I never pass up a chance to talk with a woman golfer who is doing new, exciting things in the field. Recently I had a fascinating conversation with Cindy Reid (in picture above), a well-known golf instructor who has ranked among GFW's Top 50 Instructors for years. She used to be Director of Golf at TPC at Sawgrass in Florida, but if you want to book a lesson with her now, you'll have to book a plane ticket first. In what she calls a personal "reinvention," Reid, 45, has relocated  to Mission Hills Golf Club, the mega golf complex in Shenzhuan, China. In what must be a first for an American female golfer in Asia, Cindy has started her own school, the Mission Hills Golf Academy by Cindy Reid. It's quite an adventure, but I'll let Cindy tell you about it in her own words. Here's our long-distance interview.

How did you get from TPC Sawgrass to China? That's a big move.
I've known the people at Mission Hills for years. A while ago I said, It's time to go to the next chapter in life with golf instruction, and I've always wanted to do something in Asia.

Tell me about Mission Hills Golf Club. I hear it's crazy big.
Mission Hills has 12 golf courses, 3,000 caddies who live on campus, four spas that are outstanding, more than 10,000 members and 7,000 people on staff. It's huge. The clubhouse is 60,000 square feet and four stories. It's the biggest clubhouse in the world.

And you know the Chu family, which developed Mission Hills...
The chairman is David Chu, he's the father. He has several kids, and all of them work for Mission Hills. They do everything. His 32-year-old son, Tenniel Chu, runs the golf courses. He used to be at TPC Sawgrass. His father sent him to the U.S. to pursue a career in golf course operations, and that's how I met him. Carol Chu is pretty powerful. She plays golf; I'm friends with her. She's a great lady, beautiful and smart. She does a lot for the company.

Your golf academy sounds amazing.
It's 28,000 square feet. It has eight state-of-the-art hitting bays, a full-size gym, and club-fitting. My goal is to hire 200 instructors, and I'm training and certifying Chinese instructors as well as those from the U.S. I've taken all my knowledge from 17 years of teaching at Sawgrass and brought it here. I want to leave a legacy behind in China as far as golf instruction.

Can you describe your clientele?
It ranges from brand-new golfers to experienced golfers to professional golfers on the Asian Tour. I cannot begin to tell you how many new golfers who are wealthy are getting into the game. If they want a club, we let them know what they need and they buy it. A lot of women are playing golf out there -- a lot more than I thought there would be. And they're beginning to become a lot more like the men -- they're taking time for themselves. They're a lot more Western than people think. The women are definitely coming out of the woodwork as far as taking golf lessons, especially when they see a woman is teaching. And these women have careers. I've got a couple who have done really well in real estate in Hong Kong, a lot of wives who are married to wealthy men, and a lot of young girls. They're going to be so good. Four of them could be pros right now, and they're 12, 13 years old. There is so much going on here, I can't even believe it. There's so much going on with golf and how it's grown and how Westernized it's become.

That must be very rewarding for you, especially when it comes to working with the locals.
Yes, they're happy we're here. And we've changed a lot of people's lives by giving them an opportunity to become the person they've wanted to be in regards to making  more money and being in an environment that they're happy in.

Do you consider this a "reinvention" of yourself?
Yeah, I probably consider it a reinvention. A little bit. I'm a very optimistic individual. I've traveled all over the world, and I don't find that culture shock. The hardest thing here is the language barrier. Because if you need someone to do something in the business part of the academy, they're like, "what?" And you have to explain it for at least 25 minutes. But I have several translators, and I'm taking lessons. Mandarin is a very hard language, but I use it every day. I'm learning golf instruction right now, and in five months I'll probably be able to say 35 words. So I can't quite put a sentence together, but I will.

How do you say "swing" in Mandarin?
Swing. But you'd be amazed -- so many people speak English over here. My clientele speaks English. I have two or three clients who don't, and when my translators aren't available, i do a lot of sign language type things.

What are your long-range goals?
My goal is to have two more academies like Mission Hills in other parts of China. And to be back in the U.S. in about 15 years. This was a huge step for me, but it was also time. I got to bring my expertise and knowledge to a culture that knows almost nothing about golf. I'm so excited I did this.

Thanks Cindy. We'll be visiting you soon! Stina Sternberg visited Mission Hills in August -- you can read more in Stina's blog post from China.