By
Tim Maitland
This autumn two teenagers will enroll, almost unnoticed, in US Colleges. For Chinese golf, however, a butterfly is flapping its wings on one side of the world and causing a hurricane on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
The freshmen-to-be are Hu Mu, who will play collegiate golf for the University of Florida Gators, and Wang Minghao, who will swing in the colours of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
They join Han Ren, who last year became the first Chinese-born athlete to play men's collegiate golf in the US when he joined the University of Indiana Hoosiers, and will be swiftly followed next year by James Su Dong, who like Han has been based in British Columbia, Canada since 2003.
These are the so-called Third Generation of Chinese golfers and they couldn't be more different from their predecessors.
In a nutshell the first and second generations, led respectively by Zhang Lianwei and Liang Wenchong, came from backgrounds where golf was barely known as a sport and buying a club was a luxury. In the cases of Wang and Su, the third generation have fathers who have owned golf clubs; luxury clubhouse, 18 holes and all.
"Me, Hu Mu, Han Ren we're from wealthy families, we can say that. We have had good educations," explains James Su.
"I went to a private kindergarten when I was four. From the private kindergarten I went to a private primary school and a private high school. Our parents can pay this sort of money. Zhang Lianwei, his parents, were humble people. They were living in poverty. They couldn't get any help from their parents. Zhang went looking for a job (in golf) to help pay for food."
Unlike their predecessors, the young guns are all fluent English speakers which opens up the whole lexicon of golf instruction, essential in a country where the sport is so new it has yet to produce its first truly elite-level coaches.
"The quality of their education is one of the reasons why I believe they will go to a higher level," says Zhang.
"Because they have English, they can discuss golf with other players from outside China. And they're not afraid to play with players from the European and US Tours. They are international players."
In terms of golf experience the current teenagers have already been playing golf for the same length of time as the second generation professionals, have probably played a similar number of tournaments and have certainly had significantly more and much better tutoring.
"If I'd started like these guys I'd probably be on the PGA Tour now. I'd probably be in the top 10. If I'd started like them, who knows?" Zhang smilingly states.
Consider the landscape when players like Zhang first started competing. The first modern course in China opened in Zhongshan in the southern province of Guangdong in 1984. Zhang first touched a club a year later at nearby Zhuhai Golf Club.
"When I started there were only two golf courses in China. Before the age of 20 I didn't know anything about golf; nothing at all!" recalls the godfather of Chinese professionals.
"When I started I got no support; nothing. I was like a blind man. Hitting balls every day, but having no idea why they went where they went. Each year there was only one tournament to play in; the China Amateur Open. I practiced the whole year just for one tournament!"
Many of the current professionals can tell similar stories. Almost all made a start through ancillary jobs at courses or driving ranges. Most had no inkling what the sport was until they started work. The only difference being that many of the second generation got their introduction to the sport in their late teens rather than their twenties. Under such circumstances it's amazing to think that Zhang has gone on to be the first Chinese to win a European PGA Tour event and the first to play in a Major, while Liang has gone one step further by becoming the first Chinese to win the Asian Tour's Order of Merit in 2007.
In comparison, the new kids on the block started early. The product of the quantum shift in China that helped move the country toward the socialist market economy.
"We have had a better start. At 18 Zhang wasn't even playing golf and Liang had barely started," admitted Hu Mu, whose father made his money in escalators and elevators, introduced him to golf at the age of seven, moved him to the IMG Academy in Florida at the age of 11 and has had him coached by David Leadbetter for the past five years.
"If you look at Zhang's career, he started golf at 20 years old and just caddied and practiced. It's unbelievable where he got to. And it's the same thing with Liang. He practices so hard; literally 12 hours a day. They got themselves to this point just by themselves without anybody telling them anything... maybe with a little help from friends, but not in golf. In golf alone they just had to figure everything out," said Hu, echoing the respect for his elders that all his generation seem to share.
Hu Mu is realistic enough to recognize that the real "future" of Chinese golf is the generation that comes after his.
"I can be sure in 10 years time there'll be like five more junior golfers with my talent. There are so many people with really good feel and really good talent who are aged 8, 9, 10. In 10 years time they'll be such good players. More and more people are playing golf in China so it's only going to get better," he said.
Importantly, China now has a structure in place through which its players can develop.
Introduced in 2007 the HSBC China Junior Golf Program is a partnership between HSBC, the world's local bank, the China Golf Association (CGA) and global sports marketing firm IMG.
"There are two sides to the plan. One is to select talented people and develop them into stars. The other side is to get more and more kids playing golf. We're building a bridge to get more and more children of various ages interested in golf. We're trying to make each generation bigger. The system is getting bigger and bigger," says Song Liangliang, the Deputy Secretary General of the CGA.
The programme includes a season-long HSBC National Junior Golf Championship, which in 2008 consists of seven legs leading to a finale just before the US$5 million HSBC Champions in November, as well as the HSBC China Junior Open. Other key elements include a national ranking system, and golf camps.
"We've worked together to design an expandable structure that helps the CGA identify and develop its young talent, hence the rankings, the camps and the season-long tournament structure," explains HSBC Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan.
"The programme has started working in 40 schools this year and will continue to expand. We're also playing a role in increasing the education and enhancing the quality of information available to China's golf coaches.
"It's a dual strategy; first to ensure the kids have the proper channels along which to improve through proper competition, proper ranking points and a proper sense of progression. This ensures a generation coming through that is developed and educated. Then we want to put the building blocks in place to ensure that the future generations grow in numbers, thus broadening the talent pool as well as further developing the size of the golf market," says Giles Morgan.
China is on the verge of producing it's first generation of golfers who, thanks to the individual wealth of their parents, will be able to compete on a level playing field internationally in as much as they have started the sport at a similar age to the rivals and have had as good an upbringing in the sport. Whatever success they have as professionals will only fuel the growth of a sport that is finally in a position to tap into the potential power that a population of 1.4 billion brings. As Hu Mu points out, once you add in the appetite for excellence, success is a given.
"China was the strongest country for forever. We went down a little bit but now we're coming back," he says.
"The whole thing is if Chinese people want to do something they want to be the best…. and they do it!
