David Chu, developer of Mission Hills Golf Club, is betting that size matters when it comes to attracting China's new rich.

Early next year, his sprawling symbol of China's aspirations to wealth will open its ninth and tenth courses, giving Mission Hills a claim as the biggest golfing complex in the world, surpassing Pinehurst in North Carolina, which has eight.

"Ten years ago, golf in China was brand new," said Chu, a Hong Kong industrialist who made his fortune in paper products.

"We had to import all the equipment -- even the grass," he said from his office luxuriously decorated with classical Chinese art and featuring a view of his private putting green.

Founded in 1994, Mission Hills will cost roughly HK$3 billion (US$384.6 million) to build by the time it is completed.

Chu, who is described by his son Ken as "very patriotic" and hangs a Chinese flag by his desk, does not sound worried that China's nascent golf industry will meet the same fate as Japan's.

In Japan, golf mania left the country covered in some 2,400 courses before sending developers into bankruptcy when the country's bubble economy burst more than a decade ago.

Globally, the rate of people taking up golf has slowed after a boom in the late 1990s fuelled by a vibrant economy in the United States and elsewhere and the emergence of Tiger Woods as a star.

But Chu is betting that plenty more Chinese will take to the fairways as incomes rise, especially in the southern province of Guangdong.

An estimated one million Chinese now play golf.

"Today, we don't need to worry because the economy is growing very fast and peoples' incomes are growing very fast," said Chu.

The project has been largely self-financed, with some bank loans, said Ken Chu, vice chairman of the Mission Hills Group.

WEALTHY LOCALE

Mission Hills straddles the rolling borderlands between Shenzhen and Dongguan, two of China's richest cities and engines of the country's export-driven economic miracle.

About a 90-minute drive from central Hong Kong, Mission Hills draws about half its golfers from the Chinese-controlled city and much of the remainder from the mainland. Chu expects membership growth to be driven primarily by increasingly rich mainland Chinese.

Memberships cost between HK$168,000 and HK$550,000 (US$21,538-$70,512). Average annual income in the province stood at about 12,000 yuan (US$1,450) as of September.

In Hong Kong, where land is scarce, clubs charge about HK$1 million.

The club has about 5,000 members, leaving plenty of room for growth as an 18-hole course typically accommodates 1,500 members.

Guangdong province is home to 85 million people and about 60 golf courses, or one-third of the roughly 170 in mainland China.

Authorities expect the provincial economy will grow by@than 12 percent in 2003, and Chu said Guangdong could support another 50 courses.

SUPER-SIZED

Everything about Mission Hills is big, including the tracts of turned earth that will accommodate fairway-side mansions. The clubhouse lobby features models of three villa designs, including an 899 square metre (9,674 square feet) palace with cascading waterfall.

The "Savannah" project now in development will include about 300 homes, with a 400 square metre (4,304 square foot) unit priced from US$700,000.

"Chinese like to be rewarded for their hard work," said Ken Chu, adding that Mission Hills plans to build about one million square metres of residential property. "Buying a big house is an illustration of your success."

Mission Hills also boasts 51 tennis courts, 500 hotel rooms, and what it says is Asia's biggest golf shop.

Mission Hills' ambitions are also big.

The club, which dreams of being a world-class destination along the lines of California's Pebble Beach, has enlisted famous golfers to design each course, including Jack Nicklaus, Vijay Singh and Nick Faldo.

Top womens' player Annika Sorenstam recently visited to open her course, and Tiger Woods once hosted a tournament.

Chu said Mission Hills would look for opportunities to develop golf resorts elsewhere in China or abroad but is focused now on completing the expansion of its flagship resort to 180 holes of golf.

"We hope it becomes a very, very mature resort," said Chu.

(US$ ; HK$7.8 and 8.28 yuan)

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