Turning £1,000 Into US$2.25 Million at The UBS Hong Kong Golf Open
It was back in 1958 that Hong Kong Golf Club member Kim Hall wrote to an Australian professional, Eric Cremin, asking if any of the Australian players due to take part in the 1959 Philippines Open would be interested in coming to golf in Hong Kong afterwards.
Cremin enquired what money was on offer so Hall approached the South China Morning Post and asked it to sponsor a professional tournament at Fanling. The Post agreed to put up P1,000 in prize money and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, the Hong Kong Open has grown into one of the SAR’s biggest annual sporting events and one of the jewels in the crown of Asian and Hong Kong golf.
Hugh Staunton, a member of the HKGC since 1958 and club captain in 1999 and 2000, has watched more Hong Kong Opens than most and can recall the early years. “It was a small tournament to begin with, but it was still very exciting because it was the first professional sports event in Hong Kong,” he says.
“We were very much cut off from sporting events in other parts of the world, so to be able to watch great players like Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle was a wonderful experience. They were golfing heroes.
“I remember one particular round by Nagle on the New Course when he had five twos – he made a birdie at every par three, which was quite exceptional. It was also less formal back then. Some of the pros stayed at the clubhouse and spent quite a bit of time with the members. And there were more amateurs playing.”
At that inaugural Hong Kong golf tournament in 1959, the highly rated Australian contingent duly arrived, only to be eclipsed by a young Taiwanese player, Lu Liang Huan, who secured a one-shot victory. The same player would become the HKGC’s resident professional from 1962-64 before gaining worldwide fame as the pork-pie hat-wearing “Mr Lu” who finished runner-up to Lee Trevino in the 1971 British Open. He returned to Fanling in 1974 to regain the Hong Kong Golf Open crown.
Following Lu’s initial success, Australians dominated the Hong Kong Open, winning seven tournaments in the 1960s, with four-time British Open champion Thomson leading the way on three occasions.
Taiwanese players won the event five times in a row in the 1970s, including two successes for Hsieh Yung Yo that took his total to four, which remains a record. The Taiwanese run was interrupted by a young Australian called Greg Norman, who won his first Hong Kong Open title in 1979 and added another four years later. Another landmark arrived in 1987 when Welshman Ian Woosnam became the first European winner.
Until this point, the Hong Kong Open had always been held in February, which left it at the mercy of the weather. Norman’s second victory came when the tournament was reduced to 36 holes due to rain and the 1990 edition, won by American Ken Green, was almost washed out. After that, it moved to its present December slot.
The winners’ roster in the Nineties included Major champions Bernhard Langer and Tom Watson before another significant change in 2001 when the European Tour began co-sanctioning the Hong Kong Open. And 2005 saw a new era dawn as UBS began a four-year title sponsorship that brings with it a significant increase in prize money.
From humble beginnings – a simple letter from a member of the HKGC to an Australian professional – the Hong Kong Open now boasts global status. As Hong Kong Golf Association chief executive Iain Valentine summarises: “The UBS Hong Kong Open is one of a select few world-class sports events held annually in Hong Kong and it has a history and heritage that other golf tournaments in the region cannot match.
Prestige, tradition and location – the UBS Hong Kong Golf Open truly has it all.
Follow all the action of Golf in Hong Kong at www.golfinhongkong.com