Overview

The modern game of golf, which originated in Scotland, gradually spread across the globe from the mid-19th century, first to Asia and then to Europe, North America, Oceania and Africa. It has become a popular outdoor sport, a national and international competitive game, and an Olympic event. The spread of the modern game of golf was a by-product of the British Empire. Golf courses were constructed and clubs established as early as 1829 in India, long before they appeared in mainland Europe. As the British colonial empire expanded into China, Scots arrived in the country as naval officers, consular and customs officials, engineers, doctors, architects, merchants, bankers and accountants, and settled in China’s opening trading ports. Scottish missionaries reached into the Chinese interior to seek new converts for the Lord. As they became residents in China’s trading ports, they brought along their national game. Almost without exception, early Chinese golf courses and clubs appeared first at the trading ports. Those behind the courses and clubs were overwhelmingly Scots, with some coming directly from the birthplaces of modern golf such as St. Andrews and Carnoustie. According to our research, the earliest golf course in China appeared in Hankou (Hankow) in 1870 and the earliest golf club was the Hankow Golf Club, incorporated in 1878. This indicates that China was the third country, after only India and France, where the game of golf spread outside the UK. Later, courses and clubs appeared in other Chinese ports: Hong Kong in 1889, Yantai (Chefoo) in 1890, Shanghai in 1894 and Tianjin (Tientsin) in 1895, followed by many others. With the aid of plentiful illustrations, this book tells the story of the first 80 years of golf in China.

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Wayne Xing is a golf collector and historian. He is a member of the U.S. Golf Heritage Society and a member of the British Golf Collectors’ Society. Wayne founded the private Golf Heritage Museum in 2016 at his home town in Weihai, Shandong Province. In the same year, Wayne founded the China Golf Heritage Society (formerly the China Golf Collectors’ Society). Wayne is now director of the Hidden Grace Golf Museum in Shenzhen, China’s first non-profit golf museum approved by the government. Christoph Meister is Vice President and former President of the European Association of Golf Historians & Collectors (EAGHC). He is Captain of the German Hickory Golf Society and a scholar of golf collecting and history. Meister’s grandmother was born in Beijing on August 11, 1916 and fell in love with golf when she was almost 50 years old. In memory of his grandmother, who helped promote modern golf in Germany, Meister has systematically studied the history of golf in China over the years.

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