Time for emerging pros to step up

Omega China Tour regular Wu Kangchun says the country's emerging professional golfers need more opportunities before they can join Liang Wenchong and Zhang Lianwei in competing on the Asian Tour.

Wu is among the cast of Chinese players invited to compete in this week's $1 million Pine Valley Beijing Open, the third Asian Tour event in China in the past four weeks, each featuring a significant number of local professionals and amateurs.

China Golf Association and Japan Golf Tour are sanctioning the Pine Valley Golf Resort and Country Club event, which tees off on Thursday.

Wu made a name for himself by winning last year's Sofitel Golf Championship, on the Omega China Tour, in his first competitive event since turning professional.

Last month, the 26-year-old made the cut for the second successive year at the US$2.2 million Volvo China Open in Beijing, along with 29-year-old Liang, eight-time Omega China Tour winner Li Chao, Wu Weihuang and Hu Mu, the 18-year-old Florida-based amateur.

Liang, Li and Hu also made the cut in the following week's US$2.3 million BMW Asian Open in Shanghai, along with 42-year-old Zhang. All four were in the top-12 after two rounds. Hu went on to finish as the top amateur.

The two high-profile events were both sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and China Golf Association.

Even so, Wu said it was disappointing more of the large Chinese contingent couldn't raise their game on home soil.

"We still don't feel familiar when playing in such high-level golf tournaments. Our mental game is not so strong when we face so many foreign players, especially because they're such good players and so competitive," said Wu, who finished fourth in last year's Omega Order of Merit.

"During the tournaments we think about how many strokes we'll need that day to make the cut. I bet Liang Wenchong doesn't think like that. He just focuses on his own game rather than worrying about other people's scores because mentally he's much stronger."

Last year, Liang became the first Chinese golfer to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit and received an invitation to this year's Masters, where he followed in the footsteps of his mentor Zhang, who played at Augusta in 2004.

"The rest of the Chinese players should really spend more time with Liang and Zhang to learn from them and try to benefit from their experience of playing around the world," Wu said.

"Most of the Omega China Tour players play professional golf tournaments, competing against each other, so we still need time to get used to these higher-level events. This will come as we have more opportunities to play in such events."

Liang, who earned $28,700 on Sunday after finishing joint-10th in The Crowns event on the Japan Golf Tour, will not be competing this week as he's attending his brother's wedding.

Instead, Zhang, a frequent competitor on both the Asian Tour and the Omega China Tour, will spearhead the Chinese challenge in Beijing.

Last year, he and Liang finished tied 10th in the inaugural Pine Valley event, while Qiu Zhifeng, Gao Lei and Wu himself also made the cut.

"Sometimes, Chinese players can post a good round in a European Tour or Asian Tour event, but not many can do so for four rounds," Wu said. "However, I'm still very confident about my career and my future in golf, although I still think it will take a bit of time before I make the next step."

China Daily

(China Daily 05/07/2008 page23)