A staff member plays a shot toward a putting green on a lake from a tee ground on top of a hill, at Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province. (Photo : Reuters)
Chinese authorities have closed 66 "illegal" golf courses across the country in a renewed crackdown enforcing a decade-old ban, China’s Ministry of Land and Resources announced on Monday.
"Presently, local governments have shut down a number of illegally built golf courses, and preliminary results have been achieved in clean-up and rectification work," the ministry said on its website.
Three of the 66 courses listed by the ministry are in Beijing. Eight are located in the eastern province of Shandong, while the southern and southwestern provinces of Guangdong and Yunnan are home to six each.
According to National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planning body, the courses were closed because they violated a 2004 moratorium designed to protect the country's shrinking land and water resources. The fertilizer and pesticide used to grow grasses for the courses have been said to cause water pollution.
"Governments at all levels and relevant State Council organs have proactively carried out golf course rectification work and have achieved phased results," the NDRC said in a statement.
The crackdown follows a high-profile anti-graft campaign by President Xi Jinping, which has seen sanctions on "extravangances" such as banquets, lavish gift giving, private clubs in parks and historical buildings, and other excesses by government officials in recent years.
On Tuesday, a commerce ministry spokesman announced that senior official Wang Shenyang is under investigation for playing golf in violation of Xi's "eight rules" on official behavior.
Golf has long had an ambivalent relationship with China's Communist Party, as it is closely associated with wealth and Western elitism. Party founder Mao Zedong famously banned the game in the 1940s, denouncing it as a "sport for millionaires."
It was not until 31 years ago that golf reemerged in the country after Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok and golf legend Arnold Palmer launched Zhongshan Hot Spring Golf Club in Guangdong in 1984.
A spokesperson for the China Golf Association, which is under the supervision of the country's sports ministry, declined to comment on the issue.
