Former Carterton golfer Reon Sayer is leading the fledgling New Zealand China Golf Academy in China.
Sayer, who represented New Zealand on 21 occasions as an amateur - including two Eisenhower trophy tournaments - and played professionally on the Australasian tour before turning his hand to coaching, was head-hunted for the
position by Auckland-based company, The Golf Gym.
He is conducting his first holiday programme at the Nanshan International Golf School in Shandong this month, followed by a new intake of students in August.
Sayer's move to China came after The Golf Gym decided to take the concept of their golf practice and fitness facility to the world.
This concept features pods which give players computer versions of 40 actual courses around the world and, after each virtual practice, analyse their individual performance.
It also has a 3D Doppler radar system, as used by the military for targeting missiles, which provides statistics on such things as launch angle, back and side spin, club and ball speeds, smash factor and shot distance.
The concept has taken more than four years to reach the production stage at a cost of more than $2m and, after introducing it to China, The Golf Gym intends to seek other potentially lucrative markets as well.
The Nanshan International Golf School is one of China's top 500 companies with its many assets including 15 18-hole golf courses and the world's largest golf club, which is the home of the Sayer-led academy.
China has 1.4 million golfers and that number is expected to grow 40 per cent a year over the next six years.
The Golf Gym managing director David Jenkinson said their backers refused to be spooked by the present economic climate and he saw a bright future here and abroad for a facility which aided those wanting to practice.
"It is definitely not about playing golf.
"This is about how you can improve the way you practice and train for golf so when you go out on a course you enjoy yourself more," he said.
Jenkinson said the Golf Gym was not the finished product and would continue to be tweaked and improved. "It is still a work in progress and will continue to be for a number of years," he said.
