It is not every day that you see a HK$100,000 chip being placed on one bet, but gambling neophyte Ian Poulter, urged on by an entourage of hangers-on, had the gumption to do just that plus another HK$10,000 chip on red at one of the high-roller rooms at the Venetian Resort Hotel last Sunday.
Poulter, the defending Hong Kong Open champion, was in Macau for the final leg of a novel experiment by Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Marc Boggia, whose idea of a golf swing through China featuring some of the world's top players proved persuasive to property developer Vincent Lo.
And so was born the Shui On Land China Golf Challenge, a seven-day, seven-city swing through the mainland, featuring world number two Lee Westwood, US Open champion Rory McIlroy, China number one Liang Wenchong and Poulter.
No way did it resemble a proper tournament. Rather, it was a made-for-television jaunt where the players were under the spotlight both on and off the various courses - from the Shanghai Pudong Golf Course to Caesars Golf Macau. It was a reality TV show filmed by sporting monolith IMG.
Even though the players had a couple of Bombardier jets to fly them from city to city - Shanghai to Zhengzhou to Beijing to Dalian to Chongqing to Dongguan, and lastly to Macau - Westwood and company labelled it as one of the most tiring weeks they had undergone in their professional lives.
This was due to the hectic schedule, where they played two or three holes at each course and then had to figure in all the other behind-the-scenes activities including playing in pro-ams, taking part in sponsors' lunches and dinners and signing autographs.
'I have never signed so many autographs. My wrist needs a physio for a week,' said Westwood, partly in jest.
