MAINLAND Chinese golfers have received approval to cash in on their talent by joining the ranks of the professionals.
The decision to allow the country's leading golfers to play for pay comes just 10 years after the sport was re-introduced to China.
All golf courses in China were ploughed up during the Cultural Revolution and returned to the people to farm and the sport was banned.
Following last year's China Open men's amateur championship, Rong Gaotang, president of the China Golf Association (CGA), the country's ruling golfing body, said he believed the establishment of a Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) in China would be a positive step for the development of the game.
Recently, a Chinese PGA committee was formed, headed by Cui Zhiqiang, general-secretary of the CGA. At their inaugural meeting it was decided to allow five players - three male and two female - to relinquish their amateur status and turn pro.
Those five players will be determined next week during the sixth China Closed amateur championship with the 72-hole strokeplay tournament at the Beijing International Golf Club also acting as the country's first professional qualifying event.
And more than 50 young hopefuls from golf clubs in Guangdong Province, Shanghai and Beijing have converged on the capital to vie for the right to seek a potentially lucrative career playing the sport.