Charlie Chung

Early years

Charles Chung, commonly known by the nickname "Charlie," was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1903 of ethnic Chinese parents.

Chung had an affection for the game of golf at an early age, first playing on his own with crude clubs fashioned of guava sticks. Chung's love for the game drove him to take a job as a caddy at the Honolulu Golf Club as a young boy, where he gained access to the course and equipment. Chung credited his development as a golfer to local player Jimmy Greigh, for whom he caddied for a number of years and who provided him in turn with quality instruction.

Chung quit his caddy's position in 1918 and joined the Honolulu Golf Club as a member himself the following year, where he further developed his game. As an adult Chung was able to drive the ball up to 250 yards – no mean feat given the primitive equipment of the day. Chung regarded his pitching wedge as the best of the eight clubs in his bag, however.

Golf career

Success came quickly for Chung on the Hawaiian amateur golf circuit, including three victories at the Moanalua Championship and two runner-up finishes in the Hawaiian Open. Chung's second-place finish in the 1921 Hawaiian Open helped motivate him to take his game to tournaments in the United States. Chung left Hawaii for the United States mainland for the first time the following year, where he participated in the U.S. Open at the Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Illinois in July and the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts in September.

Chung's participation in the white-dominated world of American golf was met with frequent ridicule in sports pages of the country, with one 1922 story patronizingly referring to Chung as "the only big league oriental golf shark of the links" and intimated that he learned of the sport from the "strange words used by 'humorable boss'" while working as a clerk in a sugar company office. "One day Charlie learned that this language referred to a game called golf and soon he was forsaking his clerkly duties for the tees," the wire story mockingly and falsely alleged.

Back in Hawaii, Chung won the 1925 Manoa Cup, an amateur championship tournament played annually at the Honolulu Golf Club (today's Oahu Country Club). Chung repeated as Hawaii's amateur champion the following year, emerging victorious in a revised format under which the final two rounds made use of the match play format.

Chung became the first non-white player to play at the Pebble Beach golf course in 1925 when he was invited to play the California State Amateur Tournament. His amateur success gained him notice and employment the following year when the Redlands Country Club of Redlands, California, hired him as its club professional. Chung became a member of the Professional Golfers Association even before its bylaws were formally changed to allow the membership of non-whites.

In 1929, Chung returned to his native Hawaii to take a position as club professional at the Moanalua Golf Club in Honolulu. He later moved on to a position as club pro at the Maui Country Club before finishing up as manager of the Pali Golf Course from 1957 to 1970.

Later years, death, and legacy

Chung died July 3, 1998, at the Aloha Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Kaneohe. He was 95 years old at the time of his death.

Chung was survived by his wife, son, and daughter. At the time of his father's death his son Ronald Chung recalled him as "a poor Chinese guy who was a very good golfer. All these rich guys used to take him golfing. Dad said he always took their money."

In 1995, Charlie Chung was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.