When Gary Player opened Hong Kong’s public golf course on Kau Sai Chau
- The sporting facility was built on an island off Sai Kung in the New Territories despite an outcry from environmental activists, and feng shui curses
- South African sporting great Gary Player’s company designed the two 18-hole courses
“Gary Player to hit a first for public golf,” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on December 11, 1995. “South African golfing great […] will strike the opening tee-shot in this morning’s inaugural event at the Kau Sai Chau public course,” the report continued.
Player’s company had designed two 18-hole courses for Kau Sai Chau, a 15-minute ferry ride from Sai Kung town.
“The opening of Hong Kong’s first public golf course will at last remove the mystique of a game which, in Hong Kong, has been too expensive for the masses,” reported the Post.
The HK$400 million project had come under fire from environmentalists after plans for the course on the former military site were announced in March 1993. In a report headlined “Sports star hits back at golf critics,” Player said, “Golf courses are a gift to nature. It’s vitally important to have these green belts […] in populated areas.”
Green Power founder Dr Simon Chau Sui-cheong dismissed Player’s comments as “total rubbish” and on May 1, 1994, the Post reported that an environmental impact study had found one hectare of mangroves and some woodland would have to be transplanted to make way for the course.
