Ordinary people who have a liking for golf -- traditionally the sport of aristocrats -- can now lavish 250 yuan (about 30 US dollars) on playing 18 holes in Shenzhen, a boomtown across the water from Hong Kong.
Sources from the Longgang Golf Club in Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province, said the club had opened to non-members from Sunday.
Each person is charged 150 yuan (18.1 US dollars) for a nine-hole course, and each beginner is charged 15 yuan (about 1.81 US dollars) for 50 hits, plus 15 yuan for the clubs and for minding belongings, according to the sources.
Longgang Golf Club was just one of three golf clubs Shenzhen planned to build to cater for rising demand for the sport from the general public, said a local official.
The other two -- the Sanzhou Public Golf Club at Yantian, and Guangming Public Golf Club at Bao'an -- will be up and running in the first half of next year, according to the official.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2002)
