Wayne Ma reports: China has nearly 1.4 billion people, but at most perhaps three million golfers, Gilligan said. New golf-course construction has technically been banned since 2004, and the country has less than 500 courses—compared with more than 14,000 in the U.S. The sport has …
Read MoreFeatured on the 60dB Podcast: Trump & Xi Tee Off
Had a nice conversation with Hannah McBride at 60dB. Here’s the description: At Mar-a-lago this week, President Donald Trump hosts President Xi Jinping of China for the first time. Xi has led anti-corruption campaigns targeting golf as the sport of millionaires, but Trump’s made a …
Read MoreThe Guardian: Trump’s golf diplomacy lands in the rough ahead of Xi Jinping meeting
Benjamin Haas reports: For years golf was banned as a bourgeois indulgence, and more recently China’s 85 million Communist party members were forbidden from playing the sport amid a broad crackdown on corruption. The regulation was later lifted – as long as cadres hit the …
Read MoreQuartz: Xi and Trump may not play golf, but China is considering introducing the masses to the millionaire’s sport
Tripti Lahiri and Isabella Steger, reporting for Quartz: In his 2014 book on golf in China, The Forbidden Game, Dan Washburn chronicled how a 2004 ban on the construction of new golf courses was accompanied by the building of more golf courses than ever. “People unfamiliar …
Read MoreCNN: Why Trump’s golf diplomacy won’t work with China’s Xi Jinping
Steven Jiang writes: Xi, an avid soccer fan, isn’t known to be a golfer — and he’s been waging a war on the sport in his country. Since he came to power nearly five years ago, Xi’s government has shut down scores of golf courses …
Read MoreMy story in The New York Times: Adventures on the China Golf Tour
My contribution to The New York Times‘ new “Sporting” column about my time chasing the bizarre story of golf in China: It was a foggy day in Chongqing, a metropolis in southwest China, and the driving range was almost empty. Out beyond the 250-yard marker, …
Read MoreBustle: 10 Nonfiction Books Written About Sports for the Total Sports Fan
Catherine Kovach lumps me in with some pretty amazing company in Bustle: Of course, since this is reality, of course it’s possible for people who love sports and books at the same time. In fact, some stories about the sports industry can be even more …
Read MoreIBT: Can The Olympics Save Golf?
Tim Marcin writes in the International Business Times: “The question has always been: Will Olympic success in golf equal a golf boom in China?” said Dan Washburn, author of “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream.” “It was and remains a down time for …
Read MoreEpoch Times: No, the Chinese Communist Party Didn’t Just Make Golf Legal in China
Larry Ong writes for Epoch Times: Dan Washburn, the leading authority on golf in China and author of “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream,” told the Washington Post: “As is common in China, the regulation’s language does seem vague, perhaps purposefully so.” “But …
Read MoreWaPo: The latest surprising twist in China’s love-hate relationship with golf
Adam Taylor writes in The Washington Post: Dan Washburn, perhaps the foremost Western expert on golf in China and author of “The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream,” says that the idea that golf has been made legal is a misinterpretation of the previous …
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