Mickelson leads American charm offensive in China

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - With the U.S. PGA looking to foster closer ties with China, it was fitting that Phil Mickelson was the first winner of a World Golf Championship event in the country at the HSBC Champions over the weekend.

The 39-year-old American's first trip to Shanghai for the 2007 Champions, which he also won, was a rare venture outside the U.S. for the world number two but in the last three years he has become an enthusiastic and vocal Sinophile.

Mickelson has repeatedly spoken of his hopes for the growth of golf in the world's most populous nation and was at it again after Sunday's one-stroke victory at the $7 million tournament.

"This has been a very special event to have a World Golf Championship here in China, and to be the champion feels great," he said.

"The people here in China have been so nice to me. They have been so nice to my family the previous two years when they were able to travel and I'm very excited to see that people in China are getting excited about golf."

Golf is on the rise in China and the sport's administrators have made no secret they see the country as a valuable new market for the game.

The U.S. PGA commissioner Tim Finchem was also in Shanghai, promising his organization would "provide anything we can in support (of) the entities in China who wish to grow the game."

"In the early 1990s when we played the World Cup at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, there were 40 some golf courses in China. Today there are over 500," he told a news conference.

"In addition, the recent vote to add golf to the Olympic Games starting in 2016 tells us that the potential for growth of this game in this country is enormous."

Finchem said discussions with the China Golf Association (CGA) had centered on a scheme to get children playing golf, training in the development of golf courses and also bringing in American expertise on how to run tournaments.

The CGA also wanted the Americans to sanction an event in China, Finchem said, and the U.S. PGA had agreed to look at the feasibility of holding the Presidents Cup in the country in 2019.

"I'm not sure that's possible, but we are in discussions over the next year as to how it could work," he added.

Mickelson also has growing business links with golf in China.

"I hope that this win will help the golf courses that I'm designing and the academies that I am putting up here," said the American, who has lent his name to golf schools in Tianjin and Kunming.

But world number one Woods, completing a three-year contract to play at the Champions, was less taken by Shanghai after a calamitous fourth round which featured a drive into a canal and a paddle in a lake.

"As of right now, I don't really plan on tomorrow," said the 33-year-old, who has finished second, second and sixth in three visits to Sheshan. "I just want to get out of here."

(Editing by Julian Linden)