After the famine, the feast. For so long starved of top-level tournament golf, Hong Kong is now bracing itself for a mouth-watering end-of-year binge.
Over the course of the next six weeks, Hong Kong, home to five golf clubs and a golfing population that has swelled five-fold to 50,000 over the past decade, will be the centre of the region's golfing focus.
During that period, four major events will take place while two other tournaments will be held across the border in Guangdong Province, including the fence-building, Ryder Cup-style Straits Cup between the professionals of China and Taiwan.
Quite a change from years gone by when the Hong Kong Open and the Hong Kong Amateur Championship were the only regular events on the local golfing calendar.
Partly, that was because of the lack of golfing facilities; partly, it was due to the elitist nature of the sport; and partly it had to do with the poor exposure, making it an unattractive proposition for potential sponsors.
Much has changed in Asian golf in recent years. Not all for the better, perhaps. But such is the popularity of golf now, that it is recognised, in Hong Kong and throughout Asia, as a mainstream sport.
