With Olympics, sport gains new stature in China

On the men's side, Li, who just fired a bogey-free 64 to claim his first European Tour title at the China Open last month, has improved his world ranking to No 134－the second highest among Chinese golfers－and will compete with two fellow seniors, No 127 Wu Ashun and No 195 Liang Wenchong, for two possible tickets to Rio.

As the country's only legitimate medal hope in Rio, the 27-year-old Feng, who has 14 professional titles to her credit, makes no secret of her ambition.

"If I could choose from an Olympics gold medal and a major championship, I would definitely go with the medal," said the Guangdong native.

China's national golf team, like the country's tennis team, is assembled solely for competition at the Olympic Games, unlike group sports such as basketball or soccer, where the national team is composed of a fixed set of players who receive ongoing support and training.

Golfers are assigned temporarily to the national team for Olympic competition, and work around their schedule of professional tour events.

This approach follows the country's traditional State-run sports system, which has produced abundant gold medals at the Olympics, said Tan Jianxiang, a sports sociology researcher at South China Normal University.

Zhang Xiaoning, vice-president of the golf association, said, "There is unbalanced development between Olympic sports and non-Olympic sports in China. Golf had been restricted to a small group of people for a long time.

"But we have a totally different situation now. We are set to have more support from the public as well as the government, and we are looking forward to seeing Chinese players tee off in Rio."