WHEN IAIN VALENTINE was a child learning to swing a golf club in his native Scotland, he did not spend hours at the driving range. 'You could just walk on to the course and have a game. Juniors were always encouraged to play,' he said.
But now, as chief executive of the Hong Kong Golf Association (HKGA), he knows how hard it is for local youngsters to make the leap from range to fairway, a critical step in the development of any budding Tiger Woods.
'There simply aren't enough golf courses. Unless kids are lucky enough to have parents who are members of clubs, they are pretty much restricted to driving ranges,' he said.
As the man responsible for nurturing golf in Hong Kong, Mr Valentine is committed to broadening the popularity of the game among young people. Every month, the HKGA runs a junior talent identification day to help discover future stars.
Between 30 and 40 children, aged between 5 and 16 turn up to hit balls from the driving bays at City Golf in Kowloon and Oriental Golf City at the old Kai Tak airport under the watchful eye of PGA professional Brad Schadewitz.
About half of them are invited back for a further training session, and a lucky few make it through to join the association's junior golf squads.