Golf is enjoying unprecedented popularity largely as a result of the opening of Hong Kong's only public course at Kau Sai Chau, an island off the coast of Sai Kung, in 1995.

The course was developed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for a cost of HK$500million. Until then, golfing options were confined to private clubs: the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling; Shek O Country Club; Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club; Discovery Bay Golf Club; and the Deepwater Bay Golf Club. But they were, and largely remain, exclusive to privileged members.

Attracting a staggering 120,000 rounds played a year, the Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course is by far Hong Kong's busiest course - and is now about to get much bigger.

With the south and north courses already in place, a third east course, designed around the island's hilltops and representing another HK$300million worth of investment, is scheduled to open early next month.

'The new course offers something completely new, with spectacular scenery and dramatic elevation changes,' said Cameron Halliday, general manager at Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course. 'We are expecting to accommodate an additional 60,000 rounds of golf a year.'

The workforce has already increased from 200 to 230 to cater for the growing demand from players, including hundreds of new players being introduced to the game with coaching every week. Last year alone, more than 7,000 youngsters started playing the game.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club now plans to plough even more cash into the sport's long-term growth with community development projects, especially at grassroots level. These include a Golf Academy giving children from families of limited means a chance to take up the sport - with elite training for those who show special talent.

'The academy will help Hong Kong widen its talent pool and elevate its status in the regional and international golfing arena,' said the Hong Kong Jockey Club's executive director of charities, William Yiu.

It would also provide vocational training for those keen to develop careers in the golfing industry, in areas such as green keeping, tournament management, and course management, operations and administration, he said.

Not only would Hong Kong train and nurture its own professionals to underpin future golf development, it would also be able to export its golf management skills to parts of the mainland and the region, Mr Yiu said.

Other projects under the umbrella of the new Kau Sai Chau Development Trust include the introduction of 'adaptive golf' for people with disabilities, along with additional sport and recreational facilities on Kau Sai Chau island.

Beyond golf courses, driving ranges for enthusiasts to hone their skills are crowded from Ma On Shan and Lung Kwu Tan in Tuen Mun to Tai Po, wherever suitable strips of land become available, often prior to future redevelopment.

Housing more than 240 individual bays, Oriental Golf City, on the Kai Tak runway, is Hong Kong's biggest driving range facility and even has its own credit card,

co-branded with Singapore banking giant United Overseas Bank Group.

Golf will also be taking off at Hong Kong International Airport, with SkyCity Nine Eagles Golf Course, a new nine-hole course due to open by the end of this year. The HK$100 million development includes an artificial lake and Hong Kong's first 'island green', along with lighting for nighttime golf, coaching and a clubhouse.

'Golf is certainly booming,' said Iain Valentine, chief executive of the Hong Kong Golf Association, which runs professional golf tournaments, trains aspiring professionals and operates the local handicap system.

'The association has grown in size to 81 qualified professionals with 43 under training. At the same time the number of golfers with handicaps in Hong Kong has grown from 5,000 when we started issuing USGA handicaps in 1995, to 16,000.

'There are obviously a lot more golfers than that, because not everyone has an official handicap. But we encourage all players to register because a lot more golf courses in Asia now require golfers to have handicaps before letting them onto the course.

'It is also encouraging that more Asian players, both men and women, are making it to the top level, while at the annual UBS Hong Kong Open we get to see at first

hand the top players competing in Hong Kong.'

While Hong Kong golfers have yet to make their mark even on the Asian PGA tour, opportunities may soon arise on the China tour, an ambitious new professional circuit aimed at speeding the development of the country's up and coming golfers, recently launched by the China Golf Association (CGA).

'The future for golf in China is not paying large sums to bring the world's superstars to play here. It is creating our own stars,' said CGA executive vice-president Jiang Xiuyun.

Key players

General manager

Head coach

Course manager

Head greenkeeper

F&B manager

Club manager

Jargon

PGA Professional Golf Association, national governing body of the sport, headed by the PGAs in the United States, Britain and Australia

Course rating Difficulty level of golf course: The higher the rating number, the more advanced and difficult it is

Handicap Indicates personal level of a player, calculated from scoring record and constantly updated

Par Number of strokes a top-level player should normally take to complete the hole or course

Stableford Common scoring system for group competitions

Bandit Players who keep their handicap artificially high, indicating a lower level of their actual ability to obtain a clear advantage to win a competition

Hacker Fun player with little motivation to improve