By V. Krishnaswamy, IANS
Bangkok : Liang Wen-Chong may have just announced the coming of age of Chinese golf. On Sunday, Liang became the first Chinese player to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit, despite a modest finish in tied 28th place at the season ending the Volvo Masters of Asia tournament.
Liang also broke the Indo-Thai monopoly of the Order of Merit honours. Since 2001, Indian and Thai players have won it thrice each. Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003) and Jeev Milkha Singh (2006) did the trick for India, while Thongchai Jaidee (2001 and 2004) and Thaworn Wiratchant (2005) made it to the top for the Thais.
Even this year, on the eve of the Volvo Masters, the only player in with a chance to catch up with Liang was another Thai, Chapchai Nirat. In the end, Chapchai, needed to win the final tournament to grab the Merit honours, finished tied 12th. Liang, who finished with a bogey, carded a 72 in the final round and finished tied 28th but still emerged as the top golfer in Asia.
The 29-year-old Liang has been on the Asian Tour since 1999 but has always been under the shadow of the more famous and iconic Zhang Liang-wei. But over the last year or so, Liang has slowly but steadily matured into a top-class golfer and is now China’s leading player, taking over the mantle from Zhang.
In fact till the end of 2006, he had 16 top-10 finishes, but had never won. It was only this year that Liang broke through for his first big victory when he won the Clariden Leu Singapore Masters in 2007, beating Malaysia’s Iain Steel in a play-off. It was, in a manner of speaking, following in Zhang’s footsteps, as the latter had won the same title in 2003.
In 2006, Liang straddled between Asian and Japan Tours. He was 16th on Asian Tour with a fourth place in Barclay’s Singapore Open as one of the stellar performances. In Japan, where he has played regularly since 2004, he was 21st with five top-10s.
The good run in 2006 also continued on China Tour, where he won twice and also made headlines by donating his winner’s cheque of $19,000 for junior golf development in China. He also won a one kilo gold bar for a hole-in-one at the UBS Hong Kong Open.
This year Liang played only four events in Japan and concentrated mainly on Asian Tour. In Japan his best was third place in Golf Nippon Series JT Cup while his three other appearances saw him finish inside top-20.
Before he made it big, Liang had also suffered his quota of lows. He was disqualified at the Caltex Masters, Singapore, for using an illegal driver, but then had top-10s in the Carlsberg Malaysian Open, SK Telecom Open and Kolon Cup Korean Open.
He made it to the World Cup with Zheng Wen-gen but had to withdraw as it clashed with the Japan Golf Tour Qualifying School. The move paid off as he secured his Japan card for 2004.
Liang has also been a member of the Asian team that won the Visa Dynasty Cup in 2003 and 2005 where he and partner Zhang hold a 100 percent winning record.
Liang’s growth on the Asian Tour has been steady. From 82nd in his second year on Asian Tour in 1999, he was 46th in 2000, 12th in 2001 and 32nd in 2002. It was only after 2003 that he began getting noticed and in 2004 he was 47th in just nine events.
He improved to 25th the following year in 2005. In 2006 he was further up in 16th places despite playing just 10 events, just as he had done the previous year.
This year in 18 events prior to Volvo Masters, Liang had amassed more than $525,000 and with a world ranking of 86th he is the third best Asian in world ranking behind K.J. Choi (10th) and Jeev Milkha Singh (78th).
With a great all-round game, he may well be the next Asian tipped to make it big in world golf.