The Aficionado

Alex Jenkins talks to Peter O'Neill, one of the legendary characters of Hong Kong club golf

  "You must be Alex," booms an American voice." Let's go inside to eat – I'm hungry."

O'Neill, despite his age, is an impressive figure. Tall, and decked out in a smart shirt and jaunty yellow and blue blazer, he guides me to our table for lunch.
"I love this place," he says, wafting his hand in the air for attention from a passing waiter. "The lunch buffet is great."

O'Neill is extremely good-humoured and puts me immediately at ease. Despite the kind things that his fellow Shek O members had said to me, I had the slight worry that he might be a little stand-offish. Far from it.

"So you like Clarke, eh?" O'Neill says in reference to my small talk about Darren, the 2011 Open champion. "I like him too. I'm surprised he hasn't got a career in Hollywood – with that smile and his stories. I watched him win the Open – I was just hoping he wouldn't mess up at the end. Seems like a great guy."

The thing you quickly grasp from talking to O'Neill is his love of golf. Despite his success – and over the years, O'Neill has had s great deal of success from running trading operations, factories and pharmaceutical companies – he's far more interested in talking about the game he took up as a youngster in New England.

"From the age of nine through 15 I was a caddie," he says matter-of-factly. "That's how I got into golf. You have to remember that in the late thirties and early forties, everyone had a job, regardless of age – we were recovering from The Depression. I worked at a place four miles from my home, the Wee Burn Country Club, a posh club. We had a couple of pros there, including Jimmy Demaret [the three-time Masters champion]. He dressed like a millionaire; he was a movie star. But the pros didn't make any real money in those days and we caddies were tipped at less than minimum.

Then, following Pearl Harbour, America became involved in the international conflict.

"I had a wonderful war," says O'Neill with a smile, "I can truly say that."

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