Charlie Chung

Charles Chung (October 12, 1902 – July 3, 1998) was a Chinese-American professional golfer. The back-to-back winner of the 1924 and 1925 Manoa Cup awarded to the amateur champion golfer of Hawaii, Chung relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he became the first Chinese-American professional golfer and pioneer non-white member of the Professional Golfers' Association of America.

Chung was a 1995 inductee into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.

Early life Charles Chung, commonly known by the nickname "Charlie", was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1902 of ethnic Chinese parents who came from Canton Province, China to work as indentured servants on the plantations of Hawaii. In his early years, Chung's family lived in Nuuanu Valley and his parents had moved from the plantations to work on truck farms. Chung supplemented the family income by selling local fruits and vegetables.

Chung left school after the eighth grade to work and support his family. As a teenager, he was a clerk for E.O. Hall and Sons, a sporting goods company.

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 caddie at the Oahu Country 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 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. "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. 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. Jack James, writer for the San Francisco Examiner, headlined Chung as "Hero in Defeat - Used Savings to come to U.S." James noted that the real story of the State Amateur was not the winner but the loser, Charlie Chung, who invaded the rich man's game and proved that a young man of moderate means can keep up with those "more freely blessed" with worldly goods. He admired Chung for taking the loss like a sportsman and a Chinese gentlemen, "whom there is no finer specimen of the breed in the world." E.Z Crane said Chung "has done a lot for Hawaii in the way of publicity during his present tour" and wondered whether Chung would turn professional. Crane later described Chung as the second best amateur golfer on the Pacific Coast, second to George Von Elm, quoting Willard Crummy, professional at the distinguished White Bear Yacht Club course in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In December 1925, the most prominent golf publication of its time, The American Golfer (edited by Grantland Rice), featured Chung in a full page article. Author Frank P. Noon headlined Chung as the "Only Champion Chinese Golfer" and described his golfing accomplishments, his dreams and ambitions and Confucian philosophy toward the game.

Professional career 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.

By the early 1930s, Chung's golfing career ended, crippled by bursitis in his shoulders. Chung desperately tried all reputable and quack medical cures – even removing all his teeth – but to no avail. He would never again play competitively.

Personal life Chung died July 3, 1998, at the Aloha Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Kaneohe. Chung was recognized by Monte Ito for his pioneering days in the golf world.