More than 100 golf courses have been ordered for closure in China to protect the scarce arable land and water resources that were being used by developers illegally.
The National Development and Reform Commission said that out of a total 683 courses in the country, 111 have been ordered for closure following a crackdown launched in 2011, in a report by Yahoo! Sports.
Telegraph reported that the crackdown has largely failed because building of clubs to boost tourism and increase development opportunities were encouraged by local governments.
Planners often receive parks or other green areas projects, but later on, they are being converted into golf clubs.
Courses were taken to task for illegally building on arable land or nature reserves, extracting groundwater in prohibited areas, and other violations.
Additionally, 47 golf courses have been told to stop construction, and 18 have been ordered to return illegally occupied land.
In 2004, Beijing banned the development of new golf courses when it had few than 200, but new projects continued coming in to meet the growing demand from China’s wealthy people.
Millionaire’s Sport
Known as “a rich person’s game,” “an elite sport,” or “sport for millionaires,” golf has become a prohibitively expensive past-time in China.
In 1949 after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong banned golf. One Shanghai golf course was converted into the city zoo.
In 1980s, golf began to take off under Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who courted foreign investment and instituted sweeping economic reforms.
By the 1990s, Jack Nicklaus designed a course, which opened in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Mission Hill is the largest golf resort in the world and has now 12 courses.
The anti-corruption campaign of Chinese President Xi Jinping has led them to scrutinize golf. In 2015, the ruling Communist Party prohibited its 88 million members not to play golf or take memberships or rounds.
Golf was compared to “extravagant eating and drinking” and other bad habits that were at odds with the party’s stated principle.
According to state-run Xinhua News Agency, each of China’s 33 provinces and regions has a golf course except for Tibet.