CADDIE'S ROLE: Shenzen - where the natives have done very nicely out of their special economic boom

WE CONTINUED our winter golf foray into mainland China last week to compete in the 54th World Cup of Golf. It was hosted by the sprawling Mission Hills Golf Club spread around the Shenzhen area of southern China.

Shenzhen was the most likely candidate to be the first to develop this capitalist game. The Special Economic Zone was given its status in the region just above Hong Kong in the 1980s as an area to court business in Communist China.

Originally a sleepy fishing village with a modest population by Chinese standards of 300,000 people it has over 10 million inhabitants today.

The natives of Shenzhen have done very nicely out of their special economic boom. Most of them are millionaires thanks to Deng Xiaoping's endorsing of the region in the 80s amid the maxim of "to get rich is glorious".

As the rest of mainland China looked south with envy to the spoils that capitalism brings, an electrified fence bordering the Special Economic Zone was all that prevented mass illegal immigrants migrating south to the promised land of capitalism. Today the city is doubtful if it can retain its special position with similar development taking place all over China.

It is the seemingly perfect system to promote economic growth; communism and its total control with a hefty hand-picked sprinkling of capitalism.

No wonder then that the 12-course Mission Hills - with a country club mentality that the original instigators of the luxurious club scene would be proud of, swimming pools, tennis courts, spas and gyms surround the gigantic clubhouses - are a bit out of place amongst the factories of Shenzhen.

Not only are the driving ranges floodlight, so are some of the courses. It is not uncommon to see golfers march by one of the fine dining restaurants at night heading off for a quick nine after dinner.

Naturally given the novelty of this new game in China there is very much an air of elitism about the game.

The fact that a round of golf at any of the 12 courses costs just a little less than the average monthly wage of a factory worker in the region (1,200 Yuan or about €140), it will be quite some time before we see any communist mentality on the fairways of this still very capitalist sport.

The owner of the resort Dr David Chu has catapulted into the top-10 in the list of "most powerful people in golf" in the past year and is the first non-American to reach such heady heights in a list that presumably is mentioned only in the cigar smoke-filled lounges in the country club with guests sipping their single malt whiskeys and not one that fills the hutongs with after-hours chatter.

The course the tournament is played on, the Olazabal, is truly an oasis among the factories. There was a lot of earth-moving involved in its creation and apparently plenty of dynamite used to carve its undulating path through rock and forest.

In fact a local chicken farmer noticed that during the construction of the course due to the constant explosions his chickens stopped laying their eggs. It is rumoured the matter was resolved legally.

As is often the case with playing golf globally, it seems like the hosts want to homogenise the game to the extent that you frequently have no sense of being in another country, let alone a distant continent.

Thankfully there are still some very distinctive traits in China when it comes to the golf course. The local flavour comes from the local people.

There is an abundance of caddies at Mission Hills, all of them female, diminutive, deferential and constantly smiling.

With 500,000 rounds of golf played over the courses in the past 12 months naturally there is a huge demand for the obligatory caddie at the club.

Much of the demand comes from Hong Kong where courses are not so plentiful. During the tournament the women help us tour caddies out by raking the bunkers for us, replacing our players divots, driving us up the steeper ascents to certain tees and acting as ball spotters.

Given the undulation of the Olazabal course which could be likened to an assault course at times, especially with a bag on your back, the local caddies' assistance was invaluable.

From a spectators perspective there were also some peculiar traits. The course could only be viewed in chronological sequence. You had to start at the first and work your way to the 18th.

There were no short-cuts permitted and with the extent of the marshalling there was no way to break the all-or-nothing rule.

It is another example of the order of the communist system somehow embracing the ultimate capitalist game with a regional slant.

The marshals followed each group and did not stand stationary at each hole like they do in every other event I have ever been at worldwide.

The club has its own army of uniformed vigilantes which made up the moving platoon of marshals.

As us players and caddies were ferried up the steep inclines on buggies the "soldiers" ran up the hills in full uniform, smiling, not sweating and rarely out of breath.

The sense of order and commitment to the task amongst the workers in China is completely under control in a relentless fashion.

I do not want to be around when these comrades realise that they are perhaps being slightly taken advantage of.

The sense of purpose and commitment was never in doubt last Sunday with the two best players in the field, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, playing for the Swedish team, shooting a spectacular 63 in the final day's foursome format to capture the 54th World Cup title and Sweden's second in their 50 years of competing in the event.