More women on the fairways

Shi Ting(left),captain of Mulan Women Golf Team in Beijing and her Mulan team members.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Even though they make up only a fraction of the total population of golfers in China, there is a total number of about 77,900 women players, which is quite a progress even compared with a few years ago, according to Beijing golf lover Shi Ting.

Shi, who is in her early 40s, is the captain of Beijing's first non-professional female golfer team, the Mulan Women Golf Team, which was established in 2007.

She started playing golf in 2000, under the influence of her husband, but soon became even more engaged with the game than he was.

"The sport is very suitable for women, no matter how old they are," Shi says.

"It is easy to learn," she says, qualifying, "but difficult to play well."

Even though the sport requires much less physical exertion than most other sports, it needs players to fully focus, and make same movements repeatedly throughout the game, Shi adds.

But that is also what she loves most about the game, she says.

In order to play the game well, a golfer needs to be relaxed, forget everything around him or her, and get absorbed only in what she or he is doing. This means the sport is not only good exercise for the body, but is also great for the spirit. It stills the mind, she explains.

"I play golf not to kill the time, but to enjoy life," Shi says.

Shi so loved the game that she resigned from her job as human resources director with a large shopping mall in 2006, so that she could to go to the fairways whenever she wanted.

"I was crazy about golf at that time, and my whole heart was on the golf course," Shi recalls, adding she continued to play golf one month and a half after giving birth in 2003.

"I just couldn't bear to wait to play," Shi says.