Golf students prepare to join the club(2)

As the Chinese idiom says, the first step is the hardest. In the first four years, the school had to invite coaches from golf clubs and a number of graduates, such as Cheng Jun, to give lectures. A lack of textbooks was another major obstacle, and the department had to arrange for non-specialist teachers to study foreign golf books and then teach the subject.

The department also had to rent practice facilities at a club in Shijiazhuang at a cost of at least 500 yuan per hour per person. To provide students with more opportunity to practice, the school invested 1.8 million yuan to build a driving range with 54 practice bays. Students currently have eight hours of formal practice per week, but the range is open every day so they can practice in their leisure time too.

In 2008, the first group of golf graduates stayed on at the Hebei Institute as teachers, helping to develop the major through their own experience.

Each golf student pays annual tuition fees of 12,000 yuan, almost twice as much as other majors. Still, many students apply for the study because of the employment prospects. Every year, about 50 to 60 students from other sporting disciplines transfer to study golf.

All graduates from the Hebei Institute have found good jobs, and that has encouraged more to apply for the study. A sharp increase in the number of freshmen in 2008 saw the school attach greater importance to the booming major.

The school's president Zhang Zhuo'an endorsed a plan to spend 6 million yuan to construct a new driving range, with 400 practice bays spread over 20 hectares.

Li Yuesheng, director of the social sports department at the Hebei Institute, is always eager to show visitors around the facility. "I am proud to say that our school will soon have the largest driving range in Asia. For me, that's the future," he said.

As the facilities were updated, the students' skills improved and in 2010 the school won two silver medals at the All-China Games.

Elite, expensive

Since its introduction to China 28 years ago, golf has been regarded as an elite, expensive sport. At the Sigesen club, non-members pay 1,080 yuan per person per round and caddies expect a tip of at least 100 yuan. Even with a permanent membership, which costs 188,000 yuan per person, the price of a round is still 260 yuan.