More women on the fairways

There is an estimated number of 77,900 women golf players in China, which is quite a progress compared with a few years ago.[Photo provided to China Daily]

But there were few women golfers when Shi started playing the game 15 years ago.

As some of them often met on the greens, they hatched the idea of forming a team to meet often and play together. Now the team has more than 40 members, who get together to play at least once a month.

Shi noticed a slow increase of female players in the last 10 years, and a relatively quick increase in recent years.

Chen Xing, the director with Shenzhen Golf Association, observes Chinese golfers have been increasing quickly since 2003, and the increase in men golfers has contributed largely to the growth in the women golfer population.

As the men started playing golf, their wives, sisters and friends also got exposed to the sport, and it is good for husbands and wives to share a common interest, especially for housewives, Chen says.

Chen recalls that in the 1990s, among the few women who played golf, most were businesswomen, and they played the game to socialize with their male counterparts. Now, many play just to have fun.

The development of the Chinese economy has also contributed to the growth in the number of women golfers.

In the 1990s, it cost hundreds of yuan to more than 2,000 to play a round of the game. The price has increased little. Taking into consideration the drop in currency value and the increase in people's income, the fees have actually dropped a lot, relatively, Chen says.

The number of women golfer teams in Beijing and other large cities has grown in recent years, according to Shi Ting, who often leads her Mulan team to play against other teams.

Chen is the captain of China's first women golfer team, Jin'guo, which was established in 1997 in Shenzhen.

The team is named after a proverb which says that women are as good as men. It has more than 100 members from all walks of life.

What women lack in strength they make up for in flexibility, according to Chen.

The Mulan team is named after a famous heroine in ancient China.