The Hong Kong Golf Club is a private golf club. It is home to the Hong Kong Open, a tournament co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.
Founded in 1889 as the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, the club originally played in Happy Valley, a location shared with many other activities. As the club expanded, the need for a more permanent home was addressed with the building of a small 9-hole course at Deep Water Bay, before the club eventually moved to its current location in Fanling, most of which is leased from the Hong Kong government.Agence France-Presse (7 August 2013). "Elite Hong Kong golf club could be bulldozed for flats". Bangkok Post. According to the club annals, the Deep Water Bay location opened in 1898; and the 18-hole Old Course was completed in 1911. To expand the facility, in 1968, the club negotiated the lease of around 30 acres of land at Beas River with which it expanded the Eden Course into a full 18-hole championship course. The 'Royal' was dropped from the name of the club in 1996, in advance of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China.
The club paid a one-off premium to lease the land, and is wrongly labelled to pay only a peppercorn rent annually. In 2012, the club paid HK$1.9 million for rent and HK$3.2 million for rates. In Year 2013–2014, the Government Rent Payable is HK$2,538,000.LC Paper No. CB(2)285/13-14(01)
History
1889–1910 On 8 May 1889, a notice was published on the Hong Kong Daily Press:
Then, the "Royal Hong Kong Golf Club" was started in 1889 by "thirteen golfing enthusiasts" in a shared location in Happy Valley. According to "History of the Royal Hongkong Golf Club", which was written by T.F.R. Waters, of these thirteen, with the exception of Robert Murray Rumsey R.N. (then Hong Kong Harbour Master and the Rumsey Street was named after his name.) and Gershom Stewart (afterwards Knighted and a member of parliament for Hoylake) very few had much notion of the game but readily agreed to do what they could to established a foothold for it in the Colony. Although Captain Rumsey and Stewart had clubs and balls and had in fact been driving these balls within the race track at Happy Valley before 1889, the opinion of the Meeting was that attempts should be made to acquire land then in possession of the military in Kowloon. Rumsey had been elected captain of the new club and had secured the consent of the Governor – Sir William Des Voeux – to accept the presidency. Despite this influence at Court the military authorities could not be persuaded to become cooperative, and after some months the proposition had to be dropped. However, on 30 September 1889 permission was eventually obtained from Hong Kong Government to use ground at Happy Valley. Money was raised and work was started making the greens and tees. The architect of the course at Happy Valley was Captain (afterwards Colonel) H. N. Dumbleton R.E. The work progressed rapidly, and it is recorded that in May 1890 a match of six a side was played between the club and the 91st Regiment of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders, which the Club won easily.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p.5-6
In 1896, Captain Rumsey and Captain Dumbleton examined the possibilities of Deep Water Bay as a possible solution to the ever-increasing pressure from the ladies for extension of their very restricted privileges at Happy Valley as imposed by Commodore Boyes. Negotiations were opened with Government in June 1897 and with the not inconsiderable assistance of the Governor himself, Sir William Robinson, "the best friend the Club ever had", a lease of land for a small nine-hole course at Deep Water Bay was concluded with Hong Kong government in 1898.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p.9
On 1 September 1897 as a result of a letter addressed to Queen Victoria's Lord Chamberlain the following reply was addressed to Sir William Robinson G.C.M.G. Governor of Hong Kong: "Sir, With reference to your dispatch of 20th July addressed to the Right Honorable The Lord Chamberlain, The Earl of Lothian, I have the honour to inform you that on your application being laid before The Queen, Her Majesty was graciously pleased, in view of your recommendations, to give Her permission to the Hong Kong Golf Club being called 'The Royal Hong Kong Golf Club'." This announcement was received with great acclaim and duly celebrated by a banquet at which Sir William was an honoured guest.Waters, T.F.R., History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, p.10
In 1903, the club obtained exclusive use of Happy Valley ground except for Wednesdays and Saturdays, when soccer and cricket were played. From the start, use by ladies was heavily restricted. And when the club gained exclusive use of Happy Valley in 1903, ladies were allowed to play on Sundays only.
In connection with this sharing of the ground at Happy Valley there is on record this remark made by the Captain at the Annual General Meeting of 1903 in connection with the playing of the final of the Club Championship at Happy Valley "The thanks of the Players are due to the Cricketers who so kindly stopped their game to let the Golfers through on each round."
The proximity of the Golf Course to the football ground on occasions lead to misdirected shots landing in the football arena but no one seems to have been hit. There was however one occasion when the late "Auntie" Maitland misdirected her drive from the 1st tee and caused serious injury to the eye of a Marine.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p.12
1911–1945 According to the club annals, "protracted negotiations" with the government and local farmers resulted in sufficient land being obtained in Fanling, its current location, to build its first full 18-hole course that was completed in 1911. The first idea was to use the Sun Wei valley but the Army Authorities opposed this. Messrs. T. S. Forrest, K. M. Cumming, L. S. Greenhill and M. A. Murray were appointed by the club to view this grazing land. Their report was enthusiastic and favourable. Negotiations with Government were opened (1908) for a lease of sufficient land for a full-size 18-hole course to be constructed. These negotiations with Government were protracted despite the club receiving a great deal of assistance from the Governor, Sir Henry May, in dealing with the local farmers in the matter of acquiring certain extra pieces of land considered essential by the course architects. It was said that E.R. Hallifax, the then Tai Po District Officer, was the man more than any other responsible for the construction of a course at Fanling golf course. The relationship of the District Officer with the village elders everywhere was avuncular or, indeed, almost paternal.Robinson, S. (1989), Festina Lente: A History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club, p.11 In 1916, Sir Henry May arranged for the club to acquire additional land to form a Relief Course for the use of the Ladies.
At the time the Old Course was laid out, there were no trees at all on the course except down by the 3rd green and one or two near the clubhouse site. Much forestry work was undertaken during the period 1915–1919 but there was still very little to show yet except beautiful clumps of lilies and cannas on the hillsides. Grave mounds, or "pimples", as they were known, plus innumerable jars of human bones, existed on many of the fairways, but these were for the most part removed in 1920 as the result of a generous grant through Sir Henry May of $50,000, which was paid out as compensation to the families owning them. There was a particularly large number of the "jars" at the base of the "saddle" or, as it is known today, "Tommy Tucker" (derived from the Cantonese "Mm ta-ka ()" – don't strike). These jars unfortunately were in direct line from the tee and got broken one by one by duffed tee-shots. The penalty for picking out was one stroke but the picking was usually left to the caddie.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 16
Trees were conspicuous by their absence, but then so was the grass on the fairways which were more rolled mud than anything else. This made the fairways very dusty especially on a windy day. The Greens were turfed with local grass, much of it 'cabbage', which made putting difficult whilst a great deal of trouble was constantly experienced from worms which fed upon the young fresh roots and didn't give the Green keepers a chance. The course was almost devoid all that there was a great deal of room for improving the original layout. The Committee appointed Mr. L.S. Greenhill to work out with Mr. Kerr (who had been general manager of the club since 1914 and resided in the Orme Bungalow) on a new lay out and new bunkering.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 17–18
In 1919, a caddies union was discovered called "Po Tai Ngoi Yue" – Golf Caddies Club – which turned out to be a semi-triad society. The first caddie strike took place in April 1922 and was eventually settled.Robinson, S. (1989) "Festina Lente, A History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 81
On 2 November 1931, the New Course which had been designed by L.S. Greenhill some years before, was officially opened by Sir William Peel.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 20
It was said that Sir William Peel, the Governor of Hong Kong in early 1930s, was a keen golfer. Little was allowed to interfere with his weekly round of golf or his regular rides with the Fanling Hunt. He rode hard, plunging across the terraced rice fields, bogging down at times in the waterlogged mud.Spurr, Russell; "Excellency: Governors of Hong Kong", p.162
In 1933, George Bernard Shaw visited the club.Hong Kong Golf in the 1960s – Part Two
In 1936, Mr. Stanley H. Dodwell presented a "Captain's Chair" for the bar room to commemorate the disappearance of the last of the Pimples on the Old Course. Whenever the Captain is at Fanling and any other member or subscriber sits in the chair by mistake, the penalty will be one round of drinks at that particular table in memory of the departed pimples. It was fortunate that although this chair was looted during WWII, it was spotted being used as a Sedan Chair slung between two poles and recovered for the club.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 23
1945–1989 During the 1950s, all the greens remodelled and planted with Gezira or Uganda grass. This grass has all come from a shoebox full of seeded soil taken from Uganda to Cairo during the war and one more sod of this grass was flown from Cairo to Hong Kong in 1951.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 27–28
Sir Sidney Gordon, C.B.E., J.P., former President of the club, recalled his stopover at Cairo airport in 1951. "During the usual one-hour stopover and, as relations between the United Kingdom and Egypt were rather strained, the customs officer was somewhat suspicious of this damp, sackcloth-wrapped, parcel and insisted on it being opened. The contents made him even more suspicious but the intervention of the air crew enabled us to get it on board just before take-off."Robinson, S. (1989) "Festina Lente, A History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p.1
By the end of 1956, the indebtedness of the club had been reduced to $40,000 – a reduction of $387,000 in eight years.Waters, T.F.R., "History of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club", p. 26