------By Mark Godfrey

As George W. Bush begins his final year in the White House, undoubtedly the outgoing US president will be getting the opportunity to get out more often for a round of golf, a sport his family has long been associated with.

While his golfing activities haven't been as well-documented as those of Bill Clinton or Dwight Eisenhower, the original golfing president, "Dubya" is reported to have a respectable 15 handicap and is known for his speedy play and strict adherence to rules of the game.

His respect for the Royal and Ancient game is understandable as the Bush family tree has had strong ties to the sport dating back almost a century. His father, George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st US president, was a 12 handicap in his prime, while his great-grandfather, George Herbert Walker, was the president of the US Golf Association in 1920.

In 1922, the family's ties to golf were forever linked when The Walker Cup, the biannual clash pitting top US amateurs against their contemporaries from the UK and Ireland, was named in his honour after the wealthy financier donated the trophy. Today the tournament has become the Ryder Cup of the amateur set.

Such a legacy was extended to China in the early 1990s with the opening of the Shanghai Country Club. While golf enjoyed popularity in the city's heyday in the first half of the 20th Century - the current Shanghai Zoo is the site of the old Hung-Jao Golf Club - the bourgeois sport was served its death knell in China when the communists reunited the country in 1949.

Golf returned, however, with the pulling back of the Bamboo Curtain in the early 1980s. With an increasing number of expats converging on Shanghai to do business, Prescott Bush Jr, an old China hand and the brother of the soon-to-be president George H.W. Bush, reportedly arranged for a Japanese group to underwrite the US$18 million (€13 million) construction fee for the Shanghai Country Club, the city's first course in the modern era.

For his efforts, the Asia Times reported he received a 30 percent stake in the Robert Trent Jones Jr-designed club, with the rest divided by Japanese and Chinese partners. He later cashed in when the club was sold to current owner New Qingpu Real Estate Company.

While the sweet deal was likely some of the easiest money Prescott Bush ever made, he did have the good sense to bring in a top designer in Jones, an old family friend. Courses designed by the eccentric literature-reciting American are proven to have the best return among any of the current crop of name designers, and the Shanghai Country Club was no different. The club's 800 memberships offered at US$20,000 sold out in 1994 and consequently led to a course construction boom around Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces that continues to this day.

It is evident that the heavy play this club has received has left its 18 holes a little worse for wear over the years, and a renovation will undoubtedly be much needed in the future. But as it is, this is one club to seek out when in Shanghai for its variety of holes that at times evoke memories of links, parkland and resort-style golf all in one course.

Its 207-yard second hole where the green hugs water is one of the toughest par threes in China, while its longest hole, the watery 575-yard hole 13, is like an arthritic index finger that bends three times before reaching the green. The layout culminates with one of Jones's trademark "crescendo" finishes where the green drops in roller-coaster fashion by about three feet.

As most Chinese golf courses are virtually void of play on weekdays, Tuesday's open day allows visitors the opportunity to experience this historic course for a mere RMB550 (€52), an excellent value considering that a caddie and shuttle bus transport are included.