Images courtesy of Orient Golf

TK Pen has always been a bit of a contrarian. When he began his chain of golf courses on the Chinese mainland, the CEO of Orient Golf shunned the rule-of-thumb that you need a real estate component to make a golf course profitable.

"I started developing the chain back in 1999," says Pen. "The original thought was that we're not going to do real estate because that's giving a bad name to golf. We formed a different strategy focused on building courses in an economical way."

Pen's basic strategy was to lower the price of memberships and other fees while also setting a 600-membership limit for every 18 holes, thereby attracting a higher volume of non-member golfers who pay daily green fees that would bring in the profit.

ON TOUR

When the government put a moratorium on new golf course development in 2004, Pen got the idea of hosting professional tours at Orient Golf's 14 Chinese mainland courses, as a way to build up the company's brand value. So that year, with only about 20 professional women golfers in China, Pen started hosting the Orient China Ladies Open tournament.

His contrarian fortitude has been the driving force behind the tour, which was recently renamed the China Ladies Professional Golf Association (CLPGA). Orient Golf co-organizes it with the China Golf Association (CGA), but turning it into a revenue-generating women's pro golf circuit on par with those in other countries — like Korea, whose players dominate the sport — still seems to be a way off.

"We don't have the stars right now. That's the problem when any tour is starting out," says Pen. "Now we have about 100 to 120 players, but we really need stars. Stars will encourage other people to want to play the game. We're desperately trying to do that."

Pen is working with the China Golf Association (CGA) and other clubs and companies to try and build their interest in sponsoring newer players. Pen says they have managed to attract some sponsors on a non-cash, barter basis, like hotels and sportswear brands, and last year they managed to get Korean automaker Hyundai to put up a small amount of cash to sponsor their pro-am tournaments. But it is still far from profitable.

"I told the players, only when you have the fans, that's when you're going to get the money. If you don't have fans running after you, you're not going to get sponsorship money," Pen says. "They understand that."

PROPER LADIES

Many of the players started out as farmers or caddies and it was their proximity to a golf course development that introduced them to the sport. Yang Taoli, China's number three ranked woman's golfer, told CIB she was working at a golf club in 2001 when she heard the club was starting a team and she signed up to play. The 27 year old says that training for the sport has helped improve her character and her temper. "I was very impetuous before," she says.

In order to help the players attract sponsors, Pen has been playing the role of Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady, trying to mold the lady golfers into, well, ladies. Getting the CLPGA tournaments co-sanctioned with the Korean LPGA has been helpful. "They play side by side with the Korean players so they will learn just by watching them. They see how they walk, how they dress, how they put make up on, how they talk to the media," Pen says. "I think they are quick learners."

In addition, Pen has hired make-up artists to work with the players, and often puts them on the cover of Orient Golf's magazine which gets sent to the chain's 10,000 members. "Obviously that would increase their awareness that ‘I need to look good because I'm going to be on the cover.' I think doing that pushes them to want to look more professional, and more beautiful to the public."

Another piece to the puzzle is getting media exposure for the tournaments. Though the tour works with CCTV 5, government regulations say that golf can only be broadcast after midnight. Pen says he's working on developing a new technology that would allow live video coverage of his tournaments on the web. "When we have the viewership, sponsors will be more willing to put money into these tournaments," he says.

BUILDING A BRAND

This year, the CLPGA has planned seven tournaments. Pen would like to expand the number, but needs to find other courses willing to sponsor a tournament. Currently all tournaments are played at Orient Golf clubs.

"The problem is the other courses don't want to put up the money," he says. "When you have a tournament your whole week is gone. They lose revenue. We need to show them how they can use the tournament to build their brands so they can get more tourists, not just their members." Pen argues people will make it a priority to play at a course that has hosted a famous tournament.

Of course, the addition of golf to the Olympics should help increase interest in the professional game in China. But developing star players remains key. "I'm hoping that the [China] women will have a world number one within the next two to three years," he says. "It's a probability game. I think once the number of women professional players reaches 300 we should see a world number one emerging."

— Rachel Qiu contributed to this report