'Our location in the heart of the city is an advantage, but it is also the course that gets people coming back'
Shenzhen Golf Club has - like Shenzhen itself - Deng Xiaoping to thank for its existence. When the late former paramount leader flung open the country's doors in 1979, in marched foreign businessmen who desperately needed to indulge their second favourite pastime while they built factories in the newly created special economic zone.
At the time, the Futian district was not the modern, futuristic centre of Shenzhen that it is today. In fact, it was not much more than a mosquito-infested marshland. But a group of Japanese and Thai investors could see the potential. And so they set about building what would become the home of Chinese golf.
As with most foreign ventures at the time - they were neither officially licensed to do what they were doing, nor forbidden - the golf club developed slowly with a low profile. It was only officially launched in 1985, and most members were Japanese living in Hong Kong.
Today, the club has 1,600 members, a spanking brand-new clubhouse and one of the finest 27-hole courses in the country that is hosting the Volvo China Open.
Yu Xiaoping, the club's general manager and a revered figure in golf circles, shakes his head and blows out a long trail of smoke as he remembers the early days.
'We didn't even have a club professional back then. So we sent a team over to Japan for training. Their mission was to learn the game and then get it started here.'