Li Chao completed a convincing post-to-post victory in the
Kunming Leg to win his second trophy of the season on the Omega
China Tour.
The 26-year-old, who blew the field apart with a 65 on Saturday,
was mobbed by local children wearing traditional ethnic dress after
he comfortably defended his nine-shot lead, shooting a one-under
par final round 71 at the Kunming Country Golf Club. The 2005 Order
of Merit winner finished 11 under par for the tournament to win by
seven strokes from Huang Mingjie.
"All I was thinking was just don't make mistakes. I'm just lucky
I didn't have any disasters," he said, before revealing that the
win was not quite the walk in the park it appeared.
"I was actually quite nervous for the first few holes, but
eventually I calmed down. My opponents were playing really good
golf, so I just had to avoid any serious errors," he said.
25-year old Huang proved his second place finish at the Shanghai
Leg earlier this month was no fluke, by carding a fault-free 69,
which included a crowd-pleasing 25-foot birdie on the final hole.
His four-under score of 284 also gave him a semblance of revenge
over Zhang Lianwei for his play-off defeat in China?ˉs second
city.
"I'm particularly happy because no-one was fighting to be
champion anymore, they all wanted second place, but I managed to
take it. It also proves that my result in Shanghai was no
accident," he said.
"I've got second place twice, but now I really want to win.
Maybe the next leg! Li Chao was playing really well so this time it
was just a case of aiming for second place."
Zhang Lianwei finally found the key to unlock the serpentine
mountain course's secrets, getting into red numbers for the first
time this week thanks to a bogey-free 68, which put him two under
for the four rounds.
"The young players have made great strides," said the
41-year-old trailblazer for Chinese golf.
"As the first generation of golfers, both Cheng Jun and I are
really happy about that."
The Kunming event was something of a triumph for China's
twenty-somethings. As well as Li and Huang, several more of what
might be described as the forgotten generation featured, with
29-year-old Liao Guiming recovered from a double-bogey on the first
to shoot six birdies to finish in fourth on even par. Two shots
behind him was, 28-year-old Huang Yonghuan, while 25-year-old Shang
Lei, 27-year-old Yuan Hao and 25-year-old national amateur team
member Wu Kangchun shared sixth place with the relatively elderly
Xiao Zhijin.
Encouragingly, the top five all finished under par on their
fourth trip round the course, a far cry from Li Chao's equally easy
victory just over a year ago in the tour's inaugural event.
"The ones who can play well in the final round, those are the
real players," declared Li Yong, the Deputy General Secretary of
the China Golf Association. Significantly, as a Chinese government
official, he was smiling broadly.
(omegachinatour.com September 25, 2006)