{"id":16400,"date":"2013-12-03T21:12:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T21:12:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-12-03T21:12:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T21:12:59","slug":"-Tiger-Dads-in-search-of-China-s-Tiger-Woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=16400","title":{"rendered":"‘Tiger Dads’ in search of China’s Tiger Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

China is mobilizing the state behind golf, but 13-year-old Ye Wocheng, the youngest player to compete on the European Tour, says officials should turn instead to the country’s “tiger” parents to find the next Tiger Woods.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Golf was once banned in Communist China as a bourgeois indulgence, but its return to the Olympics has seen Beijing build a high-tech $80 million training complex and enlist its rigid education system in a search for new stars.<\/p>\n

While officials are looking to satisfy the national urge for medals, a wave of child prodigies is already emerging, tutored by foreign coaches and ingrained with an insatiable desire to succeed by their wealthy, highly-disciplined parents.<\/p>\n

Ye made history earlier this year when he played at the Volvo China Open aged just 12 years and 242 days.<\/p>\n

The schoolboy smashed the record set by compatriot Guan Tianlang<\/strong>, who astonished the world in April when he made the Masters cut at the age of 14.<\/p>\n

The rise of golfers like Ye and Guan outside China’s sporting infrastructure throws up potential challenges for Beijing<\/strong>, which presents individual talents as state-moulded patriotic champions, rather than self-motivated sports stars.<\/p>\n