Chinese Golf Leaders Optimistic Sport Can Steadily Grow In China

Ren One Of The Great Hopes In Chinese Golf

China's golf leaders are "bursting with optimism" since the IOC in October announced the sport will be part of the Olympics starting in '16, according to Jonathan Cheng of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Golf officials have "started pushing Beijing to begin building public driving ranges and courses in hopes of incubating talent." For golf to "prosper here, it will need more public facilities and a stronger amateur circuit to cultivate young talent." Mission Hill Golf Club Exec Dir Tenniel Chu said that China "still has fewer than 100 amateur tournaments a year, compared with 600-plus each year in the U.S." China also "will need more and better golf instruction and, eventually, some domestic stars." One of the "great hopes so far in Chinese golf" is 21-year-old Han Ren. However, Cheng noted the Chinese government, which "controls the sports scene here with its lavish spending on development programs, has anointed tennis, soccer, basketball and table tennis as the mandatory school sports." In the past "four years alone, about 800,000 basketball courts have been built in China, pushing the estimated number of players to as many as 400 million" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/27).