The first number I rang was to the representative of Kellett Golf Society. At the time I was living on the south side of Hong Kong Island and not far away from Kellett School. A rather snotty-sounding woman answered the phone, and her only question was: “Are you a member of the Yacht Club?” When I answered “no”, she put the phone down.

The only other name on the list that had any form of recognition was Little Sai Wan Golfing Society, and that was because my wife is a runner and I was aware at this early stage that there was also a Little Sai Wan Hash.

Hoping for a better outcome than the first call I dialled the number listed and when I politely asked, “Is this the right number for Little Sai Wan Golfing Society”? A rather stern voice replied, “How did you get this number…?”

I told the gentleman on the other end of the phone how the call had come about and he quickly calmed down and became more helpful. He was the Honorary Secretary (Ian …?) and told me that there was a waiting list for membership of about two years, but that there would be a game at DBGC the following Friday and that I would be welcome to play as his guest.

A week or so later I alighted the bus at DBGC where the Hon Sec was waiting to greet me, and he led me though to the veranda where the society members were having a pre-game lunch, and introduced me to many of those present.

This was October so the weather was perfect for golf. The views were spectacular and the course was in very good condition. I shot 84.

After the game we had a few drinks with dinner, and I was informed that there would be one of their regular monthly competitions some three weeks later over the New Course at Fanling. I remember being told that the greens at Fanling would be very slow.

I borrowed a car from my wife’s boss to be able to get to the golf club and turned off the highway at the first sign I saw for Fanling. I got hopelessly lost. I managed to find the golf club by sheer luck and fortunately was there before my tee time.

I remember that the weather was perfect for golf and I also remember shooting in the low 80s and also having EIGHT three putts on super slick putting surfaces! So much for the slow greens…

After the game the Hon Sec asked me whether I would like to become a member of the society and if so I would need a proposer and a seconder. Having replied in the affirmative he said that he would be prepared to propose my membership, while one of our playing partners that day said that he would be happy to second my application.

That same evening I received a call from the Hon Sec to say that there had been a committee meeting after the game, and that my application for membership had been approved. Slightly confused, I asked about the two-year waiting list and was told that it was a “selective” procedure.

 I played in every game possible after becoming a member, as it was a complete tonic to spend half a day with like-minded people in the beautiful countryside of Hong Kong.

 From memory our preferred green fees then were HK$350 per round. We would often finish playing golf at lunchtime and then play snooker upstairs for the rest of the afternoon.

 We had several social functions during the year in which wives/partners were encouraged to attend. Such functions were always well attended and everyone wore business suits. Such evenings almost always ended up with a joke-telling session, and often the bluest of the jokes were told by member’s wives!

 As with all such groups of people, special friendships were formed, and two of my best friends turned out to be Leigh Beaman and Don Grange. Both worked for Cathay Pacific, as did many of our members at the time, and both were (and I’m sure still are) very good golfers and wonderful characters.

 Don in particular was never slow to take up the microphone at the after dinner joke-telling sessions and I remember him once telling a tale in Bulgarian, which had everyone in the rotunda falling over with laughter. Don, for the record, could not speak Bulgarian, which made his yarn all the more humorous!

 Both Leigh and Don had previously held committee posts and were totally committed to the sound running and success of the society. Don was a HKGC member while Leigh was a CWB member, so both had the opportunity to play golf whenever they wanted to. LWSGS was special to them both, however, and they would play whenever their flying rosters had them in town. Indeed, many of our CX members would arrive back from a long-haul flight in the early hours and head straight to Fanling for the game.

 When I played with either Don or Leigh, or with any of their CX colleagues, I would often say on the first tee, “No discussions about airplanes today, gents!”

 In May the following year I was approached by the then captain, Terry Keeley, and asked if I would stand for the committee. I replied that I was too new to the society to be considered for such an important role, but Keeley replied that it would be good to have “new blood” on the committee.

 Having less than a year earlier expected to have to wait two years to become a LSWGS member I was now on the committee. Meetings were fairly standard affairs with the approval/rejection of new members and the planning of social functions.

 We played both DBGC and CWB away days once a year and also embarked on the Thailand Tour. I participated in the tour during my first full year of membership and enjoyed every minute of my first ever trip to Thailand. Pictures I took of the golf courses we played on that trip were sent to a golf magazine for possible publication and in a round about way led to my becoming a full time golf course and tournament photographer. I also remember Leigh ending up fully dressed in the hotel swimming pool after dinner one evening, but that’s a story for another time…

 The society ran very well while the CSOS guys were still in Hong Kong and our invoices for games came the following week in a BFPO (British Forces Post Office) envelope with a (British) 1p stamp. In those days people paid their bills on time, or most of them.

To play in a game we had to ring a number, which connected to an answerphone in the match secretary’s house. Everything happened by phone in those days, as we did not have that annoying but massively helpful thing called the Internet. The answerphone was in the airing cupboard, by the way, so as not to wake the Match Sec’s family when it rang at all hours of the night and from various parts of the world.

 In 1994 we celebrated our 30th anniversary with an afternoon stroke-play event over the Eden Course. I played with Joe Hardwick, who was then the resident pro at HKGC, and also Jeff Northam, from whom I took over as captain that day.

 As we stood on the first tee waiting to tee off four very old gents were making their way up the first fairway. I remember saying to Joe that it was going to be a very slow round following the four old gents, but Joe told me to wait and see. By the time we got to the second green they old guys were long gone and we didn’t catch them again.

The ladies joined us for the dinner in the rotunda that night and it was as good a night as I can ever remember. During the round I politely asked Joe if he would mind offering “a couple of items” from the pro shop to put in the lucky draw, and when he arrived at the rotunda with several of his staff members I thought I was in Aladdin’s Cave of golf. Joe gave us golf bags, kit bags, golf balls, shirts and many, many other such items. He also gave us a framed print of the 18th of the Eden Course, which sold in the pro shop for several thousand dollars.

When I thanked Joe for his kindness after the dinner he simply replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll get it all back on Monday morning from the Japanese tourists!”

 Hong Kong was changing rapidly in the countdown to 1997 “takeover” and some 1,000 local people per week were leaving to gain overseas passports. For the society things began to change from about 1995 onwards, as by then CGHQ was scaling back its operations at Stanley and Tai Mo Shan and moving the operation to Australia. Most of the staff were being recalled to their country of origin, mostly to the UK.

 As if this was not bad enough the East Asian economic crisis of 1997-8 saw Cathay Pacific offer “basings” to their flight crew in which they could now be based out of their home country, rather than live in Hong Kong.

 The result of this turmoil was that society membership dropped to an alarming level and we were often left to book just two or three flights for our monthly competitions.

At a crisis committee meeting during this time we had one item on the agenda: whether or not to fold the society and send all of the trophies to GCHQ (one or two of the more militant CSOS members “suggested” that the trophies should go with them when they left anyway).

After some heated debate it was decided that we should try to preserve what had been created over so many years. Encouraging each other, Leigh and I made it our mission to save the society from collapse and so a week before each monthly event we would each take half of the mailing list and telephone everyone on it and encourage them to play, and also to bring a guest.

It was slow going and a tedious task, but we managed to keep the match numbers up, and after a period of time we were able to stop the decline and we began to rebuild the membership database.

Naturally, members came from all walks of life and our membership became a very diverse group of people. We had to be more relaxed in accepting members, and every once in a while we were left to rue giving membership to someone who clearly was not of our ilk.

Collecting green fees by the old honesty postal system had to be abandoned because payments arrived later and later, and sometimes not at all. As such we invoked a pay-on-the-day system. One member in particular took undue advantage of the situation and feigned forgetfulness to arrive with his checkbook for several consecutive games. In the end we were forced to write off his debt as he simply stopped playing with us and refused to respond to demands for payment of several thousand dollars.

Another member walked off the golf course midway though the front nine, as he was not playing well. This was clearly unacceptable, not least because he was playing with Leigh, who at the time was society captain!

During the years of turmoil we stopped playing our annual games at DBGC and CWB, and even our event at Deep Water Bay (Deep Water Bay Classic). To maintain the Thailand tour we joined forces with Big Sai Wan, and this event then morphed into the Asian Ryder Cup.

After several years of holding the captaincy I told Leigh that I was going to step down. Leigh said that he would take over as captain if I agreed to take over the vacant role of president, to which I agreed.

 The challenges to keep the society going did not ease off for several years, although a very close relationship with the management of the golf club and some of the club’s committee members helped us in our cause.

 We successfully celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2004, and then in December 2014 we celebrated our 50th anniversary in fine style. One month previously we even had the unique opportunity to play one hole with golfing legend Gary Player, who was invited to join us for our November event and stayed on for lunch and provided a speech.

 Slow play remains the one major issue that we need to avoid to be able to continue to enjoy our playing rights at Fanling, and to this end we have had to terminate the membership of a small number of people who failed to understand the importance of this issue.

 The old days of the committee changing every two to three years to coincide with tours of duty of the CSOS personnel disappeared when they finally left in 1996 and our subsequent loss of members meant this could no longer happen.

 What has held us together is largely down to the dedication of a number of people who have been prepared to take on a committee role and maintain that role for an ongoing number of years.

 JP Cuvelier became the match secretary after Rob Henderson took up a job as a golf club manager in the UK in (date) and has maintained that role to this day. Simon Rudolph spent several years looking after the society funds as treasurer until leaving for Thailand in 2015. That important role has been taken over by Dale Willetts, who previously held the post of handicap secretary. Rob is now the honorary secretary after Ken Tashima vacated the post after many years of stewardship. Ken will leave for California this year. Tony Michell and Andre Kriesel continue to lead the society as captain and vice captain respectively, while Roger Best – now recognised as our constitutional advisor, maintains the important role of membership secretary.

 Rick Siemens, a director of the Asian Tour, has held a committee post for several years while Todd Hooper and Duncan Spooner are more recent appointees, however both are very good golfers and knowledgeable of the Rule of Golf. Todd took over the post of handicap secretary when Dale assumed the treasurer role, but sadly has also relocated to the US.

 The society remains in good hands and seems set to prosper under the current committee. Our relationship with the golf club remains positive and our competitions are still keenly fought.

 Slow play must still be avoided and the people we admit as new members must continue to uphold the values of the game of golf and the traditions the society holds dear.

 The next 50 years will hopefully be as rewarding as the past 50.

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