3rd China Hickory Open Player Profile
Golf in the Middle Kingdom
Daniel Norstedt
I am looking forward to playing in the China Hickory Open in Hong Kong. I enjoyed playing mainland courses when I was a teacher at Jinan University in Guangzhou. I said to Dr Hu, my friend and dean, that China has made some good contributions to the game, and she replied. “Yes, when we adopt something, we make if better.” She has a good point.
I once looked up many Mainland courses on the Web and found no courses less than 7,000 yards. New courses are designed for new golf technology. Yet I have played many hickory venues where teeing ground was moved up to accommodate a length more appropriate to hickory, and this works fine.
Playing Hickory with Friend
Yet in Hong Kong a traditional course can be found. The announcement for the 2026 China Hickory Open states:
Hong Kong boasts China's earliest and continuously operating golf club, the Hong Kong Golf Club, founded in 1889. The founding of the Hong Kong Hickory Golf Team (HGT) will undoubtedly help promote hickory golf in Hong Kong, with high potentials of attracting growing numbers of enthusiasts in joining the HGT. The Jockey Club KSC Public Golf Course will be this year's venue for the 3rd China Hickory Open scheduled for November 16-18. Details can be found on www.cnhickorygolfers.com.”
Hong Kong Jockey Club KSC Public Golf Course
I did not play hickory golf in China, but I enjoyed many rounds between 2000 and 2005. Although my experience is now dated, I decided to report what I learned about golf in China up to 2005, hoping that it may encourage others to take advantage of the opportunities there.
There is no private land in China. Typically land use is governed by leases, seventy years for residential property and forty to fifty years for commercial and industrial use. In 2005 there was only one independent golf course, in Zhongshan (Sun-Yat Sen city) in Guangdong Province. Other courses were built mainly as part of housing developments. Unlike in the West, the golf course was not an add-on amenity for residents of the development, but rather the housing was constructed to facilitate the construction of a golf course.
I taught several subjects in short stints at Jinan University between 1997 and 2005. I was privileged to play golf because of the efforts to two of my female adult students. One arranged a game for me at Guangzhou’s main course, Luhu. The other said her husband, a securities manager, was leaning golf and wanted to play the game with me. This led to rounds at several courses with this man and his friends, plus frequent practice sessions at a golf range near the campus.
With Chinese Student
Golf at Luhu
Annie (her English name) arranged a game for me with a colleague of her husband, who was a member at Luhu.
On the day of our game, Annie introduced me to my host and left us on our own. We shook hands by the practice area, and he deposited three large buckets of balls at my station, saying he would retrieve me for breakfast after I finished hitting the balls. I have some arthritis in my wrists, so I decided not to stress them with iron shots. I put the balls on the rubber tee and hit them all with my driver aiming at the Shanghai Buick advertisement at the end of the range.
At the dining room two young women in long silk dresses ushered us to breakfast. One beckoned to the Western buffet, but we entered the dim sum area instead. After an excellent morning dim sum, we set off for the game. We joined two other players, and each player had a caddie. The caddies all were female, and each gave her player a card with her name on it. Players evaluate the caddies by dropping the name card into one of four slots at the end of the round – the first slot for excellent work, the last for improvement needed. The caddies took turns driving what I call the “sag wagon,’ a large golf car that can seat up to four in addition to the driver. Beverages were on the golf car, and clubs could be placed there but our caddies carried.
The caddies are expected to “club” the player and line up the putts. Mine would just tap a finger on the recommended club after having observed my play on the first two holes. They knew the greens well, but if a ball failed to follow the anticipated path, I winced at observing the pain of the caddy’s “loss of face.”
On longer holes the sag wagon driver would often go ahead to serve a forecaddie function. Club recommendations were accurate, except for the tendency to present the “p-gan,” (pitching wedge) for most any shot near the green.
Luhu Golf Club
We enjoyed lunch in the clubhouse after the game and then retired to the nap room. South China has a long tradition of napping after lunch. Here is where Ms Hu’s comment is relevant. Both the sag wagon and the nap room would appeal to members of the Society of Hickory Golfers – especially to the “super seniors.”
This was a typical outing in South China, where the activity can begin early and go all through the day. Sometimes from morning to evening dim sum. But Annie retrieved me in the late afternoon. I thanked my host and fellow players and was driven back to the campus.
Out and About
We did outings to several courses in Guangdong, including the one in Zhongshan that had an official PRC blessing (and some holes modeled after famous ones abroad). I participated in a securities company outing on the coast north above Hong Kong and we played newer courses west and north of Guangzhou. A favorite was the Foshan course because Foshan is very close to the town of Shunde, which has several chef academies. My host would say: “Let’s play at Foshan and have dinner in Shunde; the best ‘cookers’ are in Shunde.” Several of the players were of the Chaozhou people, and I also was introduced to their cuisine. Golf clubs in the UK are an extension of London clubs, which emphasized good dining. China is a “live to eat” rather than “eat to live” culture, so it Is logical that we dined well after hitting the ball. United Kingdom golf took me past the welcome “cheeseburger at the turn and steak for dinner” that we enjoy at home, and China golf brought me much farther at the dining table.
Summing Up.
Hickory golf occupies a niche that attracts people with multiple interests.
We typically read golf history and many of us work on clubs in our shops. China and Hong Kong offer very interesting cultures, and there are many options for post-golf activities. Xi Jinping, a proponent of exercise but not always happy with deal-making in golf clubhouses, is emphasizing China’s proud ancient history, so visitors are particularly welcome at museums and archeological sites. After the golf event, there is plenty to see and do in Hong Kong, or a bullet train ride to a Mainland city steeped with history and offering reginal cuisine would be a good top off to the golf experience.
