Shanghai: Silport welcomed a very important guest in the form of Jerry Yang when the Yahoo! co-founder turned up for a game on short notice on the China National Day.

“It is a beautiful golf course,” said the San Francisco-based Yang, a perennial on the list of the world’s richest individuals. “It was a little hot today but it was a nice layout and I wish I had more birdies – but it was a great experience.

“This course is very good and it’s right up there. We didn’t play the back tees, but if you stretch it out, you can see it is a real good golf course.”
The 37-year-old Taiwanese-American said he played to about a 12 handicap. At Silport, he registered one birdie on his way to a round of 94.

He said that he had recently been trying to get out and play more often and that golf was a particularly popular sport among the Silicon Valley crowd.

“Absolutely, there are a lot of good players and some good golf courses. But people don’t try and talk business on the golf course. They just go out and enjoy themselves and try not to mix business with pleasure. They work so hard and they don’t have enough time. In Asia, it is very different.”
Yang said his home golf course was at his alma mater Stanford, a university that also produced Tiger Woods. “I know Tiger but I have never played golf with him. He is too good for me.”

When asked about his favorite courses, Yang said he had played golf all around the world and that he loved playing in Asia. He name checked Mission Hills Golf Club in Guangdong Province and Spring City in Kunming as two clubs he had yet to play.

“I love playing in Asia. There are a lot of great golf course out here with China now and obviously Japan and Korea. But there are great golf courses in the US. I live close to Pebble Beach and Cypress Point and San Francisco. The East Coast has a lot of great courses around New York.

“I have also played Augusta (National) and it is fantastic. It is an experience. It is like a church. It is one of those places where there is so much tradition and history. You appreciate everything and it makes you a little bit more nervous when you step on that first tee. My best score at Augusta was probably 80 and for me, that’s good.”