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PGA Tour Series-China to tee off in Hainan as 2020 schedule revealed

The PGA Tour Series-China has announced its 2020 schedule, the circuit's sixth since its inception in 2014.

The season will consist of 14 tournaments, with a schedule that runs from late March to late September and features an official event outside the Greater China area for the first time－the Phuket Championship in Thailand.

The season begins in Sanya, Hainan province, and closes for a second consecutive year in Macao.

"It's always rewarding to announce a new schedule, knowing another PGA Tour Series-China season is right around the corner," said Greg Carlson, executive director of the PGA Tour Series-China.

"This is going to be a significant season for a variety of reasons, most notably because we're playing outside Greater China for the first time while also taking our players throughout the Chinese mainland, with visits to Hong Kong and Macao also key components of our season.

"This is a strong schedule, and we're excited to play on courses and in cities our players know well while sprinkling in new cities, courses and partners."

The season will get underway at Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya from March 26-29－the first of two tournaments on Hainan, with Mission Hills Golf Club Haikou on the island's north side hosting the Haikou Classic the following week.

Players will then travel to Chongqing Poly Golf Club for the Chongqing Championship (April 9-12) before completing a busy four-tournament-in-four-weeks run in Guangzhou, at Nansha International Golf Club for the Guangzhou Open (April 16-19).

"There is great pacing to this schedule, with players getting in a rhythm quickly with these first four tournaments," Carlson continued. "The tournaments in the early part of the season are at courses we know well, and we're excited to take our high-quality golf back to these venues."

There will be a two-week break after the Guangzhou stop, with the tour resuming with a three-tournament stint, starting in Hong Kong for the Clearwater Bay Open (May 7-10).

The following week (May 14-17), Laguna Golf Phuket will host its first official PGA Tour-China Series tournament－the Phuket Championship. The tour then returns to China for the Beijing Championship (May 21-24).

Players will play consecutive tournaments in June (11-14 and 18-21) at cities and courses yet to be determined.

Venues for tournaments on July 16-19 and July 23-26 will be announced at a later date.

The season will finish with three tournaments in three weeks, beginning with the Suzhou Open (Sept 10-13), followed by the first series event held within the Shanghai city limits－the Shanghai Open at Agile Golf Club (Sept 17-20).

For the second consecutive year, the season will conclude at Caesars Golf Macao (Sept 24-27), where the top points earners over the course of the season will receive their 2021 Korn Ferry Tour membership cards.

"We know a strong class of players has just moved to the Korn Ferry Tour, and we look forward to new players and those returning to battle in 2020 for the right to play on the Korn Ferry Tour. Our schedule is ideally set up for that to happen," Carlson said.

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Napa, CA • USA

Sep 12 - 15

Presidents Cup

Montreal, Quebec • CAN

Sep 26 - 29

Sanderson Farms Championship

Jackson, MS • USA

2020 - 2021 Season

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September 2020

SEP 10 - 13

Silverado Resort and Spa (North Course)

Napa , CA • USA

SEP 17 - 20

U.S. Open (2020)  

Winged Foot Golf Club

Mamaroneck , NY • USA

Bryson DeChambeau

SEP 24 - 27

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship (2020)  

Puntacana Resort & Club (Corales Golf Course)

Punta Cana • DOM

Hudson Swafford

October 2020

Sanderson Farms Championship  

The Country Club of Jackson

Jackson , MS • USA

Sergio Garcia

Shriners Hospitals for Children Open  

TPC Summerlin

Las Vegas , NV • USA

Martin Laird

OCT 15 - 18

THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK  

Shadow Creek Golf Course

Jason Kokrak

OCT 22 - 25

ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP @ SHERWOOD  

Sherwood Country Club

Thousand Oaks , CA • USA

Patrick Cantlay

OCT 29 - NOV 1

Bermuda Championship  

Port Royal Golf Course

Southampton • BER

November 2020

Vivint Houston Open  

Memorial Park Golf Course

Houston , TX • USA

Carlos Ortiz

NOV 12 - 15

Masters Tournament (2020)  

Augusta National Golf Club

Augusta , GA • USA

Dustin Johnson

NOV 19 - 22

The RSM Classic  

Sea Island Golf Club (Seaside Course)

St. Simons Island , GA • USA

Robert Streb

December 2020

Mayakoba Golf Classic presented by UNIFIN  

El Camaleón Golf Course at Mayakoba

Riviera Maya • MEX

Viktor Hovland

DEC 11 - 13

QBE Shootout  

Tiburón Golf Course

Naples , FL • USA

Matt Kuchar , Harris English

January 2021

Sentry Tournament of Champions  

Plantation Course at Kapalua

Kapalua, Maui , HI • USA

Harris English

JAN 14 - 17

Sony Open in Hawaii  

Waialae Country Club

Honolulu , HI • USA

JAN 21 - 24

The American Express  

Pete Dye Stadium Course

La Quinta , CA • USA

JAN 28 - 31

Farmers Insurance Open  

Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Course)

San Diego , CA • USA

Patrick Reed

February 2021

Waste Management Phoenix Open  

TPC Scottsdale (Stadium Course)

Scottsdale , AZ • USA

Brooks Koepka

FEB 11 - 14

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am  

Pebble Beach Golf Links

Pebble Beach , CA • USA

Daniel Berger

FEB 18 - 21

The Genesis Invitational  

The Riviera Country Club

Pacific Palisades , CA • USA

FEB 25 - 28

World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession  

The Concession Golf Club

Bradenton , FL • USA

Collin Morikawa

Puerto Rico Open  

Grand Reserve Golf Club

Rio Grande • PUR

Branden Grace

Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard  

Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge

Orlando , FL • USA

MAR 11 - 14

THE PLAYERS Championship  

TPC Sawgrass (THE PLAYERS Stadium Course)

Ponte Vedra Beach , FL • USA

Justin Thomas

MAR 18 - 21

The Honda Classic  

PGA National Resort (The Champion)

Palm Beach Gardens , FL • USA

MAR 24 - 28

World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play  

Austin Country Club

Austin , TX • USA

Billy Horschel

MAR 25 - 28

Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship (2021)  

Corales Golf Club

Joel Dahmen

Valero Texas Open  

TPC San Antonio (Oaks Course)

San Antonio , TX • USA

Jordan Spieth

Masters Tournament (2021)  

Hideki Matsuyama

APR 15 - 18

RBC Heritage  

Harbour Town Golf Links

Hilton Head Island , SC • USA

Stewart Cink

APR 22 - 25

Zurich Classic of New Orleans  

TPC Louisiana

Avondale , LA • USA

Marc Leishman , Cameron Smith

APR 29 - MAY 2

Valspar Championship  

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead Course)

Palm Harbor , FL • USA

Wells Fargo Championship  

Quail Hollow Club

Charlotte , NC • USA

Rory McIlroy

MAY 13 - 16

AT&T Byron Nelson  

TPC Craig Ranch

McKinney , TX • USA

MAY 20 - 23

PGA Championship  

Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Kiawah Island , SC • USA

Phil Mickelson

MAY 27 - 30

Charles Schwab Challenge  

Colonial Country Club

Fort Worth , TX • USA

the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide  

Muirfield Village Golf Club

Dublin , OH • USA

JUN 10 - 13

Palmetto Championship at Congaree  

Congaree Golf Club

Ridgeland , SC • USA

Garrick Higgo

JUN 17 - 20

U.S. Open (2021)  

Torrey Pines (South)

JUN 24 - 27

Travelers Championship  

TPC River Highlands

Cromwell , CT • USA

Rocket Mortgage Classic  

Detroit Golf Club

Detroit , MI • USA

John Deere Classic  

TPC Deere Run

Silvis , IL • USA

Lucas Glover

JUL 15 - 18

The Open Championship  

Royal St. George's GC

Sandwich, Kent • ENG

Barbasol Championship  

Keene Trace Golf Club (Champions Course)

Nicholasville , KY • USA

Seamus Power

JUL 22 - 25

TPC Twin Cities

Blaine , MN • USA

Cameron Champ

JUL 29 - AUG 1

Olympic Men's Golf Competition  

Kasumigaseki Country Club

Saitama • JPN

Xander Schauffele

August 2021

World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational  

TPC Southwind

Memphis , TN • USA

Abraham Ancer

Barracuda Championship  

Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood)

Truckee , CA • USA

Erik van Rooyen

AUG 12 - 15

Wyndham Championship  

Sedgefield Country Club

Greensboro , NC • USA

Kevin Kisner

AUG 19 - 22

THE NORTHERN TRUST  

Liberty National Golf Club

Jersey City , NJ • USA

AUG 26 - 29

BMW Championship  

Caves Valley Golf Club

Owings Mills , MD • USA

September 2021

TOUR Championship  

East Lake Golf Club

Atlanta , GA • USA

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PGA Tour, LPGA Tour cancel upcoming golf tournaments in China due to COVID-19 concerns

The pga tour and lpga tour have not played in china since 2019.

Due to China's ongoing battle with the COVID-19 pandemic, the PGA Tour announced on Wednesday the cancellation of the WGC-HSBC Champions scheduled for Oct. 27-30. This marks the third straight season in which the event has been axed from the playing schedule. Rory McIlroy remains the reigning champion of the event, having won at Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai in 2019.

"We have worked with all Tours, as well as the China Golf Association, on the viability of hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions this fall, but unfortunately the logistical implications forced the difficult decision to cancel the event," said PGA TOUR Senior Vice President, International, Christian Hardy. "We are thankful for HSBC's partnership during these trying times as we continue to navigate the changing COVID-19 climate."

In its place, the Bermuda Championship will stand alone and once again receive a full share of FedEx Cup points in addition to a purse of $6.5 million. 

The PGA Tour is not the only tour which will be forgoing travels to China this upcoming fall. The LPGA Tour has followed suit by canceling an event of their own in Shanghai.

"Following guidance from our partners at the China Golf Association, the LPGA can confirm that the 2022 Buick LPGA Shanghai, scheduled to be held Oct. 13-16, is cancelled due to ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions," LPGA released in a statement. "We thank SAIC-GM Buick, the China Golf Association, the CLPGA and IMG for all their efforts, and hope to compete in front of our fans at Qizhong Garden Golf Club in the future."

Debuting in 2018, the LPGA Shanghai saw Danielle Kang claim victory in the first two editions of the tournament. Canceled in 2020 and 2021, another year will go by in which the LPGA Tour will have do without an event in China on the schedule. 

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Aussies on Tour: Playoff heartbreak for Wilkin

Queenslander Aaron Wilkin saw a maiden Asian Tour win elude his grasp in dramatic fashion on a see-sawing final day at the Mandiri Indonesia Open.

After breaking a 30-year course record at Damai Indah Golf’s PIK Course in Round 1, Wilkin started the final round with a one-stroke advantage.

When Englishman Steve Lewton (68) stood on the 72nd tee the 2022 Queensland PGA champion trailed by two but was given a last-minute lifeline when Lewton made double-bogey on the final hole.

He could have won in regulation with a birdie at his final hole, Wilkin’s par and round of 2-under 69 ultimately earning him a playoff berth alongside Lewton and China’s Sampson Zheng.

All three players made bogey at the first extra hole and then Lewton stepped up to convert his birdie chance from six feet after Wilkin missed one of his own from closer to eight feet.

While disappointed not to get the job done, Wilkin remained philosophical about his playoff defeat.

“I thought I handled myself pretty well to be honest. I just didn’t play well enough to be fair,” said Wilkin.

“I controlled my emotions pretty well until probably the playoff, but I reckon that was just poor swings.

“I still felt pretty good. I’m happy, it’s all good. I would have loved to win, it would have wrapped up my card for the year, or a couple years, but I feel like the game is going in the right direction.”

Another Aussie whose game is trending in the right direction is Adam Scott.

Unlikely to make the Tour Championship a month ago, Scott completed a stellar finish to his 2024 PGA TOUR season with a round of 4-under 67 and tie for fourth at East Lake Golf Club.

Next up for Scott is an 11th appearance for the International team at the Presidents Cup in Canada, a first-time win over the US now firmly on his mind.

“I was kind of struggling on the points list for most of the year, and then the last couple months really solidified my position on the team,” said Scott.

“All of a sudden I feel like I’m a good player again and I’m looking forward to going up there and winning some points.”

The third Aussie to log a top-five finish the past week was West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley.

Rudgeley delivered four consistent rounds at the Women’s Irish Open to earn her third top-five result of the season and move to 21st on the Order of Merit.

After a 74 in Round 1, it as a strong showing from Hannah Green at the inaugural FM Championship, who fought back to finish in a tie for 10th at TPC Boston.

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

PGA TOUR TOUR Championship East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia 1          Scottie Scheffler           65-66-66-67—264       $US25m T4        Adam Scott                  66-67-68-67—268       $3,933,333

DP World Tour Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England 1          Niklas Norgaard           70-66-64-72—272       €537,134.46 T25      Jason Scrivener            70-73-73-70—286       €30,490.28 T31      David Micheluzzi          69-73-73-72—287       €26,698.74 T53      Daniel Hillier (NZ)         71-74-72-74—291       €10,308.24 T73      Haydn Barron               73-72-77-74—296       €4,728.92 MC       Daniel Gale                  70-76—146 MC       Sam Jones (NZ)            72-77—149

LPGA Tour FM Championship TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts 1      Haeran Ryu                  69-62-78-64—273 $US570,000 T10      Hannah Green              74-69-69-67—279 $67,065      T25      Robyn Choi                  69-68-76-70—283  $33,609    T52      Grace Kim                    76-68-73-71—288   $11,203    MC       Hira Naveed                 78-73—151 MC       Stephanie Kyriacou      80-73—153 MC       Sarah Jane Smith         78-75—153

Asian Tour Mandiri Indonesia Open Damai Indah Golf (PIK Cse), Indonesia 1          Steve Lewton               67-67-66-68—268       $US90,000 Won on the second hole of sudden-death playoff T2        Aaron Wilkin                61-71-67-69—268       $43,250 T4        Travis Smyth                73-65-64-67—269       $22,750 T16      Doug Klein                   69-66-69-70—274       $6,065 T16      Andrew Dodt               64-71-68-71—274       $6,065 T16      Denzel Ieremia (NZ)     66-70-67-71—274       $6,065 T21      Jack Thompson            71-69-67-68—275       $5,075 T30      Harrison Crowe            71-68-64-74—277       $4,016.67 T48      Marcus Fraser              71-70-66-74—281       $2,200 T48      Maverick Antcliff          68-68-71-74—281       $2,200 T48      Scott Hend                   72-69-70-70—281       $2,200 T54      Justin Warren               69-71-68-74—282       $1,850 T61      Sam Brazel                   68-69-74-74—285       $1,525 T61      Kevin Yuan                   68-73-71-73—285       $1,525 T61      Lachlan Barker              71-70-75-69—285       $1,525 T71      Connor McDade          67-71-76-77—291       $1,075 MC       Brendan Jones             70-72—142 MC       Jordan Zunic                71-72—143 MC       Todd Sinnott                74-71—145 MC       Louis Dobbelaar          74-71—145 MC       Deyen Lawson             73-74—147

Japan Golf Tour Fujisankei Classic Fujizakura Country Club, Yamanashi Event reduced to 36 holes due to rain 1          Noriaki Hirata               68-63—131     ¥11 million T41      Michael Hendry (NZ)    72-70—142     ¥178,828 MC       Brad Kennedy              77-68—145 WD      Anthony Quayle           73       

Ladies European Tour KPMG Women’s Irish Open Carton House (The O’Meara Cse), Ireland 1          Annabel Dimmock       72-66-65-70—273       €60,000 Won in sudden-death playoff T5        Kirsten Rudgeley          71-68-70-69—278       €12,000 T38      Kelsey Bennett             70-74-72-72—288       €2,560 64        Whitney Hillier             73-71-79-74—297       €1,040 MC       Amy Walsh                   77-71—148 MC       Momoka Kobori (NZ)   74-75—149

PGA TOUR Americas CRMC Championship Craguns Legacy Course, Brainerd, Minnesota 1          Frederik Kjettrup          62-63-65-66—256 T59      Charlie Hillier (NZ)        67-70-69-75—281 MC       Harry Hillier                  73-69—142 MC       Grant Booth                 70-72—142

Challenge Tour Rosa Challenge Tour Rosa Golf Club, Konopiska, Poland 1          Angel Ayora                 66-65-66-70—267       €43,200 MC       Hayden Hopewell        73-70—143 MC       Andrew Martin             67-77—144 MC       Blake Windred             74-70—144 MC       Connor McKinney        71-76—147

LET Access Series Get Golfing Women’s Golf Championship The Club at Mill Green, England 1          Megan Dennis             71-67-71—209 €12,800 T19      Stephanie Bunque        71-76-72—219 €1,177.33 MC       Wenyung Keh (NZ)       79-73—152 MC       Munchin Keh (NZ)        80-76—156

Epson Tour Four Winds Invitational South Bend Country Club, South Bend, Indiana 1          Yahui Zhang                 67-68-75—210 $39,375 T22      Cassie Porter                73-69-76—218 $US3,038 T46      Fiona Xu (NZ)               67-77-79—223 $1,287 MC       Amelia Garvey (NZ)      73-77—150 MC       Maddison Hinson-Tolchard      78-74—152

Korean PGA Tour Lexus Masters A1 Country Club, Korea 1          Lee Seung-taek            69-70-66-65—270 T14      Kevin Chun (NZ)           72-68-68-71—279 T46      Wonjoon Lee                72-72-72-68—284 T52      Changgi Lee (NZ)         71-70-73-71—285 MC       Junseok Lee                  71-74—145 MC       Sungjin Yeo (NZ)          72-73—145

Legends Tour HSBC India Legends Championship hosted by Jeev Milkha Singh Jaypee Greens, Delhi 1          Joakim Haeggman       65-70-72—207 T28      Michael Long (NZ)        76-74-72—222 T44      Michael Campbell (NZ) 73-79-76—228

Sunshine Tour Gary and Vivienne Player Challenge Kyalami Country Club, Midrand, South Africa 1          Daniel van Tonder        70-66-66—202 T15      Austin Bautista             72-69-68—209

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The PGA Tour Sells Golf to China

A Chinese boom could be a jackpot for the beleaguered golf industry. But getting China’s consumers to hit the links has been a struggle.

Marty Dou knew at 17 years old that he should turn professional. He had been skipping half his high school classes to play, with his parents’ blessing, and by then his game was good enough to keep up with the pros.

At maybe 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds, Marty (his given name is Zecheng, but everybody calls him Marty) looks smaller than your typical pro golfer. But his size belies a swing so aggressive that even Bubba Watson, the PGA Tour’s hardest swinger, took notice at a tournament in Shanghai last year where the two played together—and where Marty finished higher than stars Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama.

“He has no fear,” Watson marveled. “We don’t often see an Asian-born player swinging that hard.”

Compliments from a two-time Masters winner aside, Marty, now 19, is currently the best golfer playing in China—and could soon become the first mainland Chinese golfer to compete at the top global level. He spent five years of his childhood in Canada, but he’s skipping the tried-and-true route taken by other Asian golf stars to the pros of enrolling in a U.S. college before playing junior tours in America. Friends told him stories about American college nightlife, with its drinking and hookups. His dad, a day trader, thought he needed quiet practice in China. “I’d skip school,” Marty says, laughing. “I’m too tempted by parties.”

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to leave China for a shot at golf’s biggest stage. Since 2014, the PGA, the world’s most prominent golf association, has run PGA Tour China Series , a professional league that gives promising young players a shot at graduating to higher competition in the U.S. It’s analogous to Double A minor league baseball in America: Players can put in a couple of years in China and—if they perform well enough—earn an automatic berth into another league that’s one rung below the PGA Tour. The China Tour, in turn, offers golf something it desperately needs: better access to the enormous and growing middle class that makes the country a huge growth opportunity for the sport.

Hard-swinging Marty has already won four of the nine tournaments played this season. He’s guaranteed of moving to the next level in the U.S. next year, where he will get his shot to become the first golfer from the People’s Republic of China to play full-time on the PGA Tour. Whether golf can rise as quickly in China as Marty has is a question with multibillion-dollar stakes.

Maybe you’ve heard that golf is big in China. That’s true up to a point, but “big” is relative.

In a country of 1.4 billion, the potential for the sport is certainly as vast as anyone’s imagination. Estimates of the number of Chinese golfers fall around 1 million, a small fraction of the 24 million who play in the U.S. If just 2% of China’s population played, up from less than 0.1% today, China could become a $2-billion-a-year market for golf products. That would be a godsend for an industry whose growth has sputtered in the U.S. and Europe, where manufacturers like Nike (NKE) and Adidas (ADDYY) are getting out of the golf-equipment business, and courses are closing.

China offers what no other place in the world can: a population that’s growing rapidly more affluent and thinking about golf for the first time. Already, golf teachers have flocked here from Europe and the U.S., charging $600 a lesson, and driving ranges are crowded with first-time players.

But the political, economic, and cultural constraints holding golf back in China run deep. President Xi Jinping’s antigraft campaign has targeted the sport for the past three years, in part because golf courses became a favorite rendezvous for corrupt officials. The heightened scrutiny led to dozens of courses being shut, a phenomenon that threatened to suffocate PGA Tour China in its infancy.

Even before the political winds shifted, golf had disadvantages in China. Land is scarce, and despite a building spree since 2000, the country has only about 600 courses (the U.S. has 15,000). Virtually none are the type of cheap, municipal links that cater to beginners. Almost every course is a private club located far outside the city center, behind closed gates manned by security guards. A round during the weekend pushes $200 or more, four or five times the norm in the U.S.—in a country where the typical urbanite has only about $5,000 a year in disposable income.

The result is that China’s beginners are the richest 1% of society, not exactly the ideal base from which to expand a sport’s popularity. Then again, you could have said the same about the sport’s clientele in America during the gilded 1920s, just before the pastime caught fire. To Greg Gilligan, head of the China Tour, the PGA has to start somewhere. “The Chinese consumer is aspirational,” he tells Fortune during an interview in the tour’s small, new Beijing office, where today it’s just the receptionist and him. “Think of someone moving up in disposable income. I think about the woman walking down the street, with the Prada purse, the Gucci shirt, the Starbucks in one hand and iPhone in the other. What’s next?”

Gilligan hopes what’s next is a shiny new driver. His responsibility extends beyond running the league: It’s his job to convince millions of Chinese that golf is a hobby they should start watching, loving, and maybe even playing. He wears a calm demeanor and a closet’s worth of rotating PGA Tour golf shirts. He spent almost 14 years in China for McDonald’s (MCD) and four years chairing the American Chamber of Commerce in China before joining the PGA. (His own game? “Not great. Everyone thinks we get on the course a lot. Not the case.”)

For more on Nike’s golf business, watch this video: [fortune-brightcove videoid=5070792503001]

When Gilligan started running the PGA’s China business in 2013, the outlook was bright. The number of Chinese golfers had tripled since 2000. Missions Hills, which hosted the first PGA-affiliated tournament in China in 1995, had expanded into the world’s largest golf complex, with 12 courses outside Shenzhen.

China had even experimented with a small professional league, called the Omega Tour, named for the Swiss watch brand that sponsored it. That tour had a short run, lasting four years before folding in 2009. But the PGA—and the state-run China Golf Association (CGA), which requires any foreign golf investor to join it as a partner—had a chance to learn from that tour’s mistakes. Most notably, the Omega had allowed only Chinese golfers to compete. That hurt it with audiences, but also with would-be competitors. China’s golfers needed better competition, and in a closed league, they couldn’t earn the world ranking points they needed to enter international tournaments.

As the PGA began negotiations with the CGA, there was a growing sense in China that a foreign-run league would crowd out Chinese golfers. The wolves are coming, Chinese critics said. So the state-run group insisted on three requirements, recalls Shao Hua, a golf promotion manager who helped negotiate on behalf of the CGA: a financial guarantee, world ranking points, and no less than half the tour players to be Chinese nationals.

The two sides met at the 2013 Masters in Augusta, Ga., and later that year in Ohio. The CGA ultimately got a PGA league in China that’s the same as the league’s other junior “mini-tours” in Latin America and Canada—an open meritocracy for the world’s wannabe pros. The CGA didn’t win on its insistence that half the players be Chinese, but it turned out it didn’t need to. In competition so far, the Chinese have outrun the foreign wolves. In 2015, four of the top 10 players in the league’s year-end money rankings were Chinese. “For the Chinese side,” Shao says with a grin, “of course, 10 out of 10 would be good.”

Gilligan, like many, predicts that China will be golf’s next breakout country for pro golfers. Following the lead of Japan in the late 1980s and later Korea, which now has 14 players on the PGA Tour, China “will definitely have double digits” competing at the top level, he says. Marty Dou is part of the new generation of Chinese golfers who grew up with swing coaches, parents who bankrolled their tournaments, and teachers who didn’t mind them skipping school. He was able to join the Shanghai tournament and compete with the likes of Watson and Scott because Chinese professionals got slots that an earlier generation could only wish for.

PGA Tour China is also benefiting from a key recent rule change that gave young U.S. and European talent an incentive to play in places like Chongqing and Nanjing. In 2012 the PGA Tour dropped its Qualifying School tournament; after that, the PGA’s lower-level tours became a necessary stop for many up-and-comers. Today the Chinese tour has middle-age Chinese with homemade swings who started playing golf late in life, Koreans with picture-perfect swings, and big Americans fresh from college. Often there are players from five continents in the field.

Charlie Saxon traveled from Edmond, Okla., to China this year. Having put on 40 pounds since his freshman year in college so he could bomb his drives farther, the 23-year-old’s back is as wide as a mixed martial arts fighter’s. “For better or for worse—and for worse for me and other guys—you can’t qualify directly for the PGA Tour anymore,” says Saxon. Instead, players must first play on the second-highest level, the Web.com Tour , before they can reach the top level. Playing on affiliated junior tours like China’s allows high finishers to earn spots on the Web.com Tour in the U.S. without undergoing all of that tour’s rigorous qualifying tournaments.

Saxon, who ranks second on the China Tour’s money rankings, is likely to qualify for the Web.com circuit next year. In the meantime, the China Tour isn’t without hardship. Some struggle in a foreign land where the comforts of home are far. “No one wants to be here, but we got to be,” says Callum Tarren, 25, from Darlington, England. His not-quite-high-enough ranking in China means that he will likely play in another junior tour next year, maybe in Europe. Lincoln Tighe, 26, a towering Australian, says he has grown exhausted from hopping from Chinese city to Chinese city, as the oily and fried feasts served at each tournament wore him down. “I just want a chicken breast,” he says.

In terms of golf’s potential, the PGA’s timing in China couldn’t have been better; in terms of the country’s politics, it couldn’t have been worse.

Not long after he became China’s leader in 2013, Xi Jinping launched an anticorruption drive. Golf had become a locus of graft: In addition to being secluded and exclusive, many of China’s country clubs didn’t require members or guests to use their real names, so officials could accept the gift of a club membership without public notice.

In 2014, PGA Tour China’s first year, local regulators stormed into clubs to check business licenses and membership logs. It didn’t help that courses built since 2004 were technically illegal because of a construction moratorium that was mostly ignored. One hundred courses were eventually closed by the government, and in 2015 the China Tour had to cancel two of its tournaments. (Members at one course that had been slated to host an event, CTS Tycoon in Shenzhen, lost their initial $130,000 membership fee.) China Tour organizers were left scrambling, not knowing whether the government would wipe more courses off the tournament calendar. The PGA’s schedule “coincided with uncertainty about which developers had the right paperwork in place,” says Grant Slack, head of golf events for IMG Golf in Singapore. “It was really bad in 2015, bad this spring,” says Greg Carlson, the China Tour’s executive director, who handles tournament logistics.

China’s golf promoters are “waiting for their Tiger Woods,” says a PGA official. “We can’t set our clock to stardom, but it’s going to happen.”

This year, continuing uncertainty forced PGA Tour China to announce its schedule just a couple of weeks in advance. Only 12 tournaments were scheduled; a 13th was added midseason. “It’s tough to find courses to work with us,” says Shao, the Chinese golf promoter. The head of a course in the lush southern province of Yunnan, who asked not to be named because he was nervous about local authorities’ reactions, said his club was now marketing golf as a fitness movement, to keep the government at bay. “The tough time in the past one or two years has prompted everyone to reflect,” he says.

Potential corporate backers are just as wary. In the U.S., global brands like BMW, Travelers, and John Deere (DE) build long-lasting “title sponsor” relationships with individual tournaments (the PGA Tour’s Buick Open lasted 51 years before General Motors (GM) went bankrupt). But China’s anticorruption campaign chilled such opportunities; for now, Chinese tournament title sponsors are usually the golf course and its real estate developer.

The PGA’s Gilligan thinks the challenges will melt away with time. On the bad politics: “I’ve bumped into a lot of officials who say it’s okay to be back on the course.” On the lack of courses: “Landfills!” China has lots of old ones, and the methane gas underneath means you can’t put buildings on them; golf courses would make the land useful. On wooing more Chinese to try golf: “They’re waiting for their Tiger Woods. We can’t set our clock to stardom, but it’s going to happen.”

China does have budding stars beyond Marty Dou. Li Haotong, who’s 21, won the European Tour’s Volvo China Open this year and plays full-time on the European tour. Shanshan Feng, 27, plays on the LPGA Tour in the U.S. and won the women’s bronze medal in Rio. (About a third of Chinese golfers are women, and the China LPGA tour has run a league there since 2008.) And golf equipment makers fantasize that one or more of them could break out and trigger a boom. About 10% of the adult U.S. population golfs; if China gets anywhere near that level, it would represent spectacular growth. As recently as 2011 and 2012, Callaway, Titleist, and other foreign brands were growing sales in China by 30% a year. Those gains have slowed, but as HSBC (HSBC) once declared, golf is moving east.

The PGA’s Carlson says a new legalization process for golf-course construction is close to being approved by the central government. Still, those rules are being shared only with local governments responsible for enforcing them—not the most enticing prospect for skittish developers. And while the government included golf among the recreational sports for the middle class that it’s promoting as an economic engine, the sport doesn’t rank very high among its priorities: In the five-year plan, it was listed between table tennis and billiards.

For now, golf in China remains a sport of elites and professionals. And the pros often face reminders that they aren’t yet elite. On a September day after the second round of the Ping An Bank Beijing Open, eight players stare at their Chinese buffet lunches. Saxon, the Oklahoman, has a one-shot lead, but his head is elsewhere. “Today the food options are slim,” he says, eyeing greasy noodles and vegetables soaked in soy sauce. The hotel restaurant’s manager has taken the initiative of ordering Big Macs for anyone wanting a taste of home. An Australian grabs one.

Located amid mountains an hour outside Beijing, the Ping An Open course is typical of the China Tour—tight fairways, undulating greens—and produces typical frustrations. At lunch, Chris Brown, an Australian with a baby on the way, is recounting his bad day. He lost a ball on the 11th. “I went birdie, triple [bogey], double, par, triple!”

But the best player in the league, Marty Dou, is again near the top of the leaderboard. On the first hole today, Marty’s approach shot rolled through the fringe and into the hole for eagle. “Man, the hole is like a vacuum for him. Swooomp, ” says Ben Lein, an American who started his previous round hungover, played some of his best golf, and is thinking he should do it more often.

Someone asks what Marty’s chances are at the next level. Does he drive it long enough to make it in the U.S.? “He’ll be good,” says Saxon. Everyone nods. “ Swooomp. ”

A version of this article appears in the November 1, 2016 issue of Fortune, under the title “The PGA Tour Takes on China.”

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WGC, LPGA fall events in China canceled due to COVID restrictions

anielle Kang closes out her victory at the 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai. The tournament has been canceled for a third straight year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Within minutes of each other, the PGA Tour and LPGA issued statements Wednesday announcing the cancellation of tournaments scheduled to be held in China in October. Both cited guidance from the China Golf Association about ongoing COVID-19 related restrictions.

The WGC-HSBC Champions was slated for Oct. 27-30 at Sheshan International in Shanghai. It was one of two remaining World Golf Championship events on the PGA Tour schedule. This is the third straight year the event has been cancelled due to COVID. The last playing came in 2019 when Rory McIlroy beat Xander Schauffele in a playoff.

“We have worked with all Tours, as well as the China Golf Association, on the viability of hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions this fall, but unfortunately the logistical implications forced the difficult decision to cancel the event,” said Christian Hardy, PGA Tour Senior Vice President, International. “We are thankful for HSBC’s partnership during these trying times as we continue to navigate the changing COVID-19 climate.”

MORE: Scottish Open 2022 expert picks—Rare opportunity for Collin Morikawa

That same week, the PGA Tour was planning to play the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. The tour announced that the Bermuda event at Port Royal Golf Course will now be a full FedEx Cup points event with a purse of $6.5 million.

The Buick LPGA Shanghai was set for Oct. 13-16 at Qizhong Garden G.C. in Shanghai. This event has also not been held since 2019, when Danielle Kang defended her title. It was to be the first of four straight weeks that the LPGA would be playing events in Asia; the tour still has tournaments in South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Japan slated.

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PGA Tour to extend reach to China

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SHANGHAI -- The PGA Tour will be partners in a new tour in China that starts next year with 12 tournaments.

The China Tour-PGA Tour China Series will begin in March with 12 events that have purses of about $200,000. Still to be determined is qualifying procedures, and how many of the top finishers will have access to the Web.com Tour in the United States.

"We know from looking at the history of golf that the growth of the game is driven first and foremost by the development of elite players," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Sunday. "Having the opportunity to grow the elite players ... will also translate into the acceleration of the growth of the game in China, which is in all of our interests."

It's a similar model to what the PGA Tour has done in Canada and Latin America. The tour owns those two circuits. The China Tour-PGA Tour China Series is a partnership with the China Golf Association and the China Olympic Sports Industry.

The CGA is the key to every golf deal in China, so it was important for the PGA Tour to have a partnership. The European Tour with its global schedule was the first to bring its players to the Far East in 1992, and it now has three tournaments in China -- the Volvo China Open, the BMW Masters and a Challenge Tour event. The HSBC Champions began in the fall of 2005 as a European Tour event and now is a World Golf Championship.

While it was once thought the PGA Tour would try to get a piece of the action in China, instead it is a partner in a tour that gives Chinese players a circuit of their own.

Zhang Xiaoning, the executive vice president of the CGA, said the partnership will develop the sport and golfers in China, "particularly to provide an opportunity for China golfers to stay in their home to compete in much higher level tournaments."

Zhang saw the new tour has a starting point for Chinese golfers.

The future of golf in China was helped by the sport being added to the Olympic program in 2016 -- a return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a century -- and Zhang said golf would continue to grow even if the sport does not stay in the Olympics after 2020.

"The partnership will still be established because the mission is trying to bring not only China golfers into the Olympics, but also to be able to bring China golfers into the world-class level to showcase the development and the skill set of China golfers," he said.

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Notes: china tour series ahead of schedule.

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SHANGHAI – The PGA Tour China Series began in 2014 and by all accounts is ahead of schedule in developing local talent.

Last year, Li Haotong was one shot out of the lead going into the final round of the HSBC Champions and played in the penultimate group with reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth. After a rough start with a nation watching, he shot 72 and tied for seventh.

This year, the honor went to Zhang Xinjun, who opened with rounds of 68-69. He received a larger gallery than he would have expected because he was in the same group as Rory McIlroy. Zhang matched McIlroy with a 70, and then he faded to a 76 on the final and tied for 21st.

''It’s great for the tournament,’' McIlroy said. ''I knew the atmosphere of the day was going to be a bit bigger than it has been, especially playing with Zhang. It’s nice they have a local. They came out to watch him and support, and I was along. So it was a bonus that we both played together.

''All the kids watching, it can only inspire them to try to emulate the local hero, as well as guys like us.’'

Li won four times in China in the inaugural year to advance to the Web.com Tour, where he was 49th on the money list. He was playing the Web.com Tour again this year until he won the Volvo China Open to secure his European Tour card. He now is at the Turkish Airlines Open this week as part of the Final Series on the Race to Dubai.

Zhang is No. 5 on the China money list, hopeful of staying there for the second half of the season so he can advance to the Web.com Tour.

''This is what we hoped would happen,’' said Paul Johnson, head of international affairs for the PGA Tour. ''It just happened sooner than we thought. When we built the platform, we thought it would take five years. Some of these guys have shot through more quickly.’'

Next in line is Zecheng Dou. He already has won four times on the PGA Tour China Series to easily lead the money list. Zecheng is virtually a lock to be on the Web.com Tour next year, and he should have status all year.

For Zecheng, coming to America won’t be too great of a shock to the system. He once lived in Canada, and he played several junior events in America growing up. He saw the PGA Tour China Series as his best route to the PGA Tour.

''It’s developing fast,’' he said of the 3-year-old circuit. ''It seems like every winning score was 20 under. It’s getting harder, and there’s more foreign guys coming to play. A lot better players are coming over.’'

The second half of the season resumes this week with the Clearwater Bay Open.

WALK-UP MUSIC: Expect the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to be a little bit louder next January.

At least before the first shot is struck.

Giles Morgan, the global head of sponsorship for HSBC, plans to have music on the practice range at Abu Dhabi. Players would choose the playlist. Music also was blaring on the range at Hazeltine during the Ryder Cup.

Morgan also wants to create a little more atmosphere as players approach the first tee.

''We want to celebrate the moment,’' he said. ''We’re looking at them coming from the putting green with the soundtrack they choose, and that sound feeds up from the hill when it’s their time to go up. They’ve chosen their walk-up music. It happens in other sports, and it seems to work. It allows them through their choice of music to connect with the fans, and it humanizes them.’'

TRAVEL PROBLEMS: Tyrrell Hatton of England nearly parlayed a pair of strong finishes in the majors to a PGA Tour card.

Some of the blame can be attributed to a bad day of travel.

Hatton tied for fifth in the British Open. He tied for 10th in the PGA Championship, which got him into the Travelers Championship the following week. He closed with a 66 and tied for 17th. All he needed was one good tournament to finish in the equivalent of the top 125 on the money list and earn his PGA Tour card.

The Wyndham Championship helped out by giving him an exemption. It was getting there that proved to be the problem. ''A shocker of a journey,’' Hatton said.

He flew from Hartford, Connecticut, to Greensboro, North Carolina, via Philadelphia. But when he reached Philadelphia, his flight to Greensboro was canceled and he was routed through Washington, where that flight was nearly canceled.

''It should have taken me 14 hours from leaving the hotel, and it took 34,’' Hatton said. ''I managed eight holes of a practice round. I was just a zombie.’'

He missed the cut and headed back to England. He’s not sure the travel issues cost him a chance in the tournament, though it didn’t help.

''Just one of those weeks,’' Hatton said. ''But I’m looking forward to playing more events out there.’'

RYO’S BACK: Hideki Matsuyama has been on such a tear that it’s easy to overlook the return of longtime friend Ryo Ishikawa.

Ishikawa sat out most of the PGA Tour season with a back injury. He returned to the Japan PGA Championship and missed the cut, took an additional six weeks off and now is starting to roll. Ishikawa has posted five straight top 10s in Asia. The streak began with the 14th victory of his career. He followed with a runner-up finish, third at the ANA Open, a tie for seventh at the Japan Open and a tie for 10th at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

Next up for Ishikawa is Las Vegas.

Later this month, he will join Matsuyama in Melbourne to represent Japan in the World Cup at Kingston Heath.

DIVOTS: One of the highlights at the HSBC Champions is a party to celebrate the ''HSBC Caddie of the Year.’' This year’s winner? Austin Johnson, the brother of U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson. It was a vote of the other caddies at the HSBC Champions. ... Gary Woodland married Gabby Granado before playing the Asia swing. ... Three left-handers have won on the PGA Tour this year, none of them with the nickname ''Lefty.’' Bubba Watson won at Riviera, Greg Chalmers won in Reno and Cody Gribble won in Mississippi. ... The John Deere Classic raised a record $10.5 million for 491 local and regional Quad Cities charities, ranking it among the top three in charitable giving on the PGA Tour. ... The FedEx Cup playoff event at the TPC Boston will be called Dell Technologies Championship.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Chesson Hadley (No. 92) at the 2014 Puerto Rico Open was the last player in the top 100 to win an opposite-field event on the PGA Tour.

FINAL WORD: ''When I got to six ahead I was thinking, ‘If I blow this, it’s not going to be good.’ I felt a bit of pressure with that thought.’' - Hideki Matsuyama, on his seven-shot victory in the HSBC Champions.