Caddie's RoleThere is something new happening in China. It has gripped a very small minority of the vast Chinese population like some new exotic fashion. As with most trends there are the few setters and a throng of followers.

Those who pursue usually do not really understand what is going on but they have a thirst for this new elixir like most of the world has for new technology. The new fashion in China is golf.

We were in Shenzhen, the special economic region of southern China, which is located just over the border from that other special area of China, Hong Kong. It has been appropriately nick-named the factory of the world. Without doubt it is one of the most unattractive cities I have ever spent a week in - an endless sea of grey and extremely functional buildings viewed through a haze both day and night.

Yet there is an oasis among this dour industrial outpost and of course that's where we lucky golfers and caddies were last week.

We were playing the World Cup on 18 of the 216 holes that make up the 12-course Mission Hills golf club. The club's glossy brochure suggests that it would be an attractive place to join if you are "successful in life". The trouble is that all the grit and grime you have probably caused is still there despite the refuge of Mission Hills.

The Olazabal course is set on an undulating piece of land cut through some rich foliage with no factory in sight from any part of the course. With its impeccably manicured fairways and brilliant white framing bunkers it is easy to forget the reality beyond the gates.

As you enter this really special area of the already special area of China it looks like even the tropical flowering plants, which adorn each roadway, have been washed on a daily basis. The trouble with most new fashions is that not many followers have the faintest idea about them. This is what it was like in Mission Hills last week. Those who are successful in life have embraced this nouvelle vague like it is a long lost friend.

They want to take photos of their rediscovered friend and tell others about it while the entertainers in this wild circus are trying to entertain to their highest ability.

The trouble is that most of the entertainers were suffering from culture shock at the lack of reverence for their need for alpine-like silence at daybreak as they settle over their shots. Instead they got a cacophony of rings, clicks and the odd throat clearing as they battled to focus over the ball. This new Chinese fashion is cut from a fabric that has not yet been fundamentally appreciated for its very delicate weave and texture.

Most professional golfers demand varying degrees of silence on the course. We happened to be playing with one who demands the world to stop for him when he is under the spotlight. As luck would have it we played with him for three days. It was, of course Colin Montgomerie, who successfully partnered Marc Warren to make up the victorious 2007 World Cup of Golf team.

Apart from a very solid display of ball striking Monty was at times both chief- marshal and headmaster. He took it upon himself to tame this gaggle of golfing philistines by giving a short lecture on various tees explained about the need for deafening silence when players were taking their shots.

On the 12th tee on Sunday, having missed a makeable putt for birdie on the 11th, schoolmaster Montgomerie bellowed at the phone- and camera-yielding locals "now . . . no cameras, no phones". As the throng nodded in accordance one little voice squeaked "no problem Monty". Then a phone rang just as Retief was redirecting his driver towards the ball, causing him to flinch at impact and hit a big slice.

At the moment the game of golf is very much in its infancy among an elite band of "successful" people. With places like Mission Hills and its 12 courses it is not hard to see the potential that has been spotted in the golf market.

When a middle class emerge from this booming nation those 12 courses are going to be jammed with emerging golfers.

There are plans to build 36 courses, not holes, in Hainan Island south of Hong Kong. This is in direct response, it is rumoured, to the Koreans who are building a 30-course complex somewhere else.

Last week in southern China couturiers from the rest of the world were trying to etch their style on this new found fashion by putting a more refined cut on what is till now a very raw fabric.