DAVID Tonroe cut a disconsolate figure as he sat on the verandah of the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club last November, watching helplessly as the rain teemed down and pondering the unpredictable quirks of the Royal and Ancient game.
Given their home advantage, Tonroe and his teammates had begun that week with genuine hopes of taking Hong Kong to victory in the Southeast Asian men's amateur team championships for the Putra Cup for the first time since 1961.
However, not for the first time, when it most mattered the territory's top golfers were found wanting. A disastrous first round saw Hong Kong 16 strokes off the pace.
When torrential rain flooded the course, causing the second round to be cancelled and the event to be reduced to a 54-hole contest any prospects of a revival were drowned.
Ultimately, Hong Kong finished seventh of the nine nations, ahead of only Papua New Guinea and Brunei.
Tonroe, of whom there had been such high expectations, returned rounds of 76, 73 and 74. Respectable maybe, but not up to the standards he had set himself.
