NYTimes Mag Feature: "The People’s Republic might seem an unlikely incubator for golf prodigies."

Brook Larmer files a New York Times Magazine feature on 8-year-old Xie Chengfeng, who is training to be the next Tiger Woods.

Thanks to readers Mary and Tim for sending in this doozy.

Nearly every day of the year, when he’s not competing in a tournament, Xie works out in the morning, using the punching bag, medicine balls and bull whip (to strengthen his wrists) in the second-floor living room overlooking a quiet lagoon. Then he’s off to the members-only driving range for two hours of training, hitting balls with every club in his bag. After lunch, Xie works on chipping and putting before playing a round on one of Mission Hills’ 22 courses (it bills itself as the world’s largest golf club). Nearly every other activity is designed to benefit Xie’s golf game: piano lessons to strengthen his fingers; math tutorials to help him calculate distances, wind speeds and green breaks; and a daily English class to prepare him for his eventual arrival on the PGA Tour.

Xie is 8 years old.

When I visited his family home last month, the boy’s father, Xie Xiaochun, handed me a plate of papayas grown on their back patio and an album of baby photos of his only child. One set of pictures showed the chubby toddler in a navy blue sweater vest, swinging a golf club. “He started hitting balls when he was 2½ years old — younger than Tiger was when he began!” Xie’s father told me in Mandarin. Barely six months after his son began playing golf, Xie Xiaochun — a 43-year-old migrant from northeastern China who made a fortune in the trucking-logistics business — bought this house, and the golf membership that came with it, so his son would have ready access to world-class courses and instruction.