Sirak: China ready to shine

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Things are changing in China. Though the government still ruleswith a firm hand, many chains have been removed from thestate-controlled economy, and the nation's massive labor force hasbeen turned toward rebuilding China's infrastructure. The newlyopened 14-million-square-foot Terminal 3 at Beijing CapitalInternational Airport is astonishing not just for its size (it'smore than 2 miles long) but because it was built in less than fouryears -- an unthinkable timetable in the West, where it can takethat long just to acquire the necessary permits. Terminal 3 is a shining example of what China can accomplish whenit puts its mind -- and money -- to a task. The imagination boggleswhen pondering the impact the Chinese could have on golf if thegame were elevated from afterthought status. Many insiders say thatcould happen as early as next month, after the conclusion of theOlympic Games in Beijing.
A decade ago, basketball was an afterthought in China. Now, citystreets are dotted with Yao Ming's Houston Rockets jersey.Billboards of Xiang Liu, who will defend his gold medal in the110-meter hurdles at Beijing, are everywhere. In 2002, no Chinesewere in the top 100 of women's tennis. Now four are in the top 50,including Zheng Jie, who made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon twoweeks ago before losing to Serena Williams.
These successes in basketball, track and tennis are perhaps asports version of Terminal 3 -- something wonderful happening rightaway. Though it would be a stretch to say China is ready to tradeChairman Mao's Little Red Book for Harvey Penick's version, signsexist that China is finessing the political opponents of golf andpreparing to make the game a key part of the country's nascenttourist economy, and that it also is aiming to develop world-classplayers.
"The next 10 to 20 years will still be a high-growth period [forgolf in China]," says Ziding Han, the CEO of Guangdong Golf ChannelCo. Ltd. "The growth rate [of players] right now is 25 to 30percent per year. The government says it is against [the game], butthere are billions of dollars in private money invested in golfright now. No other sport in China has that [level of privateinvestment]." Han says one obstacle is the 24 percent tax imposedon golf clubs, the same as nightclubs, an indication some still seethe game as a symbol of "Western decadence."
Like just about all Chinese involved in the business of golf, the45-year-old Han, an intense man who has a drooping mustache andlong, stringy whiskers dangling from his chin, is also in love withthe game. He started his television venture three years ago, whenhe did not play. Then he gave up drinking and took up golf.
"I weighed 200 pounds," says Han, who is now 50 pounds lighter. "OnApril 26 [2005] I played my first round, and I have played 700rounds in three years. At first [getting into golf] was a purebusiness decision. But then I fell completely in love with thegame."
Han's business has been as robust as his passion. Working on acontent-licensing arrangement with the American-owned Golf Channel,Guangdong Golf Channel broadcast 37 PGA, European and LPGA tourevents in 2006. This year Han says it will televise as many as 86live events plus highlights from the Asia, Nationwide and Championstours.
The growth of Guangdong Golf Channel is indicative of the advancesthe game has made despite the government-imposed moratorium oncourse construction in 2004 (a moratorium that is enforced quiteselectively). No golf courses existed in China 25 years ago. Thefirst was Chung Shan Hot Spring, an Arnold Palmer design opened inZhongshan in 1984.
Now there are 400 courses, including a dozen 18-hole layouts at thesprawling Mission Hills resort in Shenzhen, the crown jewel ofChinese golf. More courses are on the way, especially on HainanIsland off the Vietnam coast in southern China, which thegovernment is trying to turn into the Hawaii of China -- a tropicaltourist haven. "There are 18 courses on Hainan Island," Han says."In five years there will be 100."
No city represents the new China more than Shanghai, which, with18.6 million people, is the country's largest. Signs of growth areeverywhere. By day, Shanghai's modern skyline appears as if hiddenbehind a veil of gauze, a blurred silhouette obscured by the smogthat shrouds the city, much of which 20 years ago was rice paddies.Blue skies are a rumor -- or a memory of when the streets wereclogged with bicycles instead of cars.
By night, the skyline is a ribbon of color that shimmers off theYangtze River with multicolored luminescence. A TV screen the sizeof a four-story building floats up and down the river, displayingvideo advertisements. At times it appears as if Shanghai skippedthe 21st century and went right into the 22nd. It appears to beanything but the stereotype of stoic, antimaterialistic CommunistChina. Armani suits are more common than Mao jackets.
When Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club opened 11 years ago, the fauxMount Fuji built between the ninth and 18th holes was the talleststructure on the city's skyline. Now the course cowers beneathoffice towers, power lines and luxury high-rises -- including thefour 50-story buildings of the Tomson Riviera, where condos top outat $22 million.
The initiation fee at Tomson, which is home to the BMW Asian Openon the European Tour, is $170,000 with $1,800-per-year dues. Of the700 members, 300 are from overseas. The green fee for guests is$125 plus caddie on weekdays, $180 plus caddie on weekends. Guestscan play without a member, but a member must make the tee time.
Across town at Sheshan International Golf Course where the HSBCChampions, another European Tour event, is played, the initiationis $230,000, and guests can play only with members. Ten years agoRichard Cheung worked in the Pudong section of Shanghai, and therewas a driving range nearby.
"I started hitting balls on that range," says Cheung, who is nowpresident of the Sheshan golf course, telling a familiar Chinesestory. "I learned from golf something that is a good lesson forbusiness: You can be too aggressive." It is a lesson those involvedin golf in China employ judiciously as they try to nudge thegovernment gently toward acceptance of the game.
Inside the Tomson Pudong clubhouse, Hsiao-Chen Chuang, the directorand general manager of Tomson Golf Ltd., adopts a casuallycommanding pose as he converses from a chair he fills regally,gesturing in a Don Corleone sort of way. Chuang is originally fromTaiwan, as are many of the movers and shakers in China, becausethey have capitalist experience. At one point he opens a closetdoor to put an envelope in a safe that contains, among otherthings, five dozen boxes of Titleist Pro V1s.
"If we had someone like Se Ri Pak, the game would take off here,"Chuang says. "The government perception of golf will determine howfast the game will grow. Basically, they are not supporting it.They see it as an elitist sport and that it takes land away [fromfarmers]. If not for the moratorium, we could have 5,000 golfcourses -- maybe 10,000."
The first international tournament in China was the 1995 World Cupat Mission Hills in Guangdong, the first province designated a"special economic zone" and allowed to liberalize its economy. Theteam competition, which has been played around the world since1953, returned last year as the Omega Mission Hills World Cup andwill remain there through at least 2018.
China's first regularly scheduled tournament was the 2004 BMW AsianOpen, which moved from Taiwan to Tomson, where it remains. TheVolvo China Open was added the next year, followed by the HSBCChampions in 2006.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the HSBCChampions -- which has a contract with Tiger Woods to play threetimes in a five-year period -- will become a World GolfChampionship event by year's end. In October the LPGA will play thefirst Grand China Air LPGA at West Coast Golf Course in Haikou onHainan Island. International corporations eager to tap into theChinese market see golf as an important tool toward that end.
"We think golf is the right match for our brand," says MagnusWiese, head of BMW golf marketing, which partners with 30tournaments on a variety of tours. "We set up a liaison office herein the 1980s, and it is now one of our five biggest markets. Oursales in China have grown five or six times in the last 10 years."According to The New York Times, car sales in China have increasedeightfold since 2000.
"Golf is not a mass event [in terms of spectators] like it is onother tours," Wiese says, "but it is a quality audience." In fact,there are as many galleries at the BMW Asian Open as there areparties surrounding the tournament. Picnic baskets, cell phones,laughter, crying children, loud conversations and people readingoutnumber those actually watching golf.
Though the number of tournaments in China is growing, the potentialon the participatory side has barely been scratched. According toan R&A study, there are 250,000 golfers with a registered handicapamong China's 1.3 billion people. The United States has 4 millionregistered golfers, and 32 million total golfers, in a populationof 304 million. If China had the same per capita participation asthe United States, it would have nearly 17 million registeredgolfers, and the total number of golfers would exceed 130 million.
A key path to this growth involves junior programs, which are intheir infancy. The R&A, global financial services firm UBS and theMission Hills resort support the Faldo Series Asia, a 12-tournamentcircuit with four in China. Last year the China Golf Association,HSBC, the R&A and IMG jointly launched the HSBC China Junior GolfProgram, the only officially sanctioned junior program. This yearthe program put golf in physical education classes in 40 schools --sort of a Chinese version of The First Tee.
"Helping develop the game of golf in China is one of our keypriorities," says Duncan Weir, director of golf development for theR&A, which donated 100,000 pounds (about $200,000) to the project.Weir says more than 1,200 junior golfers will participate in seventournaments and two camps this year, and school classes will exposemore than 70,000 children to the game. That's a long way from how haphazardly Wen-Chong Liang, who won the2007 Singapore Open, played in this year's Masters and finishedtied for 64th at the British Open, was introduced to the game 15years ago. Liang's mother, who picked weeds at Chung Shan HotSpring, brought home old golf balls she found. Liang would hit themwith sticks of firewood, imitating what he saw on a Japanesecartoon broadcast out of Hong Kong.
"The golf club wanted to get juniors involved, so they went to thelocal school and handed out clubs to all the kids and picked outstudents based on their swings," Liang says. "I cherished theopportunity and worked hard." Liang, 29, turned pro after hefinished fourth in the 1999 Volvo China Open. Today, he is No. 137in the world rankings, the best of any Chinese male.
When the CGA was formed in 1985, there were two courses and mostplayers were from Hong Kong and Japan. The association functionslike the USGA, PGA of America and PGA Tour combined, running everyaspect of the game. In fact, Xiaoning Zhang, who heads the CGA, isthe Director General of the Multi-ball Games Administrative Centerof General Administration of Sport. He oversees golf, rugby, bocce,billiards, squash, cricket, bowling and sepak takraw, a southeastAsian game that resembles volleyball.
"Getting [tournaments] into China is one of the things we have done[successfully]," Zhang says. "But we have not been as successfuldeveloping [world-class golfers]. The challenge we have to overcomeis how golf is positioned in China. We need more public golfcourses, more people playing." According to Zhang, CGA-sanctionedtournaments have grown from 30 to 80 since 2006 and will top 100 intwo years. "The HSBC junior tournaments have grown tenfold in twoyears," he says.
Wealthy Chinese juniors also have discovered the American path. TheHank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head, S.C.,currently has Xin Wang, a 13-year-old girl, and Yifan Liu, 15, whohas played 12 IJGT boys' events this year and placed in the top 10every time, with one victory. Previously, it produced ShanshanFeng, the only LPGA player from China. There are also about ahalf-dozen Chinese players at the IMG David Leadbetter Academy inFlorida.
"With a population of 1.3 billion and an exploding interest ingolf, it won't be long before China makes a huge impact on the gameinternationally," Haney says. "There's every reason to believe thecountry will produce great players. It's just a function of numbersand opportunities."
As has been the case with Korean players, the first impact will beon the women's game, Haney predicts. "There is a big gap betweenthe best Chinese men's players and the PGA Tour. On the women'sside, it's a smaller gap," he says. His comment can be buttressedby Feng's fourth-place finish at the Jamie Farr Owens CorningClassic earlier this month. Insiders whisper that the Chinesegovernment has noticed the success of Korean women and that,wounded by regional pride, it will step up its commitment to golfafter the Olympics.