SHANGHAI, Nov 8 - Indian Jeev Milkha Singh believes Asian players need to play on bigger tours if the game is develop on the continent.

The Asia number one won the European Tour's season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain 10 days ago and also claimed the title at the co-sanctioned China Open earlier this year.

"I personally feel there is a lot of talent in the Asian golfers," Singh told reporters on the eve of the $5 million Champions tournament, Asia's richest tournament.

"The only thing that is lacking is I think players are a little shy to try the bigger tours. But I feel that if they do try, they are going to prove themselves on those tours, they are good enough.

"The Asian players rub shoulders with the top players in the world and learn from them and work hard on their game and take it on."

Singh has a chance to rub shoulders with the very best on Thursday and Friday, when he plays with world number one Tiger Woods in the opening two rounds at the Sheshan International Golf Club.

"I'm pretty excited," said the 34-year-old.

"It's going to be the first time for me that I'm going to be playing with him and hopefully I'm going to learn something from him and see how he conducts himself on the golf course too and how he manages himself."

An Indian winning the Volvo Masters will almost certainly give another boost to golf in India but Singh thinks his country also needs the kind of high profile tournaments that are currently being attracted by the potential of China.

"I think golf is the number two sport in our country now, after cricket," he said. "We have a lot of talent in our country.

"There's a lot of potential in our country for the golf to go big. And hopefully in the coming years we can have such opportunities in our country like China in hosting such big events."