Golf teams boost skills of women players

Shi Ting may not be working for a living, but she is one very busy woman.

As the captain of the Mulan Women Golf Team, the first women golf team in Beijing, Shi devotes a lot of her time and energy to the team's affairs, including recruitment of members and organizing golf games and charity events.

The team, which was established in 2007 with about six golf lovers, has expanded to more than 40 members.

To join the team, a golfer needs a referral from at least one team member. A standing committee of six members of the team examine the applicant's golf skills and personality before granting her permission to join.

The team wants new members to be honest and have strong moral principles, as well as being agreeable, so that they can get along with others, Shi says.

The baseline for golf skill requirement has increased in recent years. When it was first formed, the team required members to score less than 100. Now, the requirement has become less than 80.

"We have a strong team identity, and practice hard to honor the team," Shi says.

Members gather regularly to practice in order to improve their skills.

It also holds competitions once every month among team members. Those who perform well are chosen to represent the team to play against other teams, whether amateurs or professionals.

In the team's borrowed office in a plastic surgery hospital in downtown Beijing, there are quite a few trophies the team has won in various competitions, including charity and commercial events.

Team members also wear uniforms, including hats and gloves.

Shi is proud that Mulan is well known among national golfers, and is making a contribution to the promotion of the sport among Chinese women.

"When the team was formed, we just wanted to play golf and have fun together," Shi says. "Now it is not only about playing golf and having fun by ourselves, but we also want to introduce the sport to more people and help it gain popularity among Chinese women."

Encouraged the government and official golf associations, which regulate and promote golf in China, dozens of other amateur women golf teams initiated by individuals have also sprouted up.

Jin'guo Women's Golf Team, headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is among the better known nongovernmental and nonprofessional women's golf teams in China.

The team was established in 1997 by Chen Qiya, a golf lover and the founder of Chinese golf cloth manufacturer Gicoo, and has showbiz celebrities and socialites as consultants.

Since it was formed, the team has been promoting golf among Chinese women through its increasing prominence in the Chinese golf world, and has initiated or participated in a lot of events to raise the awareness of the game among potential golfers.

According to Chen Xing, the team captain, there were few members when the team was first founded, but now it has branches in Shenzhen, Beijing, Tianjin, and Kunming in Yunnan province. A team will also soon be formed in Shanghai.

In Shenzhen alone, the team has more than 100 members, and unlike many other amateur women's golf teams in which housewives form the majority of team members, most members of Jin'guo's Shenzhen team are career women.

Apart from the relatively high cost, a common factor that prevents Chinese women from venturing onto the fairways is the fear of the sun, because they tend to want fair skin, says Chen Xing.

Jin'guo works with foundations both at home and abroad to take part in golf-related charity events, and has raised millions of yuan to promote golf among the young.

The bimonthly publication Golf Ladies that the team launched in 2010 has become one of the most influential Chinese-language golf magazines.

In 2011, the team held a game event to celebrate the Universiade Shenzhen, and more than 12 women's golf teams from all over the country took part in it.

When the team's branch in Beijing was formed in 2012, golfers from all over the country were invited to take part in the celebration games.

In 2013, Jin'guo built its own clubhouse in Shenzhen. It has been approved by the civil affairs authorities as a registered nongovernment organization devoted to promoting golf, especially among Chinese women.

Chen Xing tells China Daily they plan to bring together 1,000 women to play the game on the same course this summer, to make their work in Guinness World Records to celebrate the organization's registration.

Sun Xiaochen contributed to this story.