China has shut more than 100 golf courses in the last five years amid a campaign against a sport which has been vilified by Beijing’s Communist rulers but enjoyed by local officials.

The building of golf courses was banned in China in 2004, but demand from the growing ranks of wealthy and local-level cadres has seen numbers rocket from fewer than 200 to 683 over that time.

A total of 111 golf courses were “outlawed” after they were found to have been using large amounts of land and water, according to China’s top planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Another 18 golf courses have been ordered to return and restore illegally occupied land, and 47 told to cease construction or business activities.

The remaining 507 golf courses were instructed to carry out “rectification”, while 11 voluntarily closed, the NDRC said.

The developers of the golf courses were found to have been using large amounts of arable land or nature reserve areas, or extracting groundwater illegally, it said.