Liao beats Zhang in Sofitel play-off to win Omega China Tour
26/5/2008 17:04
Liao Guiming won his first Omega China Tour title after beating the
legendary Zhang Lianwei in a play-off for the RMB800,000 Sofitel Golf
Championship in Nanjing.
The first person he celebrated with was his wife,
who had flown in for the final day without even telling her husband.
"I
didn't even know she was coming. She didn't tell me and then I saw her as I
walked off the green. I was so happy," said the 30-year-old, who won the
RMB150,000 winner's check after Zhang struggled to a double-bogey as the pair
replayed the par-four 18th at the Nanjing Zhongshan International Golf
Club.
Liao led the event from wire to wire, with rounds of 66, 69, 69 and 74
giving him a 10-under-par total of 278. Zhang closed with a 71, while
18-year-old Su Dong, who lost the lead after a triple-bogey on 16, also shot 71
after missing a four-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have put him in the
play-off with his playing partners.
Large galleries enjoyed an enthralling
final round contested by representatives of China's "three generations" of golf,
each of whom held the lead for a period on the back nine.
However, it was the
second-generation Liao who was left lifting the big trophy, a hard-earned reward
after 10 top-10 finishes in his first 20 events on the Omega China Tour,
including joint runner-up in last week's Shanghai Championship.
"I've wanted
so badly to win in the five years since turning pro in 2003. Yuan Hao and Wu
Kangchun, my two teammates in the 2002 Asian Games, have both won since turning
pro, so I'm just happy to finally do the same," said Liao, only the second
person to win the Sofitel title after Wu won the inaugural event last
May.
"I've been working so hard and it has been a long time coming. The
pressure has been building up all these years," added Liao, the fifth different
champion in the first five events on this year's Omega China Tour.
Zhang, who
turned pro in 1994, was gracious in defeat but carried on his exceptional record
on the circuit, during which he has recorded six victories, four runner-ups,
four thirds and a tied fourth.
"Liao is one of the most experienced players
on the Tour and he deserved everything he got today," said Zhang, whose chance
of winning the play-off evaporated when his tee-shot went into the trees. "We
played three of the four rounds together this week and he has been perfect from
tee to green."
Teenage amateur Su Dong was a bemused, forlorn figure after an
eventful final few holes. The big-hitting 18-year-old led outright after
birdieing the par-five 14th, but regretted using a driver on the 407-yard 16th
when his tee-shot went into the water. After his approach also found the drink,
he got up and down for a triple-bogey.
With Liao bogeying the hole, Zhang
took the lead with a par, but the 42-year-old then dropped a shot after going
into a greenside bunker on the par-three 17th and walked to the final hole level
with Liao and one ahead of Su.
Both leaders parred the last after narrowly
missing their birdie putts and it looked as though they'd be joined in the
play-off by Su, who followed a booming drive with a stunning approach to four
feet. However, he had to pull away from his first address due to the noise from
a nearby camera, and the crowd's reaction matched his own despair after he
missed with his rushed second attempt.
"I don't know what I'm feeling," said
Su, who was consoled by hordes of fans, caddies and media eager for photos and
autographs. "I'm sure I will face more important putts like I had today. After
all, this is not the end of my golf career; it's just the beginning."
Su also
finished third in last month's Kunming Championship, but his final-round
showdown with Liao and Zhang, his mentor and good friend, has taken his
self-belief to a new level.
"Finishing third in Nanjing , Southeast China is
very different from finishing third in Kunming. After this week, I feel much
more confident about my game and feel like I belong here and can compete on this
Tour," said Su, one of China's new generation of teenage stars with 18-year-old
Hu Mu and 16-year-old Benny Ye Jianfeng. "If I had made the play-off, I feel
confident I could have won it, but I have many more chances ahead of
me."
Chinese Taipei's Tsai Chi-huang, Ryan Huang Yonghuan and He Shaocai
finished tied fourth on three-under, one ahead of Li Chao and Shang
Lei.
Leading final-round scores:
278 - Liao Guiming 66-69-69-74, Zhang
Lianwei 72-68-67-71
279 - James Su Dong (A) 68-67-73-71
285 - Tsai
Chi-huang (Chinese Taipei) 72-67-74-72, Huang Yonghuan 72-73-70-70, He Shaocai
73-72-69-71
286 - Shang Lei 73-70-72-71, Li Chao 68-76-72-70
287 - Liu
Junfeng 72-69-74-72
288 - Qiu Zhifeng 71-73-70-74
289 - Xu Qin
69-77-74-69
290 - Deng Yonghong 72-76-69-73, Nick Redfern (England)
69-74-74-73
291 - Yuan Zheng 73-69-75-74
292 - Wu Ashun 73-73-72-74, Gu
Shutao 72-71-76-73, Ye Xionghui 67-75-73-77, Jason Robertson (South Africa)
70-76-72-74, Dominique Boulet (Hong Kong, China) 77-67-72-76, Zhang Xinjun (A)
74-72-73-73
Xinhua
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