UBS Hong Kong Open 2009: Free hotdogs, beer and oh, some famous golfers

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be invited to the UBS Hong Kong Open 2009 at the Hong Kong Golf Club (map) in Fanling. It was the first time I’d ever been to the Golf Club and though I don’t actually know anything about golf, it was quite a relaxing experience for a chilly Sunday afternoon.

For half a day, I wandered around taking advantage of the free hotdogs and beer (for club members only) and watched the top European and Asian pro golfers vie for the hole in one. That’s about as far as I know when it comes to golf, but I have to say, it was highly entertaining observing all the different kinds of people that come to these kinds of events.

The Golf Club is a beautiful place, to say the least, filled with exactly the kind of people you would find at such an exclusive organization. I couldn’t help but snicker at all the high snobeity clichés I could think of the whole time I was there. You had your Asian housewives dressed in full pastel coloured golf outfits complete with four-year-old sons running around with tiny golf clubs and Western husbands wearing matching pastels and a happy beer induced grin on their faces, your middle-aged Asian men with bleached blonde hair trying to get the attention of the pro golfers and chunky European women with their fanny packs attached tightly to their waists. I even met some big time restaurant chain owners, club managers and also bumped into a couple of my old international school teachers!

Don’t get me wrong, I really did have a great time and am very grateful to have experienced this year’s Open, especially since I’d never seen a golf tournament live before. I enjoyed watching in anticipation as pros such as Miguel Angel Jimenez puffed away on a cigar as he tee’d off alongside 20-year-old rising star Rory McIlroy—Europe’s answer to Tiger Woods—and the Korean Y.E. Yang who recently beat Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship.

In the end, it was Frenchman Gregory Bourdy who took the prestigious title and I must admit, I found it all much more interesting and exciting than the time I caught the Salem Open in Hong Kong and sat for what seemed like hours watching tennis—a sport I know even less about than golf. To this day, that’s the only time in my life that I ever recall being quiet while I was awake.

So, will I return for next year’s UBS Hong Kong Golf Open? Sure, I can never say no to free hotdogs.

Photo credit: Jessy DB, The Hong Kong Guide