Liao Guiming has warned his Omega China Tour colleagues that it will be no walk in the park at the tree-lined championship layout at Yangliuqing Golf Club, the host venue for the inaugural Tianjin championship which tees off on Thursday.
The current Omega Order of Merit leader arrived in the port city of Tianjin last Thursday in order to maximize his practice time ahead of the penultimate event of this year's China Tour.
However, the 31-year-old said there was no chance of a repeat of the 18-under-par total that Chinese Taipei's Tsai Chi-huang posted at the Luxehills golf championship in Chengdu earlier this month to beat Liao by three strokes.
"I've played a few practice rounds here and I can tell you this is not an easy course. It's long, with a lot of trees, and you have to be really patient. You have to wait for birdies rather than try to make them happen," said Liao, who boasts a victory and two runner-up finishes in his last three China Tour events.
"If you can't handle the lonely feeling of not getting a birdie for a long time, then you'll be destroyed. It's easy to make bogeys and it's definitely not a low-scoring course like we had in Chengdu. You need to be patient."
This week's event marks the Omega China Tour's first stop in Tianjin and the city's first major professional golf event since the 2004 Tianjin Teda Open on the Asian Tour.
Tianjin local Xing Xiaoxuan is arguably the most excited of all the Tour players, as the 27-year-old has been attached to Yangliuqing since he was 18.
"It's great that I can finally show my China Tour colleagues the course I've been working at for nine years," he said. "I've seen it grow from 18 to 36 holes and I've also felt golf grow in Tianjin in that time."
Xing is enjoying a return to form this season. He finished joint-sixth in June's RMB2.1 million China Pro-Am and this month tied for 13th at Luxehills, which marked his best result on Tour since 2005 when he finished third in the Beijing Championship and ninth on the Order of Merit.
"I feel like I'm getting my game back this year and it will be nice this week to play on my home course. I know the other players will also enjoy it. My best score on this course is a 66, although it's unlikely anyone will shoot that this week."
One man who regularly shoots low is Li Chao, the 2005 and 2007 Omega Order of Merit winner. Currently third on the money list with RMB200,750, the towering 28-year-old remains the biggest threat to Liao, who leads Zhang Lianwei with RMB349,450.
However, Li admits he has not been in the best of health since returning from the Omega European Masters in Switzerland, which was held the same week as the Luxehills event and allowed Liao to pull further away in the Merit race.
"I feel like I've still got jet-lag and I've been down with a bit of cold and flu, and also have a cough," he said.
"It was a good experience in Switzerland, even though the food was a bit strange for me and I couldn't communicate with many people because of language. I was playing with some really good players and my main focus was not to embarrass myself," added Li, who only missed the cut by one after rounds of 69 and 74.
Along with Liao and Li, other pre-tournament favorites at Tianjin include Chinese Taipei invites Hsu Mong-nan and Tsai Chi-huang, both victorious on this year's Omega China Tour, and big-hitting Yuan Hao, who was third at Luxehills and is still seeking his first victory on the circuit.
Also in the field are Asian Tour players Shang Lei and Alex Wu Ashun, who both qualified for the regional circuit at the end of last year. |
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