China says it is no longer a crime to play golf

The game had been declared 'bourgeois' by Chairman Mao

China's ShanShang Feng is number 11 in the women's world golf rankings (David Cannon/Getty Images)

China has declared it is no longer a crime to play the "hedonistic" game of golf.

In October 2015, the Communist Party banned all 88 million of its members from joining golf clubs as part of an anti-corruption campaign.

Members were banned from “obtaining, holding or using membership cards for gyms, clubs, golf clubs, or various other types of consumer cards, or entering private clubs,” according to the countries official press agency Xinhua News.

Now, the official newspaper for the China's Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, says the ruling Communist Party has had a change of heart and decided “playing golf itself is not wrongdoing” provided officials “pay out of their own pockets”.

In the article, Adams Xiao Jian said the illegal acquisition of golf membership by members and cadres may seem like a small problem, but such memberships can easily become a means for corrupt bargaining with media.

This, it claims, can create an environment for the ‘four winds’ – formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and waste.

China has had a troubled relationship with golf ever since Chairman Mao declared the sport to be “bourgeois” and banned it in 1949.

Although the ban was lifted in the mid-80s, the building of golf courses was banned in 2004, apparently to protect the country's farmland.

The number of people who play in golf in the country range from the hundreds of thousands to well over a million. Although there are no Chinese male golfers in the official world top 50 rankings, ShanShan Feng is currently ranked number 11 in the women’s game.