June 2011 - From the President

My year-long tenure as president of the Hong Kong Golf Association is coming to an end and I would like to take this opportunity to talk about an eventful and successful past twelve months.

Firstly, the Hong Kong Open, which will be sponsored for the seventh consecutive year by UBS in December. The 2010 edition of the tournament once again provided great drama, with England's Ian Poulter playing some truly excellent golf to hold off the new European star Matteo Manassero and US Open champion Graeme McDowell. The outlook for the 2011 event looks especially promising following the announcement that the Mega Events Fund has earmarked HK$8 million for use in promoting the tournament. This is excellent news and we can once again look forward to seeing some of golf's most famous names teeing it up at Fanling.

The development of junior golf has long been a key issue for the HKGA and I am delighted to report that the 2010-2011 season has seen some outstanding performances by young local players. It is no coincidence that junior golfers were selected for the international teams sent to the Eisenhower and Espirito Santos Trophy events in Argentina. Youth also formed the backbone for the Hong Kong team sent to the Asian Games event in Guangzhou, which was the first time the SAR had ever been represented at this particular event.

Liu Lok-tin followed on from his success at the Hong Kong Close last year by winning the Hong Kong Open Amateur Championship in fine style at Clearwater Bay. In doing so, he became the first local golfer in history to hold both titles, which is a magnificent achievement.

Shinichi Mizuno is another young player with enormous potential. He showed tremendous character in winning this year's Hong Kong Close title, which came two months after a solid performance at the UBS Hong Kong Open, where he was the only amateur golfer in the field. He played very well there too, just narrowly missing the cut.

Tiffany Chan, who features in this issue of HK Golfer, has continued her excellent run of form and is developing very well. Her list of achievements is really too long to include here but I would like to wish her and all the junior golfers who will go on the annual summer tour of the United States the very best of luck. Under the guidance of National Coach Brad Schadewitz I'm sure we'll hear of many more fine results by our young players in the near future.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank EFG Bank for their continuing generous sponsorship. As a result, we are now able to provide more training and tournament participation opportunities for young golfers in Hong Kong. This is obviously crucial to the development of golf in the city.

Thanks, too, to all the golf clubs for their cooperation with the HKGA. Without their generosity our squad players would not have achieved such good results. Whether it's the use of the clubs' practice facilities or being able to secure tee times for national team training, their help and understanding has proved invaluable, as has the support of all the volunteers and staff at the HKGA. It is greatly appreciated.

Finally, I would like to welcome the incoming president David Hui. I wish him all the success in presiding over the HKGA in the months ahead.