Caddie's Role: To those of us without an eye for detail China can look pretty similar to Japan when it comes to buildings, people and urban infrastructure. You look at the symbols of Chinese characters displayed on neon signs and billboards and wonder if it all really means something apart from the aesthetic and exotic pleasure the colours and shapes give those unfamiliar with Asian languages.

The people somehow find their little pockets of space amongst the 13 million who inhabit Beijing in seemingly impossible circumstances. Watching the nation move through a busy city centre intersection would make you believe in a greater controlling force - if you did not already. A loaded old electric-powered bus vying with the latest chauffeur-driven S-Class Mercedes, a Wacky Races motorised tri-bike and a gang of cyclists, all heading at once for the one lane on the opposite side of the road, is something you soon get used to, or perish, in modern China. The system mysteriously works.

Of course, China is not Japan. Particularly now the two countries are rediscovering old hatreds; there were numerous riots in Beijing outside the Japanese embassy when we were there for the Johnnie Walker tournament a couple of weeks ago. However, when you go to a golf course in China, you cannot help but see the similarities in how golf is run in Asia, if I may be so general.

The clubhouses tend to be lavish, the courses impeccably maintained, the on-course set-up similar, with workers in uniform and a sense of regimented order pervading. There is one marked difference, however, as against the order of Japan, chaos reigns in China. Especially when there is a big international event on. The crowd that attended the event in Beijing were out of control. It was the first time in a year and a half caddying for Retief (Goosen) I have heard my player asking me to keep the crowd somewhat under control. Normally he is oblivious to distractions on the course.

It was impossible to ignore the antics of the young-to-golf Chinese spectators. Talking, mobile phone use, extremely active cameras, video-recorders and general bad spectator etiquette prevailed over the four days.

One viewer decided to zip up his noisy rain jacket and adjust it as Thomas Bjorn was mid-chip. He was standing three yards away from him. Perhaps it is time to change the rigid demands for absolute silence amongst golf spectators, China would be the place to start - in fact, it already has begun. By the end of the week there were certain on-course noises that seemed normal that would not be tolerated in a more sophisticated golfing land.

There has been frenetic development of courses over the past couple of years and the construction of hundreds of courses was halted early last year because of a lack of control. Land owners with small holdings were volunteering or being persuaded to sell off their livelihoods to enable developers to plough new golf holes instead of crops. The result for the farmers was a quick influx of cash and a long time to do nothing after the cash and land had gone.

It was no wonder then that when some of the star golfers at the Beijing event were invited for dinner with the owner of the opulent Pine Valley Resort they were in the company of, amongst other army general friends of the owner, the daughter of Deng Xiao Ping, the deceased former Communist Party chairman. When you asked anyone how the owner had made his fortune, the polite reply was by starting the Red Bull company. Given the polite smiles and raised eyebrows of the respondents, I got the rich aroma of another kind of bull.

When we stayed around Beijing last week to partake in a special day's golf for Deutsche Bank and their clients, the guest list included the movers and shakers of the local business world. All were decked out with the latest equipment and, judging by the shots they were hitting, very new to the game. Despite China having two permanent members on the Asian Professional Tour and three others in the wings, the amateur game is very raw .

They say 300,000 Chinese play the game with a further 14.5 million interested in taking it up, and just under 60 per cent of those are under 34. In 2005 there will be in excess of 10 Asian Tour events of which four are co-sanctioned with the European Tour held in China, offering over $7 million in prize money. China has gone into the game head first at the top end; at grass roots, in the Hutongs (neighbourhoods) it does not exist. It seems to be gearing itself towards a tourist market and elite Chinese clientele and little else.

With the Chinese economy growing rapidly and the unbridled embracing of the game of golf, there is no doubt the European Tour would have a big hole in its schedule without Asia. It may look like golf here, but it is golf Chinese style.

If they are putting up the prize funds I suppose they are entitled to do so with their distinctive local touches. Be warned, it's golf for the intrepid only.