Taiwan Today

In 1990, businessman and avid golfer Weng Ming-hui (翁明輝) had a problem. Then 46, Weng owned a piece of land in Shilin District, Taipei City and had been thinking about turning the property into a golf course, an idea that originally seemed all the more appealing because it would give his retired father a place to relax and do some exercise.

The more Weng thought about it, though, the more he began to realize that the idea of building a golf course was completely unfeasible. “The land was not large enough [to build an entire golf course], or even to build many holes,” he says. Weng continued working on the land, however, because he thought he could at least make it suitable for a garden. “But while I was clearing weeds, I kept trying to think up some sort of ball sport that could be played there,” he says.

Weng knew golf well, so he began considering ways to modify that sport for play in a smaller space. He soon realized that the key lay in creating a ball that was heavy and large enough to keep it from flying through the air for long distances. He also thought about cutting down on the amount of expensive clubs needed in golf. “I thought about sports like baseball, where you need only one bat, and tennis, where a player uses one racket, and I wondered why you couldn’t just use one club to play a game like golf,” he says.

Weng tackled the problem of the ball first. Solid hardwood such as red sandalwood seemed to be the best material available, as balls made from it were likely to be heavy enough not to fly too far, yet light and dynamic enough to give a decent roll. After deciding upon the material, Weng turned his attention to the ball’s size. One after another, he had local craftsmen turn out balls of different sizes, then experimented with them. The answer to the size dilemma came to him, oddly enough, when his eye happened to fall upon an orb-shaped finial atop a stair post in his own home. As he ran his hand over the finial, Weng suddenly had the feeling that it was the size he had been looking for.

He measured the finial and his hunch soon proved correct, as he found that a solid wood ball of the same size—around 10 centimeters in diameter—rolled well when struck by a wooden mallet, but was still heavy enough not to fly and bounce too far.

With the ball issue settled, Weng turned his attention to designing a mallet. His goal was to produce one mallet that players could use on any part of the course, which was a clear departure from the many specialized clubs required for golf. As he thought about the mallet, he realized he was looking for a hammer-shaped object that had enough weight and a sufficiently large striking surface to give the ball a good roll. During one particular get-together with friends, he was gazing at a bottle of Taiwan Beer, one of the country’s most popular brews, when inspiration struck once again. Weng ultimately ended up designing a mallet that had a shaft of about 1 meter long and a bottle-shaped head that measured 21.5 centimeters in length, with a rubber cap over the wider end to serve as the striking surface.

Woodball fairways do not end in a player knocking the ball into a sunken cup as in golf, but rather in hitting the sphere through a gate. Beer bottles also inspired Weng’s design for the gate, which is formed of two wooden bottle-shaped stumps with a metal rod forming a crosspiece between them. Another alcohol-inspired design element in the gate is a wooden cup in the shape of a wine glass that hangs upside down from the middle of the rod. Weng added the cup to reduce scoring disputes, as the cup moves when the ball passes through the gate. Each stump has a long spike extending from the bottom, allowing gates to be set up almost anywhere and giving players the freedom to design fairways that take advantage of local terrain features.

It took Weng more than two years to develop the sport. Over that period, he revised the diameter of the wooden ball to 9.5 centimeters and, after consulting the rules of golf, came up with 12 rules for woodball. In 1992, Weng found manufacturers to produce a few sets of woodball equipment and began inviting family members and friends to play the sport. The sportsman says that while their feedback was positive, many of his friends assumed that the game had been invented overseas and asked him which country he had imported it from. Troubled by such assumptions and feeling that Taiwan needed a sport of its own, Weng says “I gradually had the idea of turning [woodball] into an official sport.”

Something Meaningful

Weng decided to devote himself to promoting woodball, saying that he was motivated by the desire to accomplish something meaningful. “I knew how significant it could be if I succeeded,” he says of his desire to develop a homegrown, internationally popular sport. In 1993, Weng founded the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association (CTWA) and began to hold conferences and matches to introduce the sport to the public and physical education teachers at schools of all levels.

Nick Chun-ching Huang (黃俊清), an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Health Sciences at National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences (NTUNH), was introduced to Weng and woodball when he participated in one of the CTWA’s very first conferences. The sport immediately attracted him, Huang says, because it is inexpensive to play, has less impact on the body than other ball sports and, like golf, has a graceful and elegant swing. Huang was hooked and now serves as secretary-general of the CTWA as well as the International Woodball Federation (IWbF), which has a membership of more than 30 national organizing bodies.

While golfers typically pay a green fee ranging from NT$3,000 to $5,000 (US$103 to $172) to play a round on a golf course in Taiwan, woodball players can set up a course in almost any open outdoor environment and play for free. Meanwhile, purchasing a whole set of golf clubs can cost several hundred to thousands of US dollars, but a woodball set—including one mallet, one wooden ball and one gate—costs less than US$150, Huang says.

Philip S.T. Cheng (程紹同), a professor in the Department of Physical Education at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taipei, points out that beginners pick up woodball easily, needing only a brief period of instruction before they can begin enjoying the sport. “There are only two kinds of strokes [in woodball]. One is the long drive swing; the other is a putt like golfers use on the green,” Cheng says. Weng says that because the sport is affordable and easy to learn, woodball has earned the nickname “everyone’s golf.”

Woodball matches are typically played by individuals, pairs or larger teams of four to six persons. Matches between individuals usually take place on 12-fairway courses, while teams usually compete over 24. The player or team that completes the course with the fewest strokes wins the game.

Par for each fairway varies according to terrain but usually is around three strokes, according to Cheng. Participants find that much of the sport’s fun comes from creatively designing fairways to fit different terrain. “For example, one can design a fairway to go up hills, down slopes or even through a culvert,” he says. “There are so many variations you can play with.”

Woodball’s low-cost fun helped the sport spread quickly to neighboring countries. In 1999, that burgeoning popularity led to the establishment of the Asian Woodball Federation, European Woodball Federation and IWbF. Later that year, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) recognized woodball as one of its official sports, which means that woodball can be included in any sporting event held by the OCA, including the Asian Games and Asian Beach Games.

Gaining such recognition was unusual considering woodball’s relatively short history, Huang says. Other sports that received OCA recognition in 1999 included bridge, muay thai, parachuting and triathlon, all of which have longer histories, with some stretching back more than 100 years, he says.

In the following years, more and more countries and regions began holding open tournaments. So far, countries that have hosted woodball competitions include Taiwan, Bulgaria, mainland China, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sweden and Thailand, to name just a few. Although woodball matches have yet to appear at the Asian Games, they have been played in every Asian Beach Games since the biennial sporting event began in 2008. Taiwan has done well in such international competitions, Huang says, noting that the country has always finished either first or second in the sport’s total medal count at every Asian Beach Games.

Despite woodball’s simple rules and equipment, Cheng says that the sport demands physical strength and skill. “For example, it’s not an easy task to hit the ball 70 to 80 meters with one long drive,” he says, adding that such long shots set woodball apart from croquet, which also involves hitting balls through hoops with a mallet, but requires mostly shorter putting strokes.

Lisa Wu (吳芷涵), an NTUNH senior majoring in exercise and health science, has played woodball since middle school and was recommended for admission to her university based on her performance in the sport. To become top contenders in woodball competitions, Wu says that she and other team members trained extensively during their middle school and high school years, just as student athletes do in any other sport. The young players practiced every day after school and on almost every weekend and holiday. When she was in middle school and high school, Wu says a typical training day not only included playing woodball, but also long-distance running in the morning and stair-climbing and weight training in the afternoon. Ivy Pan (盤欣怡), another member of the woodball team at NTUNH, says that the exercises help players develop great endurance, which is essential as one match usually takes about an hour to complete and multiple matches are played on the same day. “[The sport] may appear static, but it actually takes quite a lot of concentration and strength,” Pan says.

Wu says one of the biggest benefits she has gained from woodball is the development of her capacity to remain calm while facing difficulties like needing to make a tricky shot or seeing her stroke count rise above par. “Players constantly have to think about how to make their next move,” she says.

For Huang, the most important part of the sport is the ability to make the right decision at the right time, as players are continually faced with the decision of whether or not to try to hit the ball through the gate with their next shot. A poorly hit shot from too far away can force a player to make several recovery shots to approach the gate again, but not going for the gate soon enough can also add extra strokes to a player’s score.

Weng concurs about woodball’s mental aspect, saying, “To play the sport, you have to exercise your brain as well.” Each woodball course and fairway is different, he says, which means that players have to be able to visualize the best sequence of shots to reach the gate for every fairway.

While woodball has gained prominence in a relatively short time, those involved in the sport are well aware of the obstacles to its development. Well-heeled golfers, for example, are unlikely to be attracted by woodball’s low cost and its capacity for play in almost any open public space, Huang says, as most would rather play on dedicated golf courses, which are usually better maintained, more attractive and more spacious. “Students and seniors are the biggest participants in woodball in Taiwan,” he says, as students generally need to manage their spending wisely and most seniors require locations that are easy to reach.

Another problem is that while woodball requires concentration, strength and strategy, it is still a relatively slow-paced sport. Based on the experience he has gained from teaching woodball during physical education classes at NTNU, Cheng says there are usually some students who prefer more excitement and speed than woodball offers.

There is also little financial incentive for woodball players to advance in the sport. Wu, for example, says she does not know of any woodball players in Taiwan who have been able to make a living from the game. Likewise, no professionals have emerged overseas, according to the IWbF. Insufficient funding and a lack of sponsorships pose the biggest challenges for would-be woodball professionals, Weng says. A major portion of the funds for the CTWA and IWbF’s operations in Taiwan still comes from his own pocket, he says, adding that he has been forced to sell several parcels of land over the years to promote the sport’s expansion.

Refining and Sustaining

Although woodball has yet to become a professional sport in Taiwan, Cheng says that its development should be considered a success because of its rapid growth at home and abroad. “The sport has reached a certain level of maturity, and now the question is how to refine and sustain it,” he says. The NTNU professor believes that woodball promoters should continue making improvements in equipment and facilities. “For example, you still can’t play the sport indoors on rainy days,” Cheng says. “One option to consider would be setting up woodball facilities that are similar to indoor golf driving ranges that are enhanced with computerized graphics to give a sense of playing outdoors.”

As for concerns over equipment, about two years ago the CTWA began replacing wooden mallets with those made from aluminum alloy and fiberglass. Using the new materials significantly reduces the time and expense of producing a mallet and makes them easier to mass-produce, Huang says.

After devoting his efforts to woodball for two decades, Weng says he is preparing to pass the task of developing the sport on to younger coaches and athletes. To generate more funding, he is also planning to charge membership fees for existing and future IWbF members and sell IWbF-authorized woodball equipment. To date, the federation has not charged membership fees in order to help the sport grow.

Although he plans to step back a bit, Weng remains optimistic about the future of the game. “My ultimate goal is to see woodball become the world’s most popular sport,” he says. “Right now, I think it’s soccer, but soccer is still mostly played by younger people. Woodball has the potential to attract more players because it’s suitable for people from eight to 80 years old.”

As he looks back over the past 20 years, Weng does not regret the money and time he has devoted to woodball. “I invented the sport from scratch and laid a foundation for its development,” he says. “I think it’s already a success.”

Write to Audrey Wang at ycwang06@mofa.gov.tw