Though golf is gradually becoming more popular in China, popularity is very relative, and it’s still a sport of the elite, a costly status symbol and a “game of the rich.”

Knowledge about golf is lacking. A number of sports writers don’t know the rules, and curious, noisy, camera-clicking crowds don’t know the etiquette of silence.

American Dustin Johnson, who received the HSBC Champions crown in Shanghai last weekend, suggested in a post-match interview that he would have appreciated fewer distracting camera clicks from the crowd while he was trying to concentrate.

With an estimated 1 million frequent, mostly practice-level, players and 600 courses in China (in 1994 there were only 10), golf is still not a generally accessible game. Equipment is expensive, most clubs are private and greens fees are high.

By contrast, the United States has around 20,000 golf courses, 80 percent of them open to the public. Greens fees can be as low as US$8, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Figures on numbers of players and courses in China come from the China Golf Association.

“We need to pace up the development in golf and accelerate cultivation of Chinese golfers, who can shine first on the Asian stage and then strive for good performance on the world stage to earn honor for the country,” says  Zhang Xiaoning, vice president of the China Golf Association.

The increasing number of world-class golf tournaments in China reflects efforts to grow the game.

The US$8.5 million HSBC Champions held in Shanghai’s Sheshan International Golf Club in suburban Songjiang District last week was the only one of the four World Golf Championships to be held outside of the United States.

China held two European Tour events this year — The Volvo China Open in Tianjin in May and the BMW Masters at Shanghai’s Lake Malaren in October.

Other major tournaments include the LPGA Classic in Beijing in October, and three OneAsia tournaments — one already staged in Shandong Province in October and the other two to be held in December in Shenzhen and Dongguang in Guangdong Province.

A big reason for the growing interest is the restoration of golf as an Olympic sport in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That means China is putting more effort into developing players who can win medals.

Being an Olympic sport elevates the status of the sport and of golfers, trainers and many others involved. It makes a big difference in financial support and living and training conditions.

Golf was also included for the first time in China’s National Games in Liaoning Province in August. However, some sports reporters needed quick lessons on basic rules of the sport they had never bothered to study.

“You’ve got no idea how China loves gold medals,” jokes Ken Chu, chairman and CEO of the Mission Hills Group, organizer of The Match held on October 28 in Haikou, capital city of Hainan Province.

In Hainan, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy played a one-on-one 18-hole exhibition match, with interacts with Chinese young golfers.

Chu says golf’s entry into the Olympics has put the sport on the radar of Chinese sports authorities.

China has a long way to go to impress the golf world on and off the Olympic stage. Consider men's golf: The top 60 Chinese players will reach the Olympics, while no more than 10 Chinese golfers have ever collected world-ranking points. The top-ranked Chinese player Liang Wenchong places 132nd in the standings.

China’s best-known golfers, such as Liang, still need wild cards to enter top-class events, play alongside the world’s best golfers, and try to collect world-ranking points. Getting wild cards is one of the benefits for China in hosting high-level international events.

The country is also holding an increasing number of domestic tournaments.

China has a 15-stop CLPGA Tour across the country this year. For male golfers, a new 12-event PGA Tour China will be staged nationwide starting in 2014. Each event will have prize money of US$200,000 and is expected to attract 120 to 155 golfers, three-fourths of them Chinese.

Young golfers

The new 12-event venture is jointly launched by PGA Tour, the China Golf Association and tournament operator China Olympic Sports Industry. It aims to speed up the cultivation of Chinese golfers and help them collect world ranking points from events in China.

According to Zhang Xiaoning of the China Golf Association, China has more than 50,000 young golfers, mostly under the age of 16. In cooperation with the China Golf Association and HSBC, more than 20 tournaments and youth camps are held every year.

Promising golfer Guan Tianlang made a stir in April when he became the youngest qualifier for the US Masters in Augusta, Georgia. He was the leading amateur to raise the Silver Cup, despite being penalized a stroke for slow play.

Last year, at the age of 14, he became the Asia-Pacific amateur champion. He attended The Match in Haikou last week, playing in a pre-game skills challenge against Woods and McIlroy.

Fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, Guan seemed confident and comfortable as he sat beside Woods and McIlroy, fielding questions from the press.

Guan has yet to become a star, but golf promoters in China are eager to create and promote a symbol who will inspire Chinese golfers and consumers. It’s a big money sport and commercial interest is keen. Guan shows up at all kinds of promotions.

The Haikou event attracted more than 100 Chinese and international journalists, though it was mainly for television. Woods and McIlroy were reported to have pocketed at least US$1.5 million each (some say US$2 million) for one day’s work. More than 20,000 spectators turned up at the Blackstone Course, creating a spectacle as the crowd moved around with the two golfers.

The golf industry is booming in Hainan because the central government exempted the island province from general restrictions on golf developments to boost the tropical island’s tourism industry.

Building golf courses and related resorts and developments is limited on China’s mainland because they take up needed agricultural and use a great amount of water.

Before 1984, building golf courses was banned on the mainland, as a wasteful luxury for the elite that ate up precious land and water.

Starting in the 1990s, restrictions have been gradually eased but not lifted. Golf began to develop seriously in Shenzhen in the early 1990s.

According to Chu, the Mission Hills Group owns 22 courses around China, 10 of them in Hainan and others in Shenzhen and in Shandong Province.

The high cost of golf — equipment, fees, club membership — makes it privileged entertainment for the few, rather than a frequent sports activity.

Chinese living in cities and towns had an average annual income of 24,565 yuan (US$4,031) in 2012, or around 2,000 yuan per month.

But the regular golf players range from millionaires and billionaires to various professionals and business people (mostly men).

Shanghai’s first golf club is the Sheshan International Golf Club, which opened in 2004. The member-only club charges 2.4-2.5 million yuan for a lifetime membership, plus an annual 12,000-yuan fee, and 360 yuan to play the 18-hole, par-72 course.

The Lake Malaren Golf Club in Baoshan District provides second-hand (used a few times and returned) lifetime memberships cards for 650,000 yuan and charges a 12,000-yuan annual fee. Members pay 290-360 yuan to play one of two 18-hole golf courses. One is open to nonmembers who pay 680-980 yuan per person on weekdays and 1,580 yuan on weekends. People under age 18 can play for 450-550 yuan.

Both clubs provide golf lessons. The Sheshan club charges 3,000 yuan for 11 one-hour, one-on-one lessons. Lake Malaren charges 10,000 yuan for 12, one-hour, one-on-one lessons.

Most golf courses in China are owned by clubs associated with high-end hotels, resorts and entertainment facilities.

Guan, who comes from a well-off family, owes a lot to family support, but promotion of the sport among China’s young generation depends on the country’s strategy.

The incentive of Olympic medals bodes well for golf’s gradual development and some of China’s young players might surprise the world at the 2010 Olympic Games in Tokyo.