My China-born wife, Susan, dreamt that one day our son Max would become the Number 1 golf player in the world; in other words, rich and famous. When Susan came across a book, In Every Kid There Lurks a Tiger (Hyperion, 2002) by Rudy Duran, the first professional golfer who coached Tiger Woods from age six to ten, her mind was made up: we would move from Sydney to Southern California where Rudy would coach Max, who would then follow in Tiger Woods’ footsteps. And so we did, except the imagined deal with golf-guru Duran did not work out. Instead, we enrolled Max in the children’s program at Colina Park Golf Course in San Diego, home of the famous Callaway Junior Golf World Championship, an annual event that has been played for over sixty years. It is the most important tournament of its kind. When we left Sydney, Max was six years old; he had been playing golf for just under a year.

It is of course well known that the dragon, in Chinese mythology, is an all-powerful and benevolent creature.