"The PGA Tour Sells Golf To China"

Not very well. At least, based on the insights from Scott Cendrowski who filed two features for Fortune as the tour arrives with the HSBC WGC in Shanghai.

Cendrowski's secondary feature looks at playing golf in China, but worth carving our a few reading minutes is the feature on PGA Tour efforts to start a satellite tour and the hopes of developing a great player in country unfriendly to golf.

Cendrowski notes that growth in China was largely the dream of a PGA Tour looking for new sponsorship, new players and playing opportunities despite the government's hostility toward the game (and human rights, and bloggers, and many things that democracy lovers cherish). So far, things haven't gone so great on the macro level. And as for the micro, aka PGA Tour China...

This year, continuing uncertainty forced PGA Tour China to announce its schedule just a couple of weeks in advance. Only 12 tournaments were scheduled; a 13th was added midseason. “It’s tough to find courses to work with us,” says Shao, the Chinese golf promoter. The head of a course in the lush southern province of Yunnan, who asked not to be named because he was nervous about local authorities’ reactions, said his club was now marketing golf as a fitness movement, to keep the government at bay. “The tough time in the past one or two years has prompted everyone to reflect,” he says.

Fun times, all in the name of the g word!