"The primary motivation behind developing the game of golf in China is property, not bashing a little white ball around a course."
Clifford Coonan files a perspective on golf-in-China for The Independent. It's hard to read this and wonder how anyone could possibly think this is going to turn out well.
There is another dimension to this picture of serene golfing pleasure. The development of the game is tightly allied to the social changes in China over the past three decades. As with so much else in the New China, this golf revolution is built on cold, hard cash. The primary motivation behind developing the game of golf in China is property, not bashing a little white ball around a course. Plush villas pay the green fees.
"What make money in most clubs are the villas and apartments ringing the courses. The golf itself is a loss leader, and many of the courses in China are chronically underutilised," said a golfer at another club – on condition of anonymity: he doesn't want problems with his membership.
In extreme cases, developers buy up large tracts of farmland on the outskirts of the boom towns of New China: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai. They then start building flashy villas – reasonably priced by UK standards but more than most Chinese families would earn in a lifetime. The courses are often an afterthought, hastily-constructed – even unplayable. The developers don't care; they can charge a lot more for property near a course.
Sometimes this land is taken illegally with the connivance of corrupt local officials, leading to social unrest as disenfranchised farmers take to the streets and demonstrate, attacking building sites and picketing government offices. China's arable land is scarce, and the government is worried about a growing wealth gap between the rich of the cities and the poor in the countryside.
There have also been efforts to clamp down on Communist Party cadres doing business on golf courses. The central government has put a ban on the construction of new courses for fear of a potentially-destabilising backlash, and ultimately the development of golf in China is largely dependent on what the Beijing government does.
But the ruling doesn't mean an end to the construction of golf courses in China. Many courses are listed as part of the facilities for a luxury villa development or as country clubs to get around the ban. Most people believe the government is more concerned about stopping course development turning into another bubble, and the slowing of growth is aimed at cooling the market.
Where could the government have gotten that idea?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 08:48 PM
Reader Comments (13)
Excuse me, but how is this any different then Golf in America during this last Golden Heyday? (even though our cash was cold hard paper; inflated and out of touch with its true value.)
I'm sorry, but we can't look at this with any conviction without looking at our own hypocritical ways. I know I'll probably get lambasted by some of you on this, but honestly there isn't one thing here that is surprising other then a communist country that embraces capitalism on a level greater then the United States of America could have ever dreamed!
Yes, the atrocities and human rights violations are numbing. The Chinese are also keeping our failing economy afloat.
Too bad they did not learn the spirit of the game from those in GB&I - at least the would get some exercise out of it.
Of course, it does not sound like many of the tracks in China have much aesthetic interest to them - yet.
I dont think China got the idea "cart golf" and real estate developments from the US .
I think it was exported !
There is also a public 54 hole course that is always fully booked on any given weekend / holiday, again predominantly with locals. Two of the 18’s are walking only, sure to warm some of your hearts. A few times when I have taken a late afternoon 9 hole booking I have been paired with very proficient children and teens, out with their parents being the caddies. One of my brother in-laws started playing two years ago and now plays much more than me due to his proximity to courses close to his office in Shenzhen, often playing 9-holes before work in the morning.
Just across the border, which includes the areas of Shenzhen & Guangzhou, there was one 18 hole course when I arrived, the Palmer designed Chung Shan Hot Springs. Now there are now 80+ courses within about two hours drive, with many of them 27+ holes. Most are full up on weekends (past years financial meltdown excepted), again with a growing number of mainland Chinese and the rest HK Chinese and a smattering of expats, including a fair dose of Japanese & Korean businessmen. The middle class of China is growing rapidly and with it the number of casual golfers. Also, a number of courses do have programs for developing young professionals. It is not uncommon to see groups of twenty something’s under the tutelage of the local course pro (often expat US / Canadian / Australian PGA members) that are being sponsored by the club or some local businessmen. Of course they could be doing a lot more, but it is happening.
As the article says, some of the land is obtained under dubious circumstances, but lets just say that situation is hardly limited to golf courses, and percentage wise is a drop in bucket compared to factory & property developments. Also, I would far rather see the land used for golf than for factories which have some, ahem, pollution issues. I agree completely with Joe about most of the courses being built to championship level which makes them both difficult and slow, but locals I play with hate slow play just as much as anyone else and I have seen marked improvements in the last 5 years at some course to improve pace of play. There are also easy courses once you know where to find them, one being the aptly nicknamed ‘regain your confidence course’ my brother-in-law buddies recently invited me to play.
I would also challenge that ‘The courses are often an afterthought …’. Sure, some of them are not great, but many of them are and there is a wide variety of terrain due to the local geography, from very flat windswept by the ocean to large elevation changing in the hills. Also, there is wide variety of architecture in terms of hazards, greens, grasses etc. Of course many of the courses (but not all by any means) have major housing developments associated with them, but as pointed out, that is hardly unique to China. While I do not have a crystal ball, the fact that China has less than a few hundred courses, 1.3+ billion people with a rapidly growing middle glass and golfers that are just as fanatical as any I have seen anywhere else in the world, I doubt this will just fade away. Also, poverty is a great motivator and now that some of the mainland Chinese such as Zhang Lian-Wei (who, btw, came out of a caddie program at that aforementioned Chung Shan Hot Springs course) are doing well on the Asian & Euro tours this will, I believe, inspire a lot of kids to take up the game.
drg
Much thanks to you for spelling it out for the clueless (Walking Golfer)(who to my understanding is one of the many less then informed that Golf Club Atlas had propagated.)(When is someone going to put a gun to the head of that website's discussion group?)
I've even some pretty interesting designs that could make China become a go-to destination. Places on Hainan Island where there is everything from wonderful sand dunes to volcanic fields of pumice, which could create a beautiful if not striking golf land.
drg