China closes courses amid crackdown on golf course development

More than a decade after the Chinese Government first moved to curb the development of golf courses, China has launched a renewed crackdown on the game, closing 111 courses in an effort to conserve water and land, and telling members of the ruling Communist Party to stay off the links.

The official Xinhua News Agency announced last week that the courses were being closed for improperly using groundwater, arable land or protected land within nature reserves.

Xinhua also advised that authorities have imposed restrictions on 65 more courses.

The Chinese Government first set about banning the development of golf courses in 2004 following concerns about land grabs of prime farming land.

In addition, many of China's cities face severe land shortages and skyrocketing real estate prices.

In 2004, it had fewer than 200 courses but, notwithstanding the ban, Xinhua advised that the number of courses more than tripled to 683 before the new crackdown.

Developers are known to courses under the guise of parks or other projects, often with the tacit approval of local officials. In one example chronicled by state media, an illegal golf course boasting 58 villas was originally built as a ‘public sports park’, only to be secretly converted later.

Golf has also come under scrutiny by way of the sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Communist Party warned its 88 million members in 2015 not to play golf, likening it to "extravagant eating and drinking" and other bad habits that were at odds with the party's stated principles.

An editorial in the China Daily newspaper the following spring clarified that party cadres were not to take free memberships or rounds.

China has veered over the years between rejecting and supporting golf. Amid a spirit of austerity and attacks on the country's former elites, former leader Mao Zedong banned golf after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

One Shanghai golf course was turned into the city zoo.

However, golf began to take off in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who instituted sweeping economic reforms and courted foreign investment.

By the 1990s, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus opened at Mission Hills in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Mission Hills now has 12 courses and is the largest golf resort in the world.

As in football and basketball, the Chines Government has invested in developing homegrown golf talent by importing coaches and promoting the sport with Greg Norman serving for a time as an adviser to China's national team.

Today there are as many as 10,000 youth golfers and more than 300 international-standard competitions held in China each year.

In efforts to curb unauthorised real-estate development, the Chinese Government has also previously attempted to rein in theme park developments.

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