"Existing local golf courses, most of which are located in the suburbs, occupy large areas of farm land already, and Shanghai is currently short of farm land because of urbanization," explained Zhang Youfei with the bureau.

When the city's first golf course opened in 1990, no one expected the game to become so popular among locals. Now there are 12 courses in the city and four more in neighboring cities such as Suzhou.

Each course takes up at least 60 hectares of land and puts local water at risk, according to environmentalists who applaud the decision.

"Local golf courses depend heavily on the use of various insecticides, bactericides and synthetic fertilizers to maintain the quality of turf, but toxins will destroy land and pollute water as they infiltrates into the earth and are carried away with effluents flowing into neighboring waterways," said Zhao Ding-guo, a senior agronomist with the Shanghai Environmental Science Research Institute.

Zhao noted the sewage pipes under a golf course are densely allocated to discharge water from the greens after heavy rain, but the water is often filled with toxins from the various chemicals used on greens and fairways.

"However, as turf is vulnerable to several bacterium which can cause severe and irreversible damage rapidly, some of which will sprawl so rapidly on a golf course that an entire hole can be ruined in a few days, golf courses have to apply germicides to prevent such a loss," he said.

Local golfers are sure to be less thrilled by the news than environmentalists, but a ban on new courses shouldn't cause many problems, according to a manager at the city's first set of links, the International Golf and Country Club.

The manager, who would identify himself by his surname, Ma, said local courses are almost empty during the week and operate well under capacity on weekends. Most of the city's courses, he says, can easily handle 250 players a day, but even on weekends they only average 200 duffers a day.

According to David Wang, secretary-general of the Shanghai Golf Association, there are about 30,000 to 40,000 golfers in Shanghai.

(Eastday.com August 14, 2002)