CLUB NEWS
02.20.2011
The Dragons and The Federation: A Brief History
The Dragons GC is an affiliate of the Chinese Golf Federation, an organization that blazed the trails for generations of Asian-American golfers and continues to champion and celebrate diversity in the game of golf. Our vibrant club of young Asian-American professionals, playing at upscale daily fee and private club courses today, can trace its roots directly to a tiny group of Chinese-American golfers at a muni in the City nearly a century ago. It is a remarkable legacy worthy of consideration and our continued support.
It all began in the 1920's, when a few avid Chinese-American golfers started what would become the San Francisco Chinese Golf Club out at Lincoln Park. The tiny club survived the Great Depression and then World War II, and began to thrive in the post-war years. Golf was unquestionably out of reach for most Asian-Americans - the gates of the private clubs remained shut and even public courses 
limited the number of tee times for Asian-Americans. The pioneers discovered that they had strength in numbers, and together, they were able to book ever-greater number of tee times, then large-scale tournaments, at golf courses. By the 1960's, Chinese-American golf clubs, with membership in the hundreds, sprung up in Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento, as well as in the Northwest. At a time when Chinese-Americans weren't welcomed everywhere in the game of golf, these clubs constituted the center of Asian-American golfing life and the golfers from all walks of life competed together in Federation clubs.
In 1970, the Chinese-American clubs of San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and Los Angeles formed the Chinese Golf Federation. The stated mission was to promote the game of golf in the Chinese-American community, and to provide guidance to people interested in starting similar clubs. New clubs were formed or spun off from the original four. The Dragons GC, launched in 2009, was built upon the foundations of the former Good Guys Chinese Golf Club, which was a spin-off of the Marin Chinese Golf Club. Our own Chong brothers grew up with the SFCGC, and ran the Good Guys for years. Mari Kobara and Ken Lum came over from the Oakland CGC, and Lawrence Ma stumbled in on his own in 2004, after playing at an Invitational. The Northwest clubs in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Victoria, which had been thriving on a parallel timeline, joined the Federation - their Labor Day InterCity Tournament is now in its 61st year. Last year, the Monta Vista Golf Club of the Silicon Valley joined the Federation. Today, the Federation has 22 clubs with 1,400 golfers in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.
On holiday weekends decades ago, the original Federation clubs began to stage the 36-hole invitational tournaments on our schedule today. These Invitationals strengthened the growing network of Federation clubs, by bringing together Asian-American golfers from all corners of the Federation territory. Friendships over generations were being forged at these tournaments, even marriages - Wes met Mari at an Invitational. At the height of the Federation's popularity, hundreds entered the Invitationals, to play in multiple flights of competition, and lavish tournament banquet and even formal dances were staged.
As times changed, and the doors in society (including those in golf) began to open for Asian-Americans, the original Federation clubs began to age and attendance at Invitationals began to decline as well. The on-going Great Recession has only made things more challenging. A new 
generation of club presidents and Federation leaders, led by our own Wes Chong, the current Federation First Vice President, recognized the trends and has begun to renew interest in the Federation and bring in new blood. The founding clubs and their corps of member-volunteers, meanwhile, press on to stage wonderful weekend Invitationals, to continue to foster competition, have fun, develop friendships (now across borders in Canada), and perhaps more importantly, keep traditions alive.
If you haven't been to a Federation Invitational, you owe it to yourself to enter one or two this year and make them an annual tradition. A typical invitational is on a holiday weekend, and begins with a welcome cocktail party on the Friday night before the tournament. If you wish to come early, the host clubs usually 
provide practice round tee times. Golfers compete in multiple flights over 36 holes on championship golf courses, such as Portland's Pumpkin Ridge or Tucson's Arizona National. Morning rounds allow ample time in the afternoons to explore the cities we visit - the Dragons ate prime rib at Jon Chong's house in Tucson, went shopping in tax-free Portland, and had high tea in Victoria. The tournaments conclude with banquets (often, and appropriately, Chinese), honoring the champion golfers while dishing out an embarrassment of riches in raffle prizes, amassed through the connections and generosity of the local Chinese-American business community.
The host clubs indeed go great lengths to showcase their hometown and put on a good party each of those holiday weekends. The Dragons have experienced and are grateful for that hospitality, but we also recognize the historic significance of the Federation Invitationals and the vital role they play in Asian-American golf. We gladly encourage our members to enter the Federation Invitationals and represent the
Dragons with distinction at them all. Those who finish in the top three in any flight at an Invitational will receive double Dragon Cup points - no one has won the Dragon Cup without playing an Invitational. Board members have and will continue to organize members-only dinners and bonus rounds at other must-play courses in the host cities.
Please review the 2011 Dragons schedule again, and start checking on flights to LA, Reno or Seattle. You will have fun exploring new courses - that's why golf is better than tennis, our venues are forever changing and challenging in different, sometimes beautiful, ways. You will test your game over 36 holes under tournament pressure, and you may even experience the thrill of hoisting a trophy. And you will hopefully deepen your friendships with your fellow traveling Dragons, and create lasting memories, while participating in a tradition that we hope to keep alive and well.
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
