HIGH-END FACILITY: The Nanyanwang Golf Course in Wanning County, Hainan Province (CFP)

Golfing is a not a popular sport in Yulin, a coal-mining city sitting in close proximity to the Ordos Desert in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. But in recent months, a growing number of local residents have begun to pay attention to the pastime, which is said to be guzzling their water resources thirstily.

On August 15, The Beijing News reported two golf courses, covering 267 hectares of land, had been illegally constructed in the desert near Yulin, which has an average annual precipitation of only 400 mm.

The two golf courses—one of them is already in use and the other will open shortly—are estimated to use at least 5 million tons of water a year to maintain their emerald green turf, according to the report.

In order to maintain the resorts' grass, the operators have dug deep wells to access ground water. The wells, however, put a severe strain on the water supplies that local farmers rely on.

Unaffordable

Spurred by China's rapid economic growth and soaring living standards, golf, which has long been a pastime for the wealthy, is enjoying an explosion in popularity. A number of golf courses have been built in recent years, even though land use concerns led the government to enact an almost complete ban on golf course development in 2004.

It stipulates that a golf course that plans to use more than 66.67 hectares of farmland must be approved by the State Council, or China's cabinet, before construction.

Despite severe restrictions, statistics from the Golf Education and Research Center at Beijing Forestry University show the number of golf courses in China has more than tripled since 2004, increasing from 170 to about 600 today. These courses take up a total area of 18,670 hectares.

"Only 10 of the 600 golf courses now operating received approval from the government, which implies that most of China's golf courses were illegally built," said Dong Liming, a professor at the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University.

"Many unlicensed golf courses were supported by local governments and were constructed under the names of country clubs, sports parks or greenbelts," Dong said.

There are more than 70 golf courses reportedly operating in and around Beijing.

Some experts say a 40-50 hectare course needs at least 3,000 tons of water every day and a standard 18-hole course normally takes up more than 607 hectares of land.

"The annual water consumption of the courses in Beijing amounts to 40 million tons," said Su Derong, a professor at Beijing Forestry University.

The same amount of water could supply as many as 400,000 three-member households for a year.

In July, China Central Television (CCTV), a national broadcaster, investigated 10 golf courses and found most were using ground water to irrigate their greens.

At the Beyond Champion Golf Club near the Wenyu River in Beijing's Changping District, CCTV reporters found the sprinklers working 24 hours a day, but the water wasn't coming from the river.

A groundskeeper disclosed the course used thousands of tons of ground water per day from wells as deep as 20-30 meters to irrigate the 100-hectare course. Although the course is located near the Wenyu River, the club's management allegedly said the river was too polluted to use for irrigation.

A manager of another golf course near the Yongding River in southwest Beijing also admitted the course used water from an 80-meter-deep well.

While golf courses are making lavish use of water, the shortage of water has long been a bottleneck for the economic and social development of Beijing. The city's per-capita water availability stands at just 100 tons, only 10 percent of the international standard per capita, according to the Beijing Water Authority.