A reporter and managing editor for the Asia Society, Dan Washburn takes his title, The Forbidden Game, from the fact that though golf is "officially" banned in China, it is unofficially experiencing a significant boom. Chinese golfer Shanshan Feng recently won the LPGA Championship, making her the first person from her country to ever win a major tournament. A 14-year-old Chinese amateur, Guan Tianlang, became the youngest to ever qualify for a major tournament--the Masters. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of China's first course and this is the inaugural season of the PGA China Tour.
Few in China can afford to play and the game is still against the law, yet golf grows in popularity. Even China's president, Xi Jinping, is rumored to have played. Washburn profiles three men to help tell his story about "golf's shift to the East": Zhou Xunshu is one of China's first professional golfers, a young man who has used the game to help him realize his "Chinese Dream"; American Martin Moore's career building courses in China shows how greedy government officials can be handled, how eccentric course owners' egos can be managed and how to avoid the "Beijing golf police"; and Wang Libo, a lychee farmer on Hainan Island, has gambled his family's future on the success of a new, huge golf resort built next door to his farm.
Washburn's extensive research and his breezy, reporter's style make this insightful book both educational and delightful. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher