Golf Club Verandah’s – The Very Special Hong Kong Golf Club Verandah.

2 years ago by Comments Off on Golf Club Verandah’s – The Very Special Hong Kong Golf Club Verandah.

* Updated – March, 2025 

Verandahs! In particular, golf club verandahs.

Among the delights in many, many years reporting on tournament golf is the simple delight in returning year after year to the host club  that has so much going for it.

Whether it be liking the golf course, enjoying spending the week in a workable & friendly media centre, general tournament access or just the overall ambience of the of the host venue.

And there is also a good clubhouse.

And when I talk clubhouses, I’m speaking here of the Hong Kong Golf Club clubhouse, annual host to the Asian Tour’s Hong Kong Open and in recent year’s the LIV Golf Hong Kong.

For a person, who writes about the goings on inside the ropes and the courses that host the pros, it was a first for this journalist in singling out a clubhouse verandah.

It’s a strange golfing subject and was very much a first for this golf journalist.

While the LIV backed event is only new and having been first staged in 2024, the Asian Tour’s Hong Kong Open enjoys a marvellous history, having been first staged in 1959 and with the club sharing an honour the club with the legendary Augusta National Club, as being the only two clubs in the world to host the same professional event on the same golf course continuously for over 60-years.

I’ve attended the Hong Kong Open many times since the early 2000s when the event became co-sanctioned with the now-named DP World Tour.  The club itself is located about a 30-minute bus drive from downtown Hong Kong in suburban Fanling and it became a regular Tour stop for me as I could then travel on from Hong Kong to Australia for the Australasian Tour season, and also spend the Christmas festive season at home with family and friends.

The three Hong Kong golf courses, the Old, the New and the Eden, are special. They’re each traditional, old-style golf courses and not one’s where the ‘bomber’s in today’s modern game will thrive. It’s also a peaceful place despite the presence of towering blocks of home units.

A little history of the club is that it was founded in 1889 and with the club originally sharing golf with other sports at Happy Valley.

The Old Course at Fanling was built in 1911. The Old Course is the oldest 18-hole course in Greater China. It was followed in 1931 by the opening of the New Course and in 1969 by the addition of the Eden Course. All three are 18 holes, internationally acclaimed championship golf courses.

There were initially no trees on the Old Course, aside from some located close to the now third hole, and so vastly different to now.

The still stately-looking clubhouse was opened in 1914 and is a Grade II Heritage Building. 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.

Hong Kong Golf Club and it’s famed clubhouse verandah.

The pros working on their putting during the hosting of a Hong Kong Open.

Not many will be aware that up until 1996 the club was also known as the ‘Royal’ Hong Kong Golf Club. The ‘Royal’ was dropped from the name of the club in advance of the transfer in 1997 of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China though I still recall clubhouse logos featuring saying ‘The Royal Hong Kong Golf Club’ when I was present in those early 2000s.

Now let’s make our way to the verandah of the Hong Kong Golf Club, a place at the club that just lives and breaths relaxation, overlooking, as it does, the practice putting green and also the closely located to the opening tee of the Old Course along with the final green of the adjoining New Course.

Those fortunate in finding their way to Augusta National can sit under the huge oak tree that for one week of the year is the world epicentre for golf but for every other of the 51 weeks of the year, access is for the privledged few.

Even in visiting the Home of Golf, there’s nowhere that golfers, who are not members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews,  can meet before a round or then unwind in playing the Old Course at a location that actually overlooks the 18th tee and/or green.

For that matter, such a facility is a rarity at so many golf clubs around the world.

My own club at Crail in Scotland has a clubhouse that enjoys a stunning view over the closing few holes of the Balcomie Links course and while there is a small outdoor area,  Scotland being Scotland, it’s often far too windy and besides it’s a very small area and very rarely used.

There is fabulous verandah at the Valescure course in the south of France where there is a wonderful, stately-looking clubhouse also boasting a great verandah overlooking the practice putting green.

There’s just something special about sitting out on the verandah at the Hong Kong Golf Club watching the players work on their putting before the short walk to the first tee while, as mentioned, you can see those winding-up their rounds (outside of tournament week) on the close-by 18th green of the New Course.

And TV golf reporting legend Dougie Donnelly kind of agrees, as he once posted on his ‘X’ account.

 



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