Austin Ramzy writes: HONG KONG — President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on vice and corruption in China has gone after drugs, gambling, prostitution, ill-gotten wealth and overflowing banquet tables. Now it has turned to a less obvious target: golf. In a flurry of recent reports, …
Read MoreListen: BBC World Service’s ‘Business Matters’ program on golf in China
BBC’s Roger Hearing talks to Dan Washburn, author of The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream, about China’s complicated relationship with golf. This segment aired on April 9, 2015.
Read MoreThe Telegraph: Tiger Woods caught up in China’s war on golf
James Corrigan writes in The Telegraph: The warning signs have been there for more than a decade. In 2004, the national government banned the building of new courses because of environmental concerns. It proved a bit like the High Court banning D H Lawrence. In the …
Read MoreListen to my appearance on Jeremy Schaap’s ‘The Sporting Life’ show on ESPN Radio
Climbing Sherpas, the Nepalese men who risk their lives to help visitors climb Mt. Everest. A crackdown on golf in China. Travis Hamonic sharing his grief to help children. Listen to Jeremy’s April 10, 2015, episode here. You can download the show from that page, …
Read MoreFeatured on CNN: Has China declared war on golf?
Watch the report by Steven Jiang below.
Read MoreMy story for CNN Money: China declares war on ‘forbidden game’ of golf
There are no Chinese golfers participating in The Masters this week, and perhaps that is fitting. It’s already been a rough spring for “the rich man’s game” in China. On March 30, Chinese authorities announced the closure of 66 “illegal” golf courses — roughly …
Read MoreInterviewed by USA Today about China’s crackdown on golf courses
Calum MacLeod writes: “China is full of many contradictions,” said Dan Washburn, an analyst and author of The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream. “You never know what to expect in China, especially when related to golf. It’s a difficult place to try to …
Read MoreForbes: Why China’s ‘Illegal’ Golf Boom Is Coming To An End
Johan Nylander focuses heavily on The Forbidden Game in his piece for Forbes: So how can something be booming and illegal at the same time? “Golf is a politically taboo topic and tightly linked to corruption,” Dan Washburn said during a speech at the …
Read MoreQuoted in AFP story on China closing 66 ‘illegal’ golf courses
I made an oh-so-current Yakov Smirnoff reference on Twitter — and it got picked up by the AFP: Government officials keen on joining golf clubs often do so under false names, wary of being perceived as corrupt or out of touch, according to Dan Washburn, author …
Read MoreWashington Post: ‘A Chinese official has been placed under investigation — for golfing’
You’ll need to read this Washington Post story by Adam Taylor until the very end for the Forbidden Game reference. Or just read the money quote here: Given that some experts see Xi’s corruption campaign as selective and politically motivated, it’ll be worth watching for …
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