Jakarta, 23 March 2011 – China’s Liang Wenchong begins the new season on OneAsia this week at the Indonesia PGA Championship determined to lay a ghost to rest.
The Chinese star always plays to win and he has shown that by tasting victory three times on OneAsia. He also claimed last year’s Order of Merit title with winnings of US$560,736.
However, when he was in Jakarta last year despite being the hot favourite to win the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta he was relegated to second place by Michael Hendry from New Zealand.
“I was one shot behind him after three rounds and was confident I could catch up on the last day but he played brilliantly and beat me by seven shots. It was quite a shock and now that I am back in Jakarta I would like to make up for that by winning,” said Liang.
The 32-year-old claimed the Midea China Classic in 2009, and last year triumphed in the Luxehills Chengdu Open and the Thailand Open.
The season opening US$1 million Indonesia PGA Championship is being played at Imperial Klub Golf just outside Jakarta and Liang is raring to get started.
“I had pretty decent practice rounds. I am glad to be back here in Jakarta – the weather is good and the course is great. I am happy to be here as it is OneAsia’s season opening tournament, and I hope to have a perfect start. Being OneAsia’s Order of Merit winner, I hope to inspire more young golfers in China to participate and perform well in OneAsia’s tournaments so as not to disappoint all the people who have helped build up the golf industry in China,” said Liang.
He plans to play as many events possible on this year’s OneAsia schedule which boasts 13 tournaments which all boast prize money of over US$1 million.
“This is definitely the strongest field that OneAsia has had. There are some incredibly good players especially from Korea,” added Liang.
Bae Sang-moon and Kim Dae-hyun, the two young Koreans who many expect to rocket to stardom are competing. Bae has claimed two titles on OneAsia winning the Korean Open in 2009 and last year’s SK Telecom Open. Kim triumphed in the 2010 GS Caltex Maekyung Open and was also was runner-up to Liang on the Order of Merit.
This week provides them both with an opportunity to show they can win away from home.
“We need more experience playing overseas and we have come here to prove we can also win outside of Korea. We are really excited to be here and it would be great to see a Korean winner,” said Bae.
Australia’s Scott Strange, a two-time winner on the European Tour including the OneAsia joint-sanctioned Volvo China Open in 2009, and also OneAsia's 2009 Order of Merit winner, is also playing as is countryman Kim Felton and Hendry.
Thailand greats Thaworn Wiratchant and Prayad Marksaeng, who have amassed a total of 21 titles between them in the region, are also in the field.
Thaworn, like Liang a former Asian number one, has won 12 times on the Asian circuit and Prayad has a combined nine titles on the Asian and Japan Tours.
Amongst the other notables in the line-up are Major champion Wayne Grady of Australia, winner of the 1990 US PGA Championship, and teen prodigy Han Chang-won of Korea, the 2009 Asian Amateur champion who will make his eagerly awaited professional tournament debut. Han was victorious in this year’s OneAsia qualifying school.
Liang will play with Bae and Grady while Kim has been paired with Hendry and Thaworn.
As a mark of respect for the recent tragedy in Japan, the players will be wearing black ribbons.
Four Japanese players are competing Takuya Taniguchi, Akio Sadakata, Tomokazu Yoshinaga, and Hiroshi Iwata.
Imperial Klub Golf is one of Jakarta’s premier golf courses and boasts a championship course designed by British architect Desmond Muirhead.
The Indonesia PGA Championship will be showcased on OneAsia's television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 400 million homes in more than 40 countries.
Full coverage of OneAsia is available internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Network Ten, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 in the USA, and ViaSat and Bloomberg Television among others in Europe.
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