Hong Kong children rub shoulders with stars like Ernie Els
Around 120 youngsters get opportunity to learn from South African great, along with William Liu and Jason Hak
More than 120 school children proved to be luckier than many golf fans in the city, as they had a short class with Hong Kong Open players yesterday.
Former world number one Ernie Els was joined by local talent Jason Hak and the mainland's top amateur William Liu to conduct the clinic, a community event of the Hong Kong Open, at the Tuen Mun Golf Centre.
Most of the children, who were from seven primary schools in Tuen Mun or Yuen Long, had no experience in the sport. But it did not take long for the youngsters to get excited when they watched players demonstrate long-range shots and hitting a specific target.
Before I came today I knew I would see world-class players at this clinic, but I didn't expect the former number one would be present and I can be the one to learn from him
A couple of children even got to learn from the three players. Don Wong Chiu-tung, 11, from Kwong Ming Ying Loi School made his schoolmates jealous - he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get personal tips from South African player Els.
Don attempted a couple of swings, but Els helped him out at first by holding his arms to help him get a feel of how to execute the swing.
"I felt lucky … Before I came today I knew I would see world-class players at this clinic, but I didn't expect the former number one would be present and I can be the one to learn from him," said Don with a big smile.
"My English is not so good and he [Els] asked if I knew English. I shook my head to tell him no, and then he grabbed my arms to show me how to swing the club … I was nervous but after a while I start to understand what he was saying better. He told me to look at the ball when I hit it," he said.
Don said yesterday's experience was a long awaited dream.
"I am very happy today as I wanted to play golf, but never got a chance before. I remembered when I was six years old, I walked pass this centre and picked up some balls that had landed in a nearby car park," said Wong, "I hit them with an umbrella at my grandpa's home, but the feeling was totally different from today's play with a real golf club."
The youngster who usually plays soccer for fun now hopes to take up golf.
"My mum thought it was not OK for me to go to the golf course alone. I will tell my parents I played golf with a top player and try to convince them to let me play golf," said Wong.
Both Hak and Liu enjoyed the hour-long clinic, which aims to inspire the next generation to take up the sport.
"The clinic was great. I love to see these kids," said Hak. "It would definitely help Hong Kong develop golf players. Even if they do not eventually play, it would get big support for the sport. I always want golf to be more publicly known here."
Liu said the children reminded him of when he began the sport.
"I started at six when my dad took me to the course. When I was hitting a ball, it was pretty tough. It's a good picture seeing these kids doing that; these are good memories," said Liu.
