The development of the RSGC would not have reached the dizzy heights of today if not for the dedication of many Members and other personalities who had devoted a major part of their lives to selflessly putting their shoulders to the wheel, to see to the wellbeing of the Club. There are many such individuals to whom the Club owes a debt; some whose contributions have been welldocumented and many more whose hard work and toil though known to all and sundry, have gone unrecorded.
Short of writing another book to thank them all, and even then some might still be inadvertently omitted, the only alternative, “to put things right,” as it were, is to have on record here and now the Club’s profound gratitude to all those whose names did not appear in this book and a sincere apology for such omissions even though many of them had never expected any recognition or expression of indebtedness in the first place.
However, a history, however informal, of our Club would be incomplete without the mention of a few ladies and gentlemen who had in their own inimitable style put the name of RSGC on the world’s golfing map. They are not presented here in any particular order of priority or importance (lest umbrage be taken by some).
It was the ardent love for golf that drove the Glassford and Meikle brothers to muster their kind, especially the men of the tartan breed to convene a meeting, and from there bring into being, a new-born entity. That was indeed a true manifestation of their missionary-like zeal when one considers that both Clem and John Glassford, coffee planters on the Mount Estate on the Bentong Road, must have spent hours on the road in commuting to Kuala Lumpur (a straggling township then) and back, using horse-drawn vehicles, on the many occasions that necessitated their presence. Clem Glassford, in particular had devoted a major part of his active adult life -being 15-times Club Captain over a period of 17 years – to formulating the firm foundation on which the Club developed to this day.
The deeply fissured bark of the Tembusu (Fagraea fragrans)
In recognition of the immense contribution of the two brothers in the founding of the Club and its administration in the difficult formative years, the Members then donated the Glassford Cup as a tribute to them. We too, on our part, take this opportunity to record our appreciation to them wholeheartedly.
The “initial obstacles to an immediate relocation” were the Forestry Department’s user of the land and the mining leases. Providentially, the Department had no objection to the surrender of the land, having completed their Tembusu treeplanting experiments connected with the reclamation of land that was swampy in places and partly used previously as a nightsoil disposal area. That is probably why parts of our East Course is, to this day, so richly timbered with sturdy well-grown Tembusu!
Resolving the issue of the mining leases was more thorny yet delicate, as it involved dealing with the locals, mainly the Chinese tin miners. This intricate matter fell to the lot of Choo Kia Peng, a gentleman of considerable influence and highly respected by all, who assiduously and judiciously went about his task in securing the leases for an unbelievably low price of $6000/- which stunned everyone. And with that, a formal offer was made by the Government of the land under grant, to be held as long as it was used for the purpose of a golf club.
Kia Peng, who joined the Club in 1909, was a keen golfer. He was active in political circles under the British as a member of the Federal Council and in 1930 was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). Held in high esteem by the Government, he was selected to represent Malaya at the coronation of England’s King George VI on 12 May 1937, and a week later was “commanded” to plant 9 oak trees in the Great Windsor Park, one for each of the states of Selangor, Perak, Johore, Negeri Sembilan, Penang just to name a few, in the presence of the King, after which he was invited to the Royal Lodge for tea where he not only enjoyed a chat with the King and Queen, but also had the privilege of meeting the then princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret.
One of his grandsons, Choo Weng Choong, a retired chartered accountant and former Club Vice-Captain, now residing in London, recently visited the Park to soak in the nostalgia of the days gone by and delightedly snapped some meaningful pictures of the coppice of oak trees that were planted by his grandfather.
Yorkshire-born Tom Verity, the popular club professional has been with Selangor since 1938, when he left the Island Club.
Tom Verity from the Singapore Island Club joined the RSGC as the resident Professional in July 1937. When the War broke out, he was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as a lieutenant, and ordered to move to Singapore in April 1941, only to return as part of Force 136, operating behind enemy lines until the end of the War. A paragraph in the July 1948 Circular congratulated Tom for having been mentioned in Despatches published in the London Gazette “…. For good services in face of the enemy in the Far Eastern theatre of war before the surrender of Japan, T/ Lt. (SP:) Thomas Verity RNVR, was parachuted into Pahang Jungle early in 1945…..”
He was reputed to have walked back from Tanjong Malim to the Club in 1946 – only to find himself in the thick of a forlorn air of decrepitude and neglect. Undaunted, he worked his fingers to the bone and transformed the complete shambles that was a golf course – from barrack lines, an airstrip, squatter huts and vegetable plots – to 36 playable holes, all within a couple of years. Initially, he had the services of a sizeable labour force comprising Japanese POWs, courtesy of a Brigadier R.M. Jones, a keen golfer. It was rather in the nature of poetic justice if you like, that the perpetrators of the mutilation were made “to put things right”. The Brigadier also made available army mechanical equipment such as bulldozers and tractors, which made relatively short work of an operation that would otherwise have been a back-breaking task. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding over whether fees should be paid to the army for their services, the “arrangement” was terminated.
That was when Tom showed his mettle – “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” as they say. With a depleted, malnourished Club labour force, he completed his task, not only in restoring the 36 holes but also in preparing the green construction of the 4th Nine before going on leave to the UK in 1947. He also planted a few trees, among which is the one next to the 1st Nine New Course starter’s hut – a fact which he confided to Chris Syer, his close personal friend.
Upon his return, he remained as the resident Professional until 1962 when he subsequently went on to build a number of other courses in the region, including one in Kashmir before his retirement in 1979. Tom was made an Honorary Member in appreciation of his contributions to the Club when he returned to Kuala Lumpur, where he settled down.
Recently, Chris Syer wrote in an absorbing article in The Circular “Although I have been a Member of the RSGC for the last 40 years, during which I was privileged to serve as the Club’s General Manager in the early 2000s when we hosted the World Cup qualifiers and the Malaysian Open for the last time in 2002, it was my special privilege to be one of those who took care of Tom Verity during his later years….. . Gone but not forgotten, the current Membership is indeed grateful to Tom Verity for his substantial contribution to the proud history of our Club”.
Han Juan Yuan, named “Albert” for convenience by Tom, readily attested to that in his interview published in the September 2018 Circular. Albert came from very humble beginnings and never had the opportunity to go to school. It was Tom who took him under his wing, when he was 14, and gave him a job as an assistant in the pro-shop where he was taught how to repair golf clubs, shoes and whatever else. As he was illiterate, Tom sent him to night school where he soon learnt how to read and write. Pleased with his progress, Tom soon promoted him to be the shop’s manager – and even gave him $1000 as a wedding present, equivalent to at least RM15,000 nowadays!
Albert Han
Through sheer hard work, Albert never looked back and eventually ran the pro-shop himself, after having served 6 other pros (among them the likes of Mike Kelly, Norman Von Nida and Billy McWilliam). Albert was one of those who kept in touch with Tom till his demise at the age of 94. It was through Tom’s kindness and solicitous nature that Albert too, to this day, has likewise been extending unobtrusively, a hand to the needy, especially among the caddies.
My first-ever “foray” into the pages of The Circular took the form, sadly, of an obituary that had to be written because there was so much about the lion of a man that was Edmund Yong Joon Hong (who had passed away on 9 July 1997) that had to be shared with Members.
Edmund returned home to Kuala Lumpur in the early sixties as a cultivated young Cambridge-trained barrister-at-law who quickly made his mark in Malaysian tennis and shooting by representing his country in the Davis Cup and the Olympics, respectively.
His sporting prowess aside, he proved in later years to be equally adept as an organiser, administrator and leader, leading to a string of appointments and posts, including Club Captain, MGA Secretary (for 22 years), Secretary-General of the Asia Pacific Golf Confederation (for 20 years) and founder member of the Presidents Cup golf challenge. He was also the only Malaysian then to have been invited to officiate at various times in several world class golf tournaments including the US Masters, the Open, and the Australian Open, where, as expected, he acquitted himself with distinction. Dubbed “the walking golfing encyclopaedia”, it is small wonder that he was a long-serving member of the Rules Committee of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. In appreciation of his immense contributions to our Club and to the game of golf, he was deservedly made an RSGC Honorary Member in 1976, at the young age of forty.
For many years, his sporting and club activities seemed to be his raison d’etre. He discharged his duties in the customary, forthright and no-nonsense manner that was his hallmark, although during one of our locker-room chats, he conceded that being forthright might not be efficacious at times. But then to him, doing the right thing had always been of uppermost importance.
Credit to YK Liew – Excerpt from the book ‘The RSGC: Veritably A Royal Heritage’
