Champions set to square off for Guangzhou glory

David Kocher narrowly leads fellow American Trevor Sluman in the 2019 PGA Tour Series-China order of merit as the tour swings into the Greater Bay area for this week's Guangzhou Open.

All eight of this year's winners will tee it up at Nansha Golf Club on Thursday for the ninth tournament on the 14-event schedule.

Japan's Taihei Sato pocketed 288,000 yuan ($42,000) in the season-opening Chongqing Championship after beating China's Liu Yanwei in a playoff. Sato currently sits eighth on the order of merit despite playing in just three events and has yet to finish outside the top 15.