Hong Kong Golf Association
The Hong Kong Golf Association is a relatively new association considering golf in Hong Kong has played for over 100 years. Although the Hong Kong Golf Club is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world it wasn’t until 1968 that the Hong Kong Golf Association was formed. The Hong Kong Golf Association’s role is to promote golf in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Golf Association works with golf courses in Hong Kong to promote, grow and govern the game of golf in this city. It works with all the golf courses including The Hong Kong Golf Club (Fanling and Deepwater Bay), Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club, Discovery Bay Golf Club and Shek O Country Club. The Hong Kong Golf Association has stepped up efforts over the last few years to grow the game and has several amateurs who have done quite well for themselves. The Hong Kong Golf Association has a huge task trying to promote the game of golf in Hong Kong since there’s really only one public golf course in Hong Kong – Kau Sai Chau.
The Hong Kong Golf Association has partnered up with HSBC to promote junior golf in Hong Kong, but again, with only public golf course, it’s always going to be an uphill battle as juniors struggle to find anywhere to practice let alone to play. Kau Sai Chau can be difficult to get to, and on weekends is pretty much fully booked from the first tee time to the last tee time on all three golf courses so having the chance to do some practice or take a playing lesson is difficult. The Hong Kong Golf Club opens up one course weekdays for the public but at $1200 a round it’s not a place you can just pop down to for a quick nine after school.
Mercedes Benz has partnered with the Hong Kong Golf Association, and that partnership has been criticised by some (not us) as being quite counter-intuitive and the Hong Kong Golf Association has been accused of promoting golf only to the rich people of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Golf Association has started some programs at schools, which is great, but where do those kids go after the progam is over? Yes, they can go play on one of Hong Kong’s driving ranges, but to learn to play golf, you need on course experience. You also need a handicap to play Kau Sai Chau, but to get a handicap you need to be able to have played rounds, so it’s somewhat of a catch 22 situation unless you travel overseas to play. Kau Sai Chau is not a course you want ot learn on, one for the fact that it’s a ball-eating monster, and 2 for the fact it’s jam packed and the beginner will most probably be scared sh$tless.
Should you have the opportunity to play golf elsehwere, you can get a golf handicap from the Hong Kong Golf Association and then play any of the courses in Hong Kong on weekdays, but expect to pay for it if you’re playing at Dicovery Bay Golf Club, Clearwater Bay Golf Club, Hong Kong Golf CLub being the cheapest of the private clubs. Shek O Country Club is kinda like the Augusta National of Hong Kong, at least in terms of public access.
Anyway, head over to the Hong Kong Golf Association website for more information on them.
