golf

Golf in China Growing Fast

Brook Larmer at The New York Times looks into the increasing zeal for golf in Mainland China: The People’s Republic might seem an unlikely incubator for golf prodigies. Chairman Mao, after all, banned the game in 1949 as so much...

China’s Critical Disconnect

At China Real Time Report, Stanley Lubman examines the “critical disconnect” between China’s national and local governments, its historical roots, and its consequences in areas from food safety to intellectual...

Golf in Xinjiang: An Elite Sport in a Poor Province

Dan Washburn, among others, has written about the social, environmental and economic implications of the increasing popularity of golf in China. Far West China blog now looks at elite golf courses that are popping up in...

All the Tees in China: Golf Boom Threatens Rainforest

In the Guardian, Jonathan Watts writes about the recent craze for building golf course on protected land in Hainan: On the park’s map, the course is inside the core conservation zone, which is supposed to be off-limits to...

China’s Golf Obsession

In Foreign Policy, Dan Washburn writes about golf in China, and a massive new course currently being built on Hainan Island and its impact on local ecology and culture. His brief essay accompanies a slideshow by Ryan Pyle: The...

Chinese Caddies Join the Unemployment Line

According to MarketWatch, another sign of a shrinking Chinese economy is the rising number of unemployed golf caddies: In recent weeks, China has gone from optimism it could escape the global slowdown to a realization its export...

Once-Banned Pastime Now Par for the Course – Maureen Fan

From the Washington Post: Golf was once banned by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong, who saw it as a decadent and elitist game. But golf has become the latest fashion among wealthy Chinese — a way to exercise and, more important, a way to affirm one’s status. In the past 20 years, more than 200 […]

Water Pollution: Gas and Golf Investigation – Chen Lin

From China.org: Because of the grass quality, golf courses require several times more water than normally used. And to keep the grass up to golfing standards, pesticides and other chemical preparations are used heavily on it. Relevant statistics show that over 50 chemical preparations are applied to golf course grass a year. And some seep […]

Home on the driving range – Tim Yeo

From Financial Times: A few weeks ago, some young Chinese women wearing identical red uniforms were walking across the countryside near Beijing. It was a fine afternoon but a bitter north wind whipped across from the mountains in the distance and they looked cold as they paused every few yards to listen to a man […]

Beijing Univ. Suspends Golf Practice Range – China News Agency

A China News Agency article via sina.com quoted Beijing University President Xu Zhihong saying that a plan to build a golf practice field the size of a soccer field was suspended, due to a outpouring of criticism over the Internet. The project was razzed by Chinese netizens, who criticized the plan as catering to luxurious […]

Chinese university in golf drive – BBC

From BBC News: Golf lessons are going to be made compulsory for some students at one Chinese university, reports say. The president of Xiamen University in south-east China was quoted as saying it would help produce “socially elite people with the best education”. Golf, once frowned upon by China’s Communist Party, is now enjoyed by […]

Peter Dixon: China fights shy of a game for the masses

From the Times: Thirty-five miles north of Beijing, the capital, the opulent Pine Valley Golf Resort and Country Club is in a spectacular setting. Surrounded by mountains, there are places on the course where it is possible to view the Great Wall snaking its way up the precipitous slopes. But most obvious for all to […]

At golf, China swings – and misses (Asia Times)

China now ranks fifth in the world for number of golf courses, but the country’s golfing craze is causing a myriad of problems, including destruction of crucial farmland, lost revenue, and encouragement of a corrupt lifestyle. Some even call golf “green opium”. Asia Times writes: Many investors jumped into the market in search of cheap […]

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