Sports, Leisure, life style
Taiwanese businessman David Tai is the general manger for five golf courses, but ask him what business he's in and he'll answer "property". No surprise there. Tai's new to the game. It was only recently that his company, Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Real Estate Co. invested RMB 9.3 billion in five suburban locations in Shanghai to construct a series of luxury villas, each equipped with 18-hole golf courses. "Golf courses and villas are a perfect match," says Tai. "We make money from properties, but our selling point is golf."

Tai's not the only investor to discover this money-making formula. Like-minded businessmen are pouring cash into golf-related projects from Guangzhou to Xinjiang. Their products may vary -- from manufacturing fake Callaway golf balls to investing billions in golf courses -- but they're all banking on the same numbers. China's golf population is currently growing at four per cent annually.


Golf has never been big in China. The last emperor, Pu Yi, was taught the game in the 1920s by his English tutor. After that, it was all downhill for the sport. For decades it was considered to be too expensive and too bourgeois. Until now, that is.

Golf has been in China for almost 10 years, but it really took off only two or three years ago, says Jack Huang, vice general manager of Shanghai Silport Golf Club. Since China opened its door, the multinationals have poured in. And their senior executives often play golf. Smart, ambitious young Chinese quickly realised that the way to step up from their current social status or to develop a closer relationship with the client, is take up the game. "Where else can you corner a client for four or five hours, clinch a deal and not have to go home drunk?" asks Huang.

But developing guanxi golf-style isn't necessarily cheap. Non-members pay a hefty price both in Shanghai, and around the country. Green fees at the Beijing's Country Golf Club in Shunyi County are US$120 on weekends. Kunming's Spring City Golf and Lake Resort charges US$215 and Shenzhen's Green Club in Long Gang, US$120.

The posh Silport Golf Club in Shanghai charges US$6,600 for full membership. Currently about 85 per cent of its 700-odd members are foreigners residing in Shanghai and the remainder are mainland Chinese. The Chinese segment, says Huang, has only grown one percent since the club opened in 1995.



Nevertheless, there are cheaper ways to whack the dimpled ball. Driving ranges are filling with new golfers like Fang Shou-Hong, 39, a local banker who enjoys the surroundings as much as the game. Fang visits the range three times a week and practices on a course once every two weeks. I used to stay in and play cards, he says, because I'm not really an outdoorsy kind of person. "But after some friends persuaded me to give it a try, I fell in love with the game immediately. Everywhere I looked it was green and the air was fresh -- it was just great."

Others prefer to combine their pleasure with business. Sunny Ng, director of Elite International Management Group at the New World (Xin Da Lu) driving range, says he enjoys the sport because it requires a level of skill and body co-ordination that can only be achieved through long training and practice. Originally a banker in Hong Kong, Ng also enjoys profiting from the game.

Five years ago Ng saw his chance, and after much number-crunching, in 2001 opened his training company at New World. Since then, he claims that the clientele has changed from 70 percent foreigners to 70 percent locals. It may be because it's a relatively cheap night out with the boys.

During peak periods, weekends and holidays, all 64 tee boxes at New World are in use. "It's not that an expensive hobby to take up when you think about it," Ng says. An evening with friends hitting a couple of buckets of balls runs about RMB 40 per person - less than an night out at the karaoke bar, for example. "Sure, it's usually expensive to join a club. But, nowadays you don't even have to join a club to play on a proper course; most clubs welcome walk-ins."



Some industry experts argue that golf has arrived. That it is now a popular sport, like basketball, say, or football. The golf industry has seen three waves of development in China, explains Silport's Huang. "Ten years ago, the only Chinese who played golf were those made rich through special political connections. Then, gradually many Chinese returnees from Japan, America or Europe joined the game. Now, it's mostly young entrepreneurs and office professionals that take up playing - when that happens you can call it truly common."

Still, Huang doubts that the game will ever shed it elitist image in China. He points out that the country has very few public courses. That's partly a hangover from hard-line communist day, he says, when golf was viewed as pastime of the rich. "So far, the central government has given neither encouragement nor discouragement to the development of the game. The only way for them to deter the otherwise uncontrolled growth of golf courses is by imposing high taxes [23 percent] on the developers," he says.

Local governments, however, see it differently. In their view, golf can become a driving force of the economy. Indeed, in many counties, golf clubs are quite often the biggest employer and taxpayer. And for each worker, caddies, security guards, gardeners, and so on, employers must provide housing, food and clothing in keeping with China's communist welfare system.

For Xu Xin-Hong, 30, from Anhui province, golfing provides a pretty good living. One of Silport's 200 or so caddies, Xu likes her work far better than her last job at a textile factory. "It was dirty and noisy there," she says, "and the job was boring and mechanical."

She now earns up to RMB 1,500 a month, but her income depends on the number of golfers and the length of time they spend on the course (for every four-hour game she earns RMB 30). But she likes the environment and has picked up pretty good conversational Japanese and English. "I'm happy," she says, sporting a big grin.

Xu may be happy, but some club owner's aren't. Many courses are under-utilized and too many developers have overbuilt, trying to cash in on the sport's growing popularity. Guangdong, for example, has more grounds than Folger's coffee. Of China's 195 golf grounds (the number is expected to be doubled by 2010), more than 70 are located in Guangdong. But less than 60 percent of the provinces golf courses are used, according to a recent report by the People's Daily.



Elsewhere, golf fever is still raging. Shanghai Real Estate's Tai insists the timing is right. "Golf is developing everywhere in China," he says, "but Shanghai is the place to be. Even our villas without golf courses were snatched up before completion. I don't think we're going to have a problem selling them with."

Tai could be right. If you can't afford the view at one of his pricey villas, however, there is an alternative. Sitting near an expressway on the southwest fringes of Shanghai, New World doesn't occupy the most ideal location in town. But just beyond the high nets at their driving range are clusters of high-rise apartments and individual townhouses.

People are building their properties right next to the range so that they can claim to have a golf course view! says Sunny Ng. "Properties in the area sell on average for RMB 6,000 per square meter, but those next to our driving range go for up to RMB 8,000 per square meter."

Maybe some optimism is justified then. Maybe golf does have a strong future in the PRC. Businessmen, of course, are banking on the sport's appeal to high-earners, not your weekend hacker. But marketing to the high-income bracket doesn't eliminate risk. "Many people have invested too much money and developed too fast,' cautions Ng. "What they forget is that the key to success in this industry, like any other, is service. High-earners may buy into the game, but they want quality and service, they want value for their money."


A Dangerous Game
Not every one welcomes the idea of golf development in China. Some environmentalists warn that the construction of golf courses leads to severe land erosion by clear-cutting the trees and underbrush. In addition, the excessive water consumption at courses will only put more pressure on China's already severe drought problem. And heavy pesticide use almost guarantees that during heavy rainfall the chemicals will be washed into rivers systems and eventually make their way downstream into farmland.

These problems aren't unique to China, warns Timothy Hildebrandt, managing editor of the China Environment Series at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington D.C, but they may more serious because of the great amount of land, the exploding economy and growing westernisation. "Add them together," he says, "and the situation is ripe for a subsequent explosion of golf courses and the environmental problems that come with it.

With proper management, however, and co-operation between government and industry, Hildebrant believes a crisis can be averted. "Government can pass and enforce strong legislation that protects the environment while the industry can employ its own set of internal regulations and research to make sure new courses are built in a sustainable manner," he says. "In theory," he adds, "a healthy environment is the golf industry's bread and butter."