My time as a sports reporter with the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong was memorable, especially when it came to golf, with the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling particularly etched in my mind.
It was previously called the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club and dropped the “Royal†after the Chinese regained control of the territory in 1997.
After all, you just need to crane your neck slightly to be able to see across the border to Shenzhen from the first tee. China is practically a solid three-iron away.
Fanling is the venue for this week’s Hong Kong Open, which brings back floods of memories of events I’ve covered there and the many world-class players to have played on the Composite Course.
People ask me what it is like to have met so many famous sports stars but I always say, as a journalist, you never “meet†them, you only interview them.
A meeting is when both parties go away knowing who the other is and theoretically file those names away in memory.
When a journalist and athlete get together for a brief time, it is more than likely that only the reporter will remember it.
One of my earliest memories was of Nick Faldo winning the 1990 Johnnie Walker Classic, the inaugural event.
None of us thought the tournament would become what it is now, with a list of star-studded winners including Tiger Wood, Fred Couples and Ernie Els, among others.
I also remember standing on the 18th on a Wednesday as golfers practiced, and along came Payne Stewart, before his US Open victory.
He agreed to an ad hoc interview and happily talked about how his plus-fours may lose the NFL colours because of a disagreement.
Going way back to the mid-80s, I covered an amateur women’s event and what should have been a relaxed weekend turn nasty when the Zimbabwe team walked out because of apartheid-era South Africa’s presence.
Then there was the time I was kicked out of the restaurant in mid-interview because I was wearing jeans.
The Hong Kong Open lurched along those days, begging for sponsors on a yearly basis.
However, since UBS took over several years ago, the tournament has become an important leg of the Asian Tour and is also co-sanctioned by the European Tour.
This week’s Hong Kong Open has a decent field, including Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, Stuart Appleby, KJ Choi and Faldo making a welcome return.
I’d love to be there but my new home in Kuala Lumpur is a bit too far away. I don’t know if I’ll ever be there for another tournament but the memories remain close.
