Coming together as teams

Jin'guo Women Golf Team, headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, is among the more well known non-government and non-professional women 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 Cheng 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 golf teams where 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 to the fairways is the fear of the sun, because they tend to want fair skin, says Chen.

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 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 affair authorities as a registered non-government organization devoted to promoting golf, especially among Chinese women.

Chen tells China Daily they plan to get together 1,000 women to play the game in the same course this summer, to create a Guinness world record, in order to celebrate the non-government organization's registration.

Sun Xiaochen contributed to this story.