A postcard of the course at Happy Valley on which the sender has marked the holes.

Captain Sir Charles Elliot RN, who founded Hong Kong in 1841, was a Scottish aristocrat. So was Major General Lord Saltoun, a garrison commander during the Opium War. As a young man Lord Saltoun had led the bayonet charge at the Battle of Waterloo that forced Napoleon's Old Guard to run away for the first time. Another Gaelic chieftain was a laird called James Innes who, like many of his compatriots, was a notorious Scottish opium smuggler. Their illegal activities in Canton (Guangzhou) were responsible for the Opium War. Most of the Canton hongs, as the foreign trading companies were known, set up businesses in Hong Kong after the war. In those early years there were so many Scots here that disgruntled Sasunnachs – as the Scots call the English – sardonically called Hong Kong a Scottish colony.

It is therefore rather surprising that the first round of the Scottish game of golf does not appear to have been played here until 1888. What is not surprising is that the two competitors, Sir Gersham Stewart and Captain Murray Rumsey, were Scots. They played a variation of the ancient game because at the time Happy Valley Race Course, where the match took place, had no golf holes.

Another extraordinary variation was played between England and Australia in the north China treaty port of Ichang (Yichang) on the dried-up bed of the Yangtze River. “It was the old original Scottish game, straight ahead for seven miles, with the bones of sunken junks and high stone boulders as ‘hazards’”, commented one observer. Australia won.

There are no rivers on the island so the original Hong Kong Golf Club, formed a year after the first game, was stuck with Happy Valley which had a “hazardous” pond in the middle of the course. A couple of years later, Sir William des Voeux, an inept golf enthusiast, became governor. He lost so many balls in the pond at the racetrack that he had it drained.

Many male chauvinists claim that the letters GOLF stand for “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden!” During the Victorian era it seems that ladies were only permitted to play on Sundays at Happy Valley due to “crowded conditions”. However, it is claimed that in 1567, Mary Queen of Scots played a game or two on The Old Links at Musselburgh, Scotland, which is the oldest playing golf course in the world.

It was not much fun to play at Happy Valley so the club opened a small golf course at Deep Water Bay. Members could get there easily by boat from Central. After Britain leased the New Territories from China, an 18-hole golf course was opened at Fanling. The only easy way to reach it was by train. After a strenuous round of golf, there is an old golfing tradition for players to adjourn to what is known as the “19th hole”, which is the club bar.

After a few cooling ales they would then totter down to Fanling station which had a pub nearby called The Better 'Ole. It got its name from war artist Bruce Bairnsfather's famous cartoon of two forlorn British soldiers sitting in a shell hole with the world exploding above them. One soldier says to his mate: “Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it.” Inevitably Fanling golfers would creep into this “20th hole” for a few beers and on occasion miss the train back to Kowloon.

In the late 1920s, a private club emerged at Shek O. It was, and still is, privately owned. It is remote, small and extremely difficult to play. The links are beautiful and run beside Big Wave Bay. London's Financial Times newspaper described it as “possibly the best club in Asia.”