Tan Chong Huat, prominent law figure and golf administrator, has never been short of self-belief – conviction there was little he could not achieve if he set his mind to it. But shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic practically shut down Singapore, he got into religion, or you could say, a superior force that guides your actions.

“A few of my friends died during the pandemic and I was hit by this notion that life is so transient,” says Tan, who is chairman of RHTLaw Asia and recently stepped down as president of the Singapore Golf Association (SGA).

“It struck me that it is important to study His word carefully and when I leave, I would have done His bidding. The legal mind is trained to challenge and question, the spiritual mind to accept.”

Never a man to do things in half measures, Tan, who was educated at Queensway Secondary School and the National University of Singapore, marked his epiphany by pursuing a degree in theology during the Covid-19 disruption. Unsurprisingly, he finished that course from Westminster Theological Seminary in the minimum time stipulated – 18 months.

What exactly is that bidding he talks about is work in progress. Soon, Tan, who in August finished a four-year term as president of the SGA, is joining the board of Focus on the Family Singapore, a Christian charity that helps individuals and couples build strong family relationships. That’s in addition to his work at the National Council Against Drug Abuse.

Meanwhile, as his legal career progressed towards its denouement, he has been throttling back on his speciality field of corporate finance, mergers and project finance, and pioneering a digital asset exchange in Singapore. The 63-year-old lawyer is now transitioning into arbitration, digital assets and private wealth.

When it comes to missionary zeal, though, it has always been golf.

It is that attitude he seems to have taken to golf management. Those who worked with him during his eight years at the SGA – board member, vice-president and president – say he brought an unusual vigour to administering a sport which many ha...