In October 2015, the Chinese Communist Party banned its 88 million members from excessive drinking, improper sexual relationships... and holding golf club memberships. But, with "the rich man's game" about to appear in the Olympics for the first time in 112 years, they also began to spend unprecedented sums on their own national golf team.

Through the lives of three men intimately involved in China's bizarre golf scene, Dan Washburn paints an arresting portrait of a country of contradictions. A villager named Wang sees his life transformed when a top-secret golf resort springs up next to...