Chinese Golf's Latest Torchbearer

The kids have been getting all the attention recently – and not just the teens, but those in single digits – though it will take a good few years before any of them progress to the pro ranks. But it's important to have figures for China's next generation of golfers to look up to, targets whose records they want to beat, and Wu Ashun (吴阿顺) – at 28, still young in golfing terms – will today become just the second Chinese male ever to play in the Open Championship.
 
Liang Wenchong (梁文冲), the first Chinese golfer to make the cut at a major when he finished tied for 64th at the 2008 Open, remains China's top ranked golfer at world no. 168 (though he's been as low as 57). Wu Ashun is China's no. 2 and is currently ranked no. 211 worldwide, though he was in the 700′s shortly before becoming the first Chinese golfer to win on the Japan Tour last September, and then helped the Asian team defeat a strong European side in December's Royal Trophy in Brunei.