Can China Make Room for Golf?

This month China hosts two of the biggest events in golf – the HSBC Masters and the Omega Mission Hills World Cup. The popularity of the sport is rising fast here, and China’s top players are a fascinating and diverse group, but exorbitant prices and a government ban on golf course construction raise questions about the game's future.

Farms Versus Fairways

BBC Presenter Chris Packham caused an uproar recently when he suggested that the millions of dollars spent on protecting the Giant Panda might be better used elsewhere. "I reckon we should pull the plug,” he told The Radio Times. “Let them go, with a degree of dignity.”

It’s a heretical statement, and one made even more maddening by the nagging suspicion that Packham’s brutal logic holds. Golf too is much loved but it consumes considerable resources. Chinese leaders have singled out the sport, known here as ‘green opium’, for special constraint, banning the construction of golf courses on agricultural land.

Journalist Dan Washburn (pictured below) has covered golf in China for publications like Golf World, The South China Morning Post and ESPN.com. “There are definitely good intentions behind that ban,” he says. “As we know, land rights issues are a huge topic in China and a huge focus of Hu Jintao’s regime. It’s a nation of 600 million farmers, there’s still very little arable land, and you’ve got a huge population to feed.” Furthermore, golf courses compete with farms for water, a particular concern in the north of the country.

Yet the ban is not really preventing golf courses from being built. 

“There have been quote-unquote bans on golf course construction going back to the early 1990s,” Washburn says, and a blanket ban on building golf courses on undeveloped land was issued in 2004. “Technically that ban is still in place but the number of golf courses has tripled in that time. It’s a regulation that’s issued with a wink and a nod. There are many loopholes: you just don’t call your project a golf course, you call it something else. It’s an ecotourism resort that just happens to have a golf course in it.” 

The Golf Benchmark Survey, a study conducted by KPMG, found that at the end of 2008 there were about 300 golf courses open for play in China. According to Washburn, “Unofficially there’s probably five or six hundred courses in China and there are many, many big projects on the way.” 

The KPMG survey also made the observation that if just 0.1 per cent of China’s population are playing golf by 2030, “China would have 1.3 million golfers.” The study estimates a total of 2,000 golf courses will be needed to meet this demand. Inferences about the size of future markets made by nominating a low percentage of China’s population should be taken with a grain of salt, but there is little doubt China’s golfing population is rapidly on the rise. 

“Some people say it’s growing 50 per cent every year, some say 30 per cent,” Washburn says. “It’s a really hard thing to quantify, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t grow; it seems quite natural that the world’s fastest growing economy will also see growth in golf.” 

Unless more severe restrictions are placed on construction, that demand is likely to be met. “I think you’re going to see courses growing at such a pace that, even if we see that [player] boom, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue,” Washburn says. “China is one of the only countries in the world where golf course construction is a growth industry.” 

Blue Collars and Green Fees

While the growth of golf in China is unlikely to be inhibited by a lack of courses, it will undoubtedly be coloured by the game’s expense. Golf may be more expensive in China, on average, than anywhere else in the world.

According to the KPMG study, the average price for a golf membership here is RMB 240,000, which is “far higher than in any of our surveyed countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is four to five times higher than the initiation fee in the most expensive European golf markets: Spain and Switzerland.” Annual fees and green fees per round are also some of the most expensive in the world, ranging from RMB 10,240-27,300 and RMB 340-1,365 respectively.

Contrary to what you might expect, despite these prohibitive prices, many of China’s top players have come from blue collar backgrounds.

Former kung fu experts, soldiers, security guards and sushi chefs are all now full time golfers in China. “Many players from that generation were doing something totally unrelated to golf into their 20s,” Washburn says. “Zhang Lianwei, the trailblazer of golf in China, grew up on a farm near Zhuhai in Guangdong province. His parents were rice farmers.” 

Zhang, the first Chinese player to win on the European Tour, and the first to compete in the Masters Tournament, fully acknowledges the role that fate played in his golfing career.

“Chance led me to golf,” Zhang says. “I was selected by Zhuhai Sports School to receive javelin training, because I did very well in softball in junior high. In order to stay in Zhuhai, I found a job as a golf caddy at Zhuhai International Golf Club. Someone saw me hit a ball far and straight with an iron, and so I got the chance to practice golf after 3pm each day. That’s how my golf career began.”

We asked him what he would be doing if he weren’t playing golf. “I was destined for golf,” he replies.

The New Elite

When many of today’s top Chinese players were starting out, a career in golf looked barely more glamorous than working in a factory.

“The professionals in the game are still blue collar guys; that’s similar to the way it started in the UK or in the States,” Washburn says. “The early pros were almost second class citizens because nobody else wanted to do these jobs.”

“In China, the rewards for effort in golf are disproportionately low,” Zhang Lianwei says. “Our incomes don’t compare to golfers overseas. At the very beginning, when I was a caddy, I was paid RMB 170 per month. I always felt hungry then. I was 178cm tall but only weighed 60kg, and I still hit 800 balls every day. I could not afford a club, so I rented one. Money is important for a golfer – without it you cannot afford flight tickets, hotels, or even to enter competitions. I used to borrow money in order to compete. That was a challenge, indeed.”

Despite these difficulties, pioneers like Zhang seized the opportunity to learn about golf and find jobs as golf instructors and players. It was typically a pragmatic decision, a means to a better life than they could otherwise expect.

“There were hardly any coaches in China at that point,” Washburn says. “If you trained for a couple of years you could get a job as a golf instructor, and you’d be making a better living than being a security guard, being a farmer, being a factory worker.” 

Now, however, things have changed. “Since golf has been around for 25 years now in China, you have a younger generation who’ve grown up, for the first time, being aware of golf,” Washburn says. “A lot of them are very rich and their parents can afford to get them quality coaching, whereas the first generation guys are all self-taught – they wouldn’t have been able to afford coaching and even if they could there was nobody in China to coach them, because they are the first generation of golfers. 

“I think the self-taught, gritty pros, the pioneers of the game in China, their window of opportunity for competitive success is closing. Maybe in five to 10 years, if you look at the bios of Chinese golfers, they may all start to look the same, as they now do in more established countries. 

“I don’t think it’ll be long before stories like theirs cease to exist,” Washburn says. 

The Developing World (of Golf)

Top international players are appreciative of the unique stage of development Chinese golf is in, and the enthusiasm for the sport they find here.

“I think the fans make it different,” says Australian Geoff Ogilvy, who finished third in last year’s HSBC Masters. “Golf is relatively new in China so excitement is still building and you can just sense that they are having a great time, and they are so appreciative of our good shots.”

World number six Padraig Harrington agrees. “China is at a really exciting time, as interest in golf is growing, so there is a feeling of excitement in the air that is pretty unique and makes it really enjoyable to play there as the audience is so fresh and enthusiastic.”

Harrington is also keeping a watchful eye on a couple of Chinese players. “I am sure it will not be too long before we see a number of Chinese players challenging for Majors – obviously I admire the games of Lianwei Zhang and Liang Wenchong and they have both been successful having won European Tour events.”

Zhang Lianwei says golf in China has come a long way. “There used to be people who didn’t know the rules and just let phones and beepers ring out loud during the game. However, the situation has changed. There is a greater understanding of golf, more players, a higher skill level, and bigger prizes. That’s a tremendous change. As the economy is growing and golf developing, there have been growing numbers of professional players.”

World number four Paul Casey enjoys the strength of competition the HSBC Masters attracts. “It has a great field year after year and from the start was a great event which felt a bit special. Many of the players refer to it as Asia’s Major as it has such a strong field and the feel of a major. I look forward to it every year.” 

The HSBC Masters takes place from 5-8 November in Sheshan, Shanghai. From Sheshan Station, on line 9, it’s a mere 10 minutes’ walk to the course. Tickets: RMB 500 (weekday), RMB 1,000 (weekend day), RMB 2,000 (all four days). Student tickets and family packages are also available. Hotline: 962 388.

Both China and Chinese Taipei will be competing at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup, with Spain the top-ranked team. Mission Hills is the world's biggest golf club, with 12 courses and 216 holes. 23-29 November, Mission Hills, Shenzhen.