Fanling old course more welcoming

Charlie Chun and Wallis Wang

Fanling's old golf course will open to the public as a leisure park every Sunday afternoon for six weeks starting this weekend, according to Hong Kong Golf Club.

The 32-hectare course will be taken back by the government on September 1.

The club said visitors can enter part of the old course covering holes one to three - a 9.5-hectare area where the government plans to build public housing -from 1pm to 9pm on Sundays.

Part of the course will be transformed into a historical eco-park for the public, while its existing function as a golf course will continue in the mornings, it said.

The arrangement in which the course caters to golfers in the morning and to visitors in the afternoon was piloted on July 1, attracting more than 10,000 people.

"The measure can cater to the demands of golf players and allow other people to enjoy the scenery of the only golf course with over 100 years of history in Asia," said club captain Andy Kwok Wing-leung. "The old course has diversified functions, including providing an iconic international tournament venue for golf enthusiasts and a heritage and ecology park for the public."

Kwok said the club has been conserving the ecological environment of the course, with a large number of flora and fauna of great conversational value coexisting.

"The coexistence of a golf course and a historical eco-park can benefit all Hong Kong people and tell a good Hong Kong story," he said.

Although the area will be taken back by the government, the club is expected to rent it from mid-September to mid-November for the Aramco golf tournament and the Hong Kong Open.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung has said the 9.5-hectare area at the golf course will be reserved for public housing, while the rest of the land will be managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

The LCSD will also launch new facilities, including a football pitch, Yeung said, adding it has no intentions of running a golf club.