"We have had a better start. At 18 Zhang wasn't even playing golf and Liang had barely started," admitted Hu Mu. His father made his money in escalators and elevators, introduced him to golf at the age of seven, moved him to the IMG Academy in Florida at the age of 11, and has had him coached by David Leadbetter for the past five years.

"If you look at Zhang's career, he started golf at 20 years old and just caddied and practiced. It's unbelievable where he got to. And it's the same thing with Liang. He practices so hard; literally 12 hours a day. They got themselves to this point just by themselves without anybody telling them anything... maybe with a little help from friends, but not in golf. In golf alone they just had to figure everything out," said Hu, echoing a respect for his elders that all his generation seem to share.

Importantly, China now has a structure in place through which its players can develop. Introduced in 2007, the HSBC China Junior Golf Program is a partnership between HSBC, the world's local bank, the China Golf Association (CGA) and global sports marketing firm IMG.

8-year old Zhang Boren - a star of the future? - at the Guangzhou leg of the HSBC National Junior Golf Championship in June (Photo courtesy of HSBC Golf)

"There are two sides to the plan. One is to select talented people and develop them into stars. The other side is to get more and more kids playing golf. We're building a bridge to get more and more children of various ages interested in golf. We're trying to make each generation bigger. The system is getting bigger and bigger," says Song Liangliang, the deputy secretary general of the CGA. The program includes a season-long HSBC National Junior Golf Championship, which in 2008 consists of seven legs leading to a finale just before the US$5 million HSBC Champions in November, as well as the HSBC China Junior Open. Other key elements include a national ranking system, and golf camps.

"We've worked together to design an expandable structure that helps the CGA identify and develop its young talent, hence the rankings, the camps and the season-long tournament structure," explains HSBC Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan. "The program has started working in 40 schools this year and will continue to expand. We're also playing a role in increasing the education and enhancing the quality of information available to China's golf coaches.

"It's a dual strategy," he continues. "First, to ensure the kids have the proper channels along which to improve through proper competition, proper ranking points and a proper sense of progression. This ensures a generation coming through that is developed and educated. Then we want to put the building blocks in place to ensure that the future generations grow in numbers, thus broadening the talent pool as well as further developing the size of the golf market."

Hu Mu will be joining a college with a great tradition in golf (Photo courtesy of Univertsity of Florida)

China is on the verge of producing its first generation of golfers who, thanks to the advantages conferred by their families, will be able to compete on a level playing field internationally. These are players who have started the sport at a similar age to their rivals and enjoyed a similar level of exposure to the sport. Every success they achieve as professionals will fuel the growth of a sport that is finally in a position to tap into the potential power that a population of 1.3 billion brings.

As Hu Mu points out, once you add in the appetite for excellence, success is a given. "China was the strongest country for such a long time. We went down a little bit but now we're coming back," he says. "The whole thing is if Chinese people want to do something they want to be the best…. and they do it!"

Tim Maitland, HSBC Golf Writer-at-large, also contributes to this story.

(China.org.cn July 2, 2008)