesley. They’re quite grand in scale and different from anything we’ve done in Korea: high sand flashes, as high as 2 meters. You can stand at the bottom and the lip is over your head! They are reminiscent of Augusta National in scale.”

There’s another Augusta connection at Haesley: Dale worked closely with Augusta National Golf Club Director of Agronomy Marsh Benson to set a new agronomic standard for South Korea, a country where maintenance can be a puzzle.

The chief complicating factor for agronomy here is the country’s location in a transition zone — that is, a latitude directly between colder climates (served by bentgrasses) and warmer climates (served by bermudagrasses). For decades, the standard in South Korea has been zoysiagrass, which can survive the heat and cold but does not produce world-class playing surfaces.

Of course, no blade is out of place at Haesley, but Dale and Benson did more here. Far more. Working with JacklinGolf and consultant Jim Connolly, they equipped all 18 greens at Haesley with T-1 bentgrass and Sub-Air capability. The latter allows the superintendent to remove excess water from the green’s soil profile and pull oxygen into the root system during rainy, high-stress summer months. Sub-Air, whose technology Benson helped develop in the 1990s, literally pipes oxygen into the root-zone at the superintendent’s discretion.

Dale admits he was aiming for something more awe-inspiring on the first tee, where the golf course and clubhouse come together.

“It’s more of a vista there, where the scope of the club can be fully grasped and appreciated. The first is a gorgeous opening hole, downhill with the sweep of the front nine stretching out before you. Turn 90 degrees and you see the peninsula green at number 9, which has got to be one of the top par-4s in the country. Turn 90 degrees more and you’re looking up at that amazing clubhouse.

“The goal was for Haesley to stand out, and I believe that goal has been met. There’s nothing like it in South Korea, or anywhere else.”