The UBS Hong Kong Open, Hong Kong’s longest-running professional sports event having been played every year since 1959, and which has been sanctioned by the European Tour since 2001, will take between 8-11 December at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
A week after the Shenzhen International, Li Haotong, a 20-year-old from Hunan with serious talent, fired a brilliant final-round 64 to beat a bunch of the European Tour’s finest to win the Volvo China Open in Beijing by three strokes. Li, a likeable young man who normally plies his trade on the Web.com Tour in the US, became the second successive Chinese player to claim the illustrious title, following Wu Ashun’s victory of a year ago. Li’s win moved him up to No. 131 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Chinese player and in prime position to earn one of the two Olympic golf spots the country is expected to receive in Rio this summer.
Li’s achievement was undoubtedly impressive, and it should spell good news for the way golf in China is perceived going forward. With his victory at the Topwin Country Club, another grandiose establishment that lies in the shadow of the Great Wall, he became only the fourth mainland professional golfer, following Wu, Liang Wen-chong and the country’s golfing trailblazer, Zhang Lian-wei, a former caddie, to triumph on the European Tour. But the fact remains: golf in the world’s most populous country is a game largely reserved for the elite. Li, a tall, gangly but very engaging young man who seems comfortable carrying the weight of his enormous nation’s hopes, wasn’t born into poverty. Leach talks about public courses, offering affordable green fees, coming online in the future but there is currently only one truly public golf facility in all of neighbouring Guangdong province – Longgang Public Golf Course – and a weekday round there will set you back close to RMB500 for the privilege, which is essentially equivalent to 18 midweek holes at the Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau, Hong Kong’s public golf course.
At a professional level, there is still plenty of golf being played in China. The PGA Tour-owned China Series, which Li graduated from two years ago, takes in more than 10 events a year, while Shanghai’s Sheshan International Golf Club has hosted the annual World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions, one of golf’s premier events outside the major championships, since 2005.
“Golf is perfect for China,” continued Leach. “Players are coming through; it’s going to accelerate [growth].”
