Hong Kong golfer Jonathan Lai found his niche on the greens instead of the soccer pitch his dad once dominated
Yale graduate is the son of one of Hong Kong’s powerful centre-backs of the 80s and 90s but the 22-year-old is glad he took up golf instead of soccer
He was one of Hong Kong’s most powerful centre-backs, playing for local powerhouses Seiko and South China, but retired footballer Lai Law-kau’s son, Jonathan, has taken a different career path which he hopes will lead him to more glory on the greens.
Lai senior played at the top-level in Hong Kong for almost two decades from the 1980s. He turned out for the defunct Seiko and Lai Sun teams as well as giants Eastern and was a member of the Hong Kong team for years.
So you would expect young Jonathan to lace up his boots and follow suit as a professional footballer?
As fate has it, Jonathan fell in love with golf clubs, greens and the intricacies of golf and it has put him in good stead: His golfing skills helped him earn a place at Yale University.
And in February after graduating from Yale with a mechanical engineering degree last summer, Jonathan won the Hong Kong Close Amateur Championship in Fanling in February.
His proud father is delighted his son has excelled in a different sport albeit not the sport that made Lai senior a central figure on the football pitch.