Saturday delivered another perfect day for golf in the third round of the UBS Hong Kong Open at the Hong Kong Golf Club. There was barely a breath of wind to disturb the players' concentration, and the sun shone warm without being so hot as to trouble those who have bulked up for extra power.
The course was at its best early in the morning. There are some beautiful holes, particularly in the front nine. The green backdrop of Kowloon's hills interspersed with glass and steel high-rise creates some dramatic views, and the holes climb up and drop again in a series of undulations that provide endless character. There are raised tees, raised greens, and shots over valleys.
The fairways are lined with trees, mainly towering eucalyptus, which create a sense of atmosphere, tradition, and maturity, and provide a pleasing hint of what can be anticipated on many of the Chinese mainland's newer parkland courses when they have had a chance to develop. Above all, the whole carries that sense of the tradition that is the soul of the game of golf, and the secret to which those competitions that aspire to become Asia's 'Majors' must find the key.
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Tree-lined fairways and stunning backdrops make the Hong Kong Golf Club a joy to visit.
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Nature is overwhelmingly present in the shrubbery and flowers that complement the trees, in the birdsong that provides an agreeable accompaniment to the quiet murmur of the few spectators who have come out to watch the early starters, and in the squadrons of dragonflies and swarms of black butterflies that hover or flutter around the players as they line up their putts on the greens.
With twenty-one names within four of the lead at the start of play, the leaderboard buzzed like the swarming dragonflies as first one player and then another swooped with a birdie, or dropped a place or two with a bogey.
Encouragingly for the Asian support, the first to make a move among the front runners were China's Liang Wenchong and Lin wen-tang of Taipei, who both birdied the first. Lin followed with another birdie on 3 while Chawalit Plaphol of Thailand was picking up a shot on 2 to become the first challenger to better the starting target of eight-under. Meanwhile, English duo Oliver Fisher and Oliver Wilson, two of the overnight leaders, both dropped a shot at the first, while Colin Montgomerie started with the relative disaster of a double-bogey.
But the idea that any player was going to break clear was soon confounded. Lin made another birdie on 7 to join the leaders. Francesco Molinari of Italy picked up two birdies to make progress. Plaphol bogeyed at 5 to lose his advantage. Montgomerie and Wilson both picked up birdies to keep well in touch…