On her 17th hole of the day, where China’s Shanshan Feng cemented her first-round lead in the Lotte Championship on Wednesday with a birdie, that was pretty much all there were … birds.

And a few turtles sunning themselves on the rocks of the nearby pond.

There were, maybe, 20 people in the gallery at that point (the Ko Olina course’s eighth hole), hardly what you would expect with the No. 1 player in the world stringing together three birdies on her final five holes despite stiff breezes en route to a 5-under-par 67 for a one stroke lead.

As much as Feng is flying high these days, she is also remarkably traveling well under the radar.

If not for the green bib with a “Rolex Rankings 1” in white worn by her caddie, Mercer Leftwich, there would be little fanfare to suggest the presence of someone amid a 22-week run atop the Women’s World Golf Rankings.

But, then, Feng has been used to a path away from the limelight as China’s first LPGA card-holder.

In a land of 1.4 billion people, where table tennis is more celebrated, the 27-year-old Feng has been an engaging, energized trailblazer for golf since coming to the U.S. at age 17.

Beside the paucity of golf courses and the cost of playing, for the longest time there has been official distrust of the sport, which was seen as the height of bourgeois Western life, not to mention a waste of water and land.

Mao Tse-tung oversaw the tearing up of what courses there were. Periodically members of the Communist Party have been discouraged from holding golf club memberships.

Against that backdrop Feng has emerged as the smiling, triumphant face of golf in the world’s most populous nation, even welcomed for her accomplishments by President Xi Jinping.

“When I first started playing golf, I mean, just like not many people knew what golf was,” Feng told reporters after reaching the No. 1 position. “Like I would tell them, like I would say that I finished like second in the national junior championship. They will be like, ‘Oh, that’s super,’ but they don’t know actually what golf is. They don’t know I only had like three competitors in my group. (Laughter.) Shhh. That’s a secret.”

She is trying to change that one tournament title — she has nine of them — at a time. Something the No. 1 ranking and a bronze medal in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics have aided.

“Now, people are actually getting more used to it. (It’s like), ‘oh, she made another top three. Oh, she won another tournament,’” Feng said. “They are getting more and more comfortable. But, I think, the No. 1 thing, the No. 1 position, is really inspiring a lot of people back home.”

A victory at Ko Olina, where the winner’s purse is $300,000, would put her past $10 million in career LPGA Tour earnings, something also not missed at home.

Feng said in 2015 there were only 3,000 registered junior golfers. In 2016 the number hit 15,000. “Last year it was more like 30,000, so the growth has been really, really good.”

Now, there are four players from China on the LPGA Tour and two on the PGA Tour. “I’m so happy to see that,” Feng said.

She has undertaken to do more than lead by example. She also recently opened a golf academy in her native Guangzhou, patterning it after the one in Florida where she studied under Gary Gilchrist after arriving from China.

“I think Chinese golf has been improving,” said Feng, who has made it part of her mission.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.