China's crisis with etiquette

Golf

The Chinese cheekily claim to have invented The Royal & Ancient game of golf, but the game's etiquette is taking many of them a bit longer to grasp if yesterday's over-enthusiastic gallery, who turned up for the World Cup in Shenzhen, is anything to go by.

The first major tournament to be held in China, a country of 1.3bn people, was disrupted as pagers and mobile phones frequently broke the silence as golfers stood over their putts and fans did not understand why they had to stay within the boundary ropes.

"I think a lot of them thought we had to hit between the ropes," joked the American Davis Love, who is leading the tournament with Fred Couples after a first-round score of 133. "It is the first time a big event like this has been held in China and we will have to be patient."

Sweden are three shots behind the United States with Scotland's Sam Torrance and Andrew Coltart lying joint third after a combined six-under- par total of 138.

China, which banned golf after the Cultural Revolution calling it a "decadent Western pastime", started to embrace the sport again in 1985 and they have 20 courses.

The Chinese are also spreading the word that a similar game, known as chui-wan, was played on the mainland as early as 943 AD.

Scores, Sporting Digest, page 27