Schmidt-Curley’s Renovation of Hong Kong Golf Club Nearly Complete

Schmidt-Curley Design has announced that its renovation of the historic Hong Kong Golf Club will be exhibited during the PGA European Tour’s UBS Hong Kong Open, November 15-18.

Schmidt-Curley has been performing renovations and general maintenance on the 54-hole club’s Old, New, and Eden courses for the past five years. Their work includes green replacements, bunker repairs, building a new par-3 hole on the New Course, and converting the Old Course’s fairways to salt-water tolerant Paspalum grass while installing a network of cart paths.

“The club is located in a hot, humid valley, making it a really difficult place to grow grass,” says Brian Curley. “Due to less-than-ideal turf conditions, the Old Course wasn’t getting very much member play prior to the change to Paspalum. But it’s been a completely different story after the introduction of the new turf and cart paths. They now love it.”

The UBS Hong Kong Open will be played on the club’s Composite Course, a par-70, 6,749-yard compilation of holes from the New and Eden Courses that is known for its narrow fairways and small greens. The Composite Course includes the aforementioned 144-yard par-3 hole designed by Schmidt-Curley.

“It’s an honor to have that hole integrated into the Composite Course,” continues Curley. “The UBS Hong Kong Open has been played on the Composite Course for many years and has been won by some of the game’s greatest players. The inclusion of our hole is a testament to the many hours we spent making sure that it would seamlessly fit with the established layout.”

The UBS Hong Kong Open dates back to 1959 and is the longest-running sports event in Hong Kong. Past champions include Greg Norman, Peter Thomson, Tom Watson, Jose Maria Olazabal, and Padraig Harrington. The defending champion is Jose Manual Lara of Spain.