Wall-to-wall golf courses

Given that Fidel Castro has been photographed with club in hand, it should come as no surprise that China's communists have adopted a distinctly capitalist attitude to the Royal and Ancient game. The really interesting bit, however, is the proliferation of courses around the capital, Beijing.

Peter Thomson headed a design team at Beijing Links GC, where work began in August 1999 and is scheduled to be completed for an official opening, in early summer. The three-level clubhouse will feature 14 hotel rooms, three restaurants, a health and fitness centre, gymnasium, swimming pool and snooker room. Future planning involves the addition of 95 villas and 90 duplex units and apartments.

Meanwhile, in the south of the country, work is continuing a-pace on two new signature courses from Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, at the Mission Hills club. This will increase the capacity to 90 holes, making it not only the largest golf development in China, but in the whole of Asia.

Most interest currently centres, however, on what is being viewed as the beginning of a dramatic expansion around the capital. And the seriousness with which the Chinese are approaching the game can be gauged from the fact that the entire front nine on the Beijing Links will be floodlit, so as to accommodate play until 11.0 p.m.. Now, what was that Confucius warned about man who golfs late . . . .