Par for the course

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Bill Jempty | Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Some news from China. Are all students required to play a draw or hit the ball from right to left too?

BEIJING – A Chinese university is requiring law and business students to take golf lessons to prepare them for a business world where deals are made on the golf course, news reports said Tuesday.

Xiamen University in the southeastern city of Xiamen joins a growing number of Chinese schools offering golf lessons, but is unusual in making them a required class.

Golf classes start in two months and also will be required for economics and computer software majors, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing university president Zhu Chongshi.

“The aim is to help the students find good jobs,” a sports professor at the school, Chen Xiao, was quoted as saying. “Many Chinese business deals are clinched on golf courses.”

Elite Peking University set off a debate over whether golf is appropriate for China, where most people still live in poverty, when it announced in August that it was building a practice green.

Some students complained the sport was too elitist but supporters defended it as a healthy social activity.

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