The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream – A book by Dan Washburn
Official website for The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream, the new book about golf in China – and so much more – by award-winning journalist Dan Washburn.
The following excerpt comes from Dan Washburn’s new book “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream,” which follows the lives of three men caught up in China’s bizarre — and, in some cases, illegal — golf scene. The passage below focuses on Zhou Xunshu, …
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I’d like to be able to say, “I knew this kid would be making headlines from the moment I met him.” But, to be completely honest, I didn’t event remember meeting him. If not for this tweet from a writer in Beijing, I’d still have …
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Stories from the tournament which ended in a showdown between Mickelson and Woods.
Read MorePar for China‘s primary subject shot a 1-under 71 on Thursday and currently stands four strokes back of Taiwan’s Chan Yihshin and one stroke back of playing partner Hsu Mongnan, also of Taiwan, who is tied for second place. Zhou got a big write-up (his …
Read MoreThis is the last installment of my series of stories on pro golf in China.
Read More… a fantastic story of what it means to play our great sport of golf to some around the world that don’t have the same benefit people in our country have … Zhou Xunshu is an inspiration … and it should make for motivation to …
Read MoreThat’s the headline of my story for ESPN.com about Omega China Tour golfer Zhou Xunshu, who I have had the pleasure of spending a considerable amount of time with over the past seven months or so. Here’s the first few paragraphs: In 1984, when China …
Read MoreCheck out my latest for ESPN.com here. A taste: But while buckets of cash can build record-setting golf facilities — at 216 holes, Mission Hills is the world’s largest — and bring in top-shelf talent — the HSBC event boasted the strongest field ever assembled …
Read MoreThis story originally appeared on ESPN.com.
by DAN WASHBURN
Sheshan International Golf Club, site of this week’s HSBC Champions tournament, is about an hour west of Shanghai — if you are lucky. The only way to get there from downtown is a start-and-stop ride along the Hu Ning “Expressway,” an overcrowded stretch of asphalt that cuts through a grim part of the city you won’t find mentioned in any tour book. Most spectators are bussed in and bussed out and never set foot outside the picturesque private grounds. And if you were part of that crowd on Thursday and Friday, it would be easy to draw this conclusion: China loves Tiger Woods.
In a nation of 1.3 billion, crowds are not hard to come by. But on a golf course? That’s something new in a country with only an estimated 200,000 people who play the sport, a country that didn’t have a golf course until 1984. The gallery following Woods for the tournament’s first two rounds easily topped 1,000. Some guessed it was closer to 2,000. That’s more than four times the number of fans who followed Ernie Els during the final round of the BMW Asian Open here in May.
Read MoreESPN.com, the internet’s sports website of record, is running two stories I wrote about golf in China: • Golf in China grows bigger by the day • Chinese events bring interesting questions At the time of this posting, the package was ESPN.com’s featured story on …
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