Hong Kong Golf Club

Hong Kong Golf Club

Hong Kong Golf Club
Club information
Location	Fanling, Hong Kong
Established	1889
Type	Private
Total holes	63
Tournaments hosted	Hong Kong Open
Website	www.hkgolfclub.org
Old Course
Par	71
Length	6,246 yards
Eden Course
Par	70
Length	6,128 yards
New Course
Par	70
Length	6,547 yards
Deep Water Bay
Par	28
Length	1,608 yards

The Hong Kong Golf Club is a private golf club, and is one of only a few in Hong Kong. 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. 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 of 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.

On 8 May 1889, a notice was published on the Hong Kong Daily Press:

"GENTLEMEN INTERESTED IN THE ROYAL AND ANCIENT GAME OF GOLF ARE REQUESTED TO ATTEND A MEETING TO BE HELD IN THE HONGKONG CLUB ON FRIDAY 10TH MAY, 1889 AT 5 pm. TO CONSIDER THE QUESTION OF STARTING A GOLF LINKS IN HONGKONG OR KOWLOON."

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 His Excellency 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.