Hong Kong has laid out the red carpet to a host of mainland athletes. Now it needs to adopt a French golfer.
The charismatic and colourful Jean Van de Velde can be seen pushing a pram around Mid Levels - when there is no European Tour event being played.
In December he had a baby boy [Hugo] with partner Jessica, a New Zealander who was born in Hong Kong and has lived in 'Asia's World City' all her life.
And Van de Velde says Hong Kong has been very lucky for him - becoming a father again and a winner when all seemed lost. That good fortune continued yesterday when the 39-year-old shot a four-under-par 68 to trail leader Henrik Stenson (pictured) by one stroke on the first day of the US$1.8 million BMW Asian Open at the Tomson Golf Club in Shanghai.
'I've been spending quite a bit of time in Hong Kong,' said Van de Velde, who is infamously known for throwing away the Open Championship at Carnoustie, Scotland, in 1999.
'I'm not a resident yet, still a visitor. My wife - I call her that because she is my partner and we have been together a long time - was born and raised in Hong Kong and is a resident. And her mother and sister both live in Hong Kong so we decided to have the baby around her family,' said Van de Velde, who has two children from a previous marriage.
Hong Kong is fast becoming a second home for the popular Frenchman, who has been a resident in Dubai for the past three years after spending a decade in Geneva.