The drive to succeed

Updated: 2011-06-22 06:49

By Steven Chen(HK Edition)

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 The drive to succeed

James Stewart tees off on a course. The veteran golfer believes the need to work to make ends meet is making it difficult for professional sports stars to emerge in the city. Provided to China Daily

The game of golf has enjoyed spectacular growth in Asia. In Hong Kong some even have ventured into the pro ranks. Nonetheless, the great obstacle remains that a Hong Kong golfer simply cannot get enough playing time to win big on the PGA tour. Steven Chen reports.

What's the difference between hitting a hockey ball for fun and hitting a golf ball as a pro?

About 500 thousand dollars a year.

This huge amount is the difference between the amount that players in the primarily amateur sport of field hockey, and pro golfers in Hong Kong, need to spend every year.

"Playing golf as a pro is extremely expensive," says Jason Kwok, golf instructor, journeyman and one of a handful of Hong Kong Professional Golfers' Association (HKPGA) members who have tried their luck, but been unsuccessful, as full time golf professionals.

"You have to pay for hotel accommodation, flights to events, transport, meals and local caddies. This is on top of golf membership, green fees and daily living expenses when you're not competing. It costs at least $1,200 (HK$9,000) per tournament to compete. If you play further away, in Australia, it can easily be $4,000 or more. So if you play a full schedule of 22 Asian Tour events, it can easily cost HK$200,000 to HK$500,000 a year."

The issue of not enough money from tournaments or its financial cousin, sponsorships, structural problems and the runaway cost of living in the city combine to create a harsh landscape for any local dreaming of making it in the world of pro golf.

These same challenges, it could be argued, apply to any marquee sport played in the city. These arguably are the reason Hong Kong may always struggle to produce bona fide sports superstars of the likes of Tiger Woods or Kim Clisters.

"I played for about four or five years on the tour," says Kwok, "but with any pro sport, you need to be playing continuously for a number of years to improve your play. You don't know when you'll suddenly have a breakthrough and win a big tournament, so you have to keep playing."

While he tasted some success - second and fourth place finishes in two HKPGA events - it wasn't enough.

"I must have spent about $30,000 (HK$225,000) in my first year on the tour. It costs too much and I was spending too much money." As with many of his peers, Kwok found it hard to attract any kind of sponsorship without good results, even from kind hearted benefactors, and a few years later, he quit.

"Without results, you can't get people to back you and without backing, you can't play everyday and compete often enough to improve your game and win tournaments."

Making a living as a touring pro is "next to impossible", agrees James Stewart, a fellow pro golfer who, in the mid-90s, was a prolific player on what was then the fledging Asian Tour. Now a full-time coach, Stewart represented Hong Kong in the World Cup of Golf in 2004, came 4th at the Vietnam Open in 2004 and has topped the field in a handful of local events.

"Players need to be supported while they are playing because it's just too expensive. I've had people I know, people I've coached and fellow club members sponsor me. It's common in the US to have people investing in a player's career. They get a return on any winnings he makes, but in Hong Kong, it's a matter of having friends give you money as a loan that never gets repaid."

Like Kwok, Stewart relished his days as a touring pro and wonders how his career may have developed if he'd won the Vietnam event, but nowadays seems wryly resigned to his more stable job as a golf instructor at Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. Like the majority of coaches, Stewart teaches up to five classes at day, with the HK$300-per-lesson fees a much safer bet than navigating the choppy seas of the tour.

The Asian Tour is a much more lucrative prospect these days. With golf emerging as a sport for Asia's middle classes during the last 10 years, players are feeding more money into the game, but much of the cash seems destined for the pockets of other players in Asia, including those on the mainland.

 The drive to succeed

Jason Kwok watches a student during a class. Provided to China Daily

With Hong Kong's four private courses and one public course staging a handful of events annually offering purses of HK$70,000 per event, Hong Kong pros really are pros on the Asian Tour or that of bitter rival One Asia, where total prize monies can range between $300,000 for the Myanmar Open and $3 million plus for its Singapore counterpart.

"The difficulty with Hong Kong is that there aren't enough facilities," says Stewart. "We have four private courses, but most of the tee times will go to members. That only leaves (public course) Kau Sai Chau available for non-members.

"Pro golfers do have a club membership and we get a handful of complimentary rounds from all the golf clubs each year, but to raise your standard, you have to play many hours every day and there isn't that much (access) available."

As well as limited facilities and local tournaments, a lack of peers reduces opportunities to compete often and continually raise the bar, he says.

"In places like Melbourne, you have 30 courses, each within one hour of the city, so it's possible to play every day and cheaply. At the same time you have a group of 20 or so Australian professionals who are always on tour. So they're always pushing each other to do better and we can see the results. Some of the world's top golfers come from Australia."

Two other professionals, long time coach and player Joann Hardwick, whose father Joe was a founding member of the Hong Kong PGA and Derek Fung, a regular name on the leader board at many local tournaments agree that as well as commitment, the ability to play constantly is essential for creating world-class players.

"Basically, if you're not in the Top 20 finishers in any event, you're losing money," says Hardwick. "And unfortunately, often this is the case."

Like Kwok and Stewart, Hardwick played full time but turned to coaching when her results started to dry up after six years on the tour, while the bills kept coming in.

"I have to say, I was fortunate because my family was able to support me," says Fung, a grandson of Sir Kenneth Fung Ping-fan and member of one of Hong Kong's most prominent business families. "But without sponsorship, it is impossible to make it."

And even before they even launch a career, there is already pressure on young golfers, he says. "The mindset of a lot of Hong Kong parents is that their children need to be professionals". As for employment prospects while waiting to make it big, "being a coach or a caddy is not what they want their children to do. They want them to get a good degree.

"If a player came to me and told me he wanted to make it as a professional, I'd tell him to go to the US."

"In the States, sports stars are discovered at college," says Alex Jenkins, sports writer, avid golf fan and editor of Hong Kong Golfer magazine. "Sport at universities is taken very seriously. Athletes have to be invited to play for college teams. There are no tryouts. Once they're in they have access to a lot of facilities and they get to play every day."

With a future champion bringing reflected glory to the university, a better reputation and more students, it's good business to support athletes as much as possible, he says.

And once identified, it's often a short step to a career in the PGA.

A look at the amount of cash on the US PGA tour - roughly HK$40 million was won by last year's top earner, Matt Kucher while the average player can take home about HK$3.5 million - gives an idea of the kind of money it can take to sustain a touring pro.

"Nearly all the PGA players will have a guaranteed income, with money from corporate sponsors including sports equipment manufacturers. If they win a big tournament, it's good for business so these companies will want to put up the money. The money the players get will be enough to support their careers."

It's the kind of support that Hong Kong's current crop of pros can only dream about.

While the future of golf in the city looks promising, with an up and coming crop of teenagers challenging the world's best juniors under the tutelage of the publically funded Hong Kong Golf Association, the government's largesse stops as soon as amateurs turn pro.

And unless backed by family wealth, it's here where Tiger Woods want-to-bees come face-to-face with the harsh realities of the pro golf world.

"What we need is some kind of financial support for pros who want to play full time," says Stewart, "whether in the form of corporate sponsorship or a sponsorship programme set up by the government.

"We don't have the space, enough facilities or access to affordable courses for playing and practicing. So players need to go elsewhere to get the exposure they need to improve their game. And this costs a lot of money. They can never get good enough unless they can play every day. And you'll never find a world class golf champion that has to teach for a living."

Kwok gives a wry reply when he asked about the career that could have been.

"I think I could have been really good, if I'd stayed in longer. But in the end, I just couldn't afford it."

(HK Edition 06/22/2011 page4)