For Hong Kong's hardy band of professional golfers, it seemed that there would be precious little festive cheer in 1998.
Unable to find a sponsor for their annual showpiece tournament, the scheduled pre-Christmas staging of the 24th Hong Kong PGA Championship appeared in grave jeopardy.
The Hong Kong PGA's members, however, are nothing if not resourceful, as they proved by dreaming up a novel way of raising the prize fund of almost HK$500,000.
Each of them was charged with the responsibility of selling three spots in the curtain-raising Pro-Am for the sum of HK$20,000. And in this season of goodwill, their plight received a sympathetic hearing from Hong Kong's golfing community and the tournament duly went ahead.
For the members of the Hong Kong PGA, the importance of the PGA Championship cannot be over-stated. It is the only 72-hole event on their calendar; the only opportunity for the majority of the members to play four competitive rounds in as many days.
No wonder Hong Kong continues to lag so far behind its regional rivals in professional golf, with Dominique Boulet and Derek Fung the SAR's only two regular tournament players.
Had they remained in Hong Kong rather than honing their talents at American universities, it's likely that they'd have followed the path of most of the current crop of local pros and focused their attentions on earning a living from teaching the game.
