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ASIAN GOLF INDUSTRY FEDERATION
Shenzhen, China: Golfing dignitaries from around the country have celebrated the establishment of China’s first golf museum and a new exhibition detailing golf history over 40 years of reform across China.
Described as a ‘home for golf’ for the national golf community, the Shenzhen Hidden Grace Golf Museum gathering coincided with the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 40th anniversary of the China Golf Association (CGA).
Officials said the opening of the first museum in China dedicated to golfing history bears testament to triple golf management successes across the country.
Firstly, the professional management of golf courses – promoting golfing culture and etiquette across ‘New China’. Secondly, the training and development of professional international golfing talents across China. And thirdly, the management success that facilitated pulling together nearly 10,000 golfing treasures, spanning four centuries of golf, in the newly opened World Pavilion exhibit.
Approved for establishment by the Shenzhen Municipal Government in 2024, the Hidden Grace Golf Museum held its opening ceremony on May 5, 2024 and officially opened its doors to the public free of charge. On September 12 in the same year, it obtained the national official qualification as a private non-enterprise museum. The museum has an ambitious five-fold mission to:
The golf museum – located inside the Castle Hotel at the Hidden Grace Golf Club in Longgang District, Shenzhen – is divided into two exhibition areas: the World Pavilion and the China Pavilion. The World Pavilion houses nearly 10,000 exhibits, covering the development of modern golf over the past four centuries. The China Pavilion records the history and displays exhibits, dating from 1870 to 1950, from over 50 golf courses and clubs.
After a year of preparation, together with strong support from the China Golf Association, the Guangdong Golf Association (GGA), the Shenzhen Golf Association (SGA), scores of golf course managers and renowned professional golfers, the Modern China Golf History Exhibition finally welcomed its first audience in the China Pavilion for the opening ceremony of a brand new exhibit: Modern China Golf History.
Among the distinguished guests in attendance were Xu Deli, former Vice Governor of Guangdong Province and former Chairman of the GGA; Wang Yuping, Vice Chairman of the CGA; Zhuang Guodong, Director of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau of Longgang District, Shenzhen; Feng Xiong, Executive Chairman of the GGA; Deng Xueqin, Chairman of Genzon Group; Cui Zhiqiang, former Secretary-General of the CGA; Zhang Zhanheng, Director of the Shenzhen Project Care Foundation; Chen Chaoxing, former General Manager of Forward Group; Xing Wenjun, Curator of the Hidden Grace Golf Museum; Dr Aylwin Tai, Director of the Hidden Grace Golf Museum and the first General Manager of Zhongshan Hot Spring Golf Club; Lin Ruojia, Deputy Curator of the Hidden Grace Golf Museum and Chairman of Shenzhen Global Culture and Tourism Co Ltd; Lin Chunyang, representative of Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, Chairman of the Fok Ying Tung Group and Executive Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Nansha Golf Club; Deng Hanmin, Secretary-General of the SGA; and Liu Dong, Director of the Hidden Grace Golf Museum.
As the first golf museum in China, it showcases the history of contemporary Chinese golf. The exhibition is very user-friendly, even for those with little or no prior golfing knowledge, and provides concise yet detailed historical backgrounds through pictures, texts, and an eclectic collection of cultural relics that showcase the development of golf in China over the past 40 years.
At the opening ceremony, Zhang Zhanheng presented a commemorative plaque to Xing Wenjun, acknowledging the Golf Museum Public Welfare Funding made possible through the Shenzhen Care Action Foundation. This funding has enabled the golf museum to operate and open its doors to the public for free, helping educate and inform a wide audience on the successes that China has achieved in golf to date, including elevating professional Chinese golfers to the world stage, where they have enjoyed victories in international golf Tours.
Zhang Zhanheng said: “We look forward to firmly nurturing a positive golf culture across China. We are planting the seeds now that will germinate and thrive in the soil of public welfare through the Shenzhen Care Action Foundation’s Golf Museum Public Welfare Fund.”
The establishment of this fund helps enrich the Care Foundation’s culture and public welfare initiatives, contributing to the protection and promotion of golfing history and culture for generations to come.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Genzon Group Chairman Deng Xueqin outlined the 20-year development history of Hidden Grace Golf Club, including the founding of the Shenzhen International Tournament and the hosting of six Volvo China Opens. He proposed to explore new golfing avenues under the new co-operation to help the golf museum continue to develop in co-ordination with the Hidden Grace Golf Club.
Dr Tai, a pioneer in the development of golf in China after the nation’s reform and opening-up, delivered a congratulatory speech. He said: “The establishment of China’s first golf museum and the exhibition detailing golf history over the 40 years of reform across China have finally created a ‘home for golf’ for the national golf community.”
Dr Tai said he hoped the museum would draw visitors from far and wide to learn more about golf and to come and experience the sport in its new ‘home’. He also thanked everyone involved for their hard work in sourcing, collecting, preserving, studying and displaying the development history of China’s golf.
Golf Museum Curator Xing Wenjun thanked the Shenzhen Care Action Foundation for assisting the museum in establishing the Golf Museum Public Welfare Fund to help ensure the continued success of the golf museum for the public to enjoy. He expressed gratitude to the entrepreneurs who had donated to the fund and the Friends of the Museum for their strong support over the past two years.
He also thanked the CGA for its support – the association having donated golf bags used by the Chinese golf team at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which bear the historically significant signatures of team members Li Haotong, Wu Ashun, Lin Xiyu and Feng Shanshan. Xing also thanked the dozens of golf course managers who, without their strong support, the Modern China Golf History Exhibition would not have been possible.
After the ribbon-cutting and unveiling of the new exhibition, guests watched video congratulations from renowned golfers Zhang Lianwei and Feng Shanshan and then visited the China Pavilion. Guests then headed to the World Pavilion to try their hand on the newly opened nine-hole putting green with century-old walnut antique putters.
The Hidden Grace Golf Museum is open to the public free of charge. Its opening hours are from 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday to Sunday. It’s closed on Mondays.
