Hong Kong Golf in the 1960s - Part One

At this stage in the history of Hong Kong golf, we’ll pause for my pleasant four-ball game at Fanling with the Governor, His Excellency Sir David Trench; Commissioner of Police Henry Heath; and Graeme Nicholl, who had come over from Shek O for the occasion.
I only hope they will forgive me for wrecking the game by bombarding them with questions.
The two 18-hole courses at Fanling have been laid out expertly on undulating land, among trees of many species. In places the rough resembles the angry stuff you get at Walton Heath, the fairways are good, and the terrain is more or less surrounded by handsome purple hills that someone quickly points out is China.
In fact, Fanling is very close to the frontier and on the motor- ride to the club Henry Heath diverted a mile or two to show us one of his observation posts overlooking what some people regard as the sinister land of China. It couldn’t look more peaceful. Sentries sauntered, taking casual interest in the fishermen throwing their nets from sampans drifting down the Pearl river dividing the New Territories from China. They might well have been British troops behaving exactly the same. We clearly saw the Chinese villages of Kaktim and Shataukok, where the demarcation line actually passes down the middle of the main street.
The greens at Fanling are nearly always good. Most of the playing surface is covered with an adaptation of gezira and uganda grass which travelled as a shoe box full of seeded soil from Uganda to Cairo during the last war. This flourished in Egypt, then one single sod of the grass was flown from Cairo to Hong Kong in 1951 and from this small handful of turf there developed the splendid greens we know to-day.
The line-up for our match was ‘H.E.’ and Henry Heath versus Nicholl and Houghton and after the first three holes I could see that the result was a foregone conclusion. Details of the game will therefore be skipped, for which most will be thankful.