China Daily reported in 2010 that Beijing’s population had reached twenty-two million people. (Eight to nine million of these are “non-permanent residents.”) City planners hope to cap Beijing’s size at eighteen million, but that seems implausible—how do you shrink a city that’s already a magnet for every ambitious person in a country of 1.3 billion? […]
Business Travel
Just Can’t Wait to Get on the Road Again
Willie Nelson’s anthem keeps cycling through my brain as I wrap up my preparations for the Golf Road Warriors’ trip to Palm Springs next week, February 21-27. “I just can’t wait to get on the road again!” I’m not unaccustomed to traveling, but most of my journeys over the last twenty years have been strictly for […]
The China Golf Market: An Interview in China Real Estate Business
This interview first appeared in “China Real Estate Business,” a Chinese-language newspaper with a national circulation in China, on November 12, 2011. 1. When did your company start to focus on the Chinese golf industry? Did you focus especially on golf course management and operations? What kind of problems have you discovered? JOHN […]
The Implications of Charles Mann’s New Book, 1493, for Golf’s Future in China
Charles Mann’s observations about China’s role in the forging of the modern world in his brilliant new book, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, are especially fascinating in light of China’s embrace of golf. A late-blooming minor component of the Columbian exchange, golf has a peculiar status in China—both condemned and celebrated. Like much […]
Charles Mann’s “1493”: A Review .
Charles C. Mann, 1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Alfred A. Knopf, 9 August 2011. $30.50, 544 pages. Apart from its misleading subtitle, Charles Mann’s 1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, is a book to celebrate. (Columbus’ personal contribution to the creation of the new world Mann describes was roughly the same as Johannes […]
Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle Buys Gearhart Golf Links.
There hasn’t been a lot of great news in the golf business lately, so when I heard that Tim Boyle, CEO of Columbia Sportswear, had bought Gearhart Golf Links on the north Oregon coast, I was both encouraged and amazed. Gearhart’s history is richer than its reputation, but it’s still the only public course worth […]