Just over a month after Peking University kicked off an almighty ruckus by announcing that it would build a golf course/driving range on campus (as noted on this blog at the time), Xiamen University yesterday declared that it would go one better and force students from its business majors to learn how to play golf, whether they want to or not. 

The head of the University, Zhu Chongshi, announced yesterday that all students majoring in Management, Law, Economics and (for some bizarre reason) Software Engineering will be required to take to the fareways as part of their studies. "The highest embodiment of the education system is producing socially elite people with the best education," claims Mr. Zhu.

Inevitably, the move has been met with howls of derision from some quarters.  China Daily quotes the Chairman of CIE International Education Group denouncing the move as "vulgar".  

Golf has long been derided in China as the "rich man’s game".  But with two top universities announcing golf courses within a month of one another, you get the sense that "the rich man’s game" is about to reach its tipping point in China and go mainstream.  This in itself is hardly surprising.  Another China Daily report notes that over the past 4 days in Shanghai, 12,000 visitors to a luxury products show lavished half a billion yuan on "luxury" trinkets like Porches and diamonds. suggesting that there is a big market out there for a sport that is still very expensive to play here.

However, all this interest in golf means that tee times are going to get very crowded over the next few years.   With arable land at a premium, the government has already slapped very strict limits on the construction of new land- and water-gobbling golf courses, and crackdowns have left other existing courses in legal limbo. So be prepared for sky-high green fees….and watch out for those software engineers.