Tiger Woods insisted going to China for golf?

China’s relationship with golf has been a fascinatingly strange one for a while. When Mao Zedong assumed control in 1949 as the country’s communist leader, he immediately denounced it as a “sport for millionaires.” Golf continued with that reputation even after Mao was no longer in power, and the sport is still technically banned in the country.

During the Masters this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a systematic crackdown on high-ranking officials playing golf, and forcibly closed 10 percent of the country’s golf courses. 

According to CNN:

The biggest names caught in the web are called “tigers.” That’s not a golf reference, but China’s current crackdown on the sport does show how pervasive and unpredictable Xi’s crusade has become.

In Guangdong province, the birthplace of golf in modern China, an investigative team has been formed to crack down on officials who took part in any of nine golf-related activities. There’s even a public hotline for reporting suspected golf violations.

But why is Tiger Woods going to China on Friday to help, according to Nike’s press release on Wednesday, “stoke local interest in the sport of golf and inspire athletes in China and Japan?” Surely that would seem directly at-odds with China’s current position on golf?

In short: Yes, it’s a blatant contradiction. The reason it exists is because golf is an attractive proposition for foreign investors — which in turn makes it an attractive proposition for the Chinese government. China is home to a number of high-profile tournaments, golf academies continue to sprout-up, and the country has opened more golf courses in the last 10 years than any other country.

Tiger is hardly going on some diplomatic mission. It’s coincidental timing given the country’s apparent seriousness towards it’s most recent crackdown, but Tiger’s forthcoming visit to China is simply the continuation of a muddled, contradictory policy: As long as the general public perceives the Chinese Government as being anti-golf, Tiger can probably sneak-off as many visits as he wants.