Tuesday 3 May 2016 10:50, UK
Richard Kaufman celebrates a breakthrough win for Li Hao Tong which he believes will go a long way towards helping Chinese golfers make their mark on the world stage.
China is a bit of a paradox when it comes to golf, but the last two weeks suggest the future is bright. A country that has come late to the game because of political ideology, there has been a hesitancy to really embrace golf because of its perceived image as a sport for the rich.
Until recently, the Communist Party had banned its members from joining golf clubs and playing the game, while courses that were built over the last decade were reclaimed. Thankfully, it seems there has been a U-turn and the ban has been lifted.
I say thankfully because, whether you like it or not, the world's largest population is an important region for the growth of the game and, while the number of participants may yet reach large proportions of society and Chinese players have not yet made a mark on the game en masse, that will change in time.
There have been Chinese winners that have come to the fore previously, of course. Zhang Lian Wei was the first to make an international awareness, and Shanshan Feng is a major champion in the women's game. But until Sunday afternoon, there hadn't been a young male star in the making, and Li Hao Tong will not be the last.
His victory showed, not for the first time in his young career, a player who is exciting and bold. We had seen it already in the events in China last year when he lost out in a play-off in the Shenzhen International and became the first Chinese player to finish in the top 10 of a WGC event at the HSBC Champions.
His play at the weekend was a fine example of attacking expertise. He dared to drive the par-four seventh, and he had a pop at the other short par-fours on the course too. He birdied the hardest hole on the course, the 71st hole of the championship, with a stunning approach. And all of this under the pressure of playing in his national open.
Li is just 20-years-old and he is determined to make it on to the PGA Tour, but I hope this win entices him to step on the fairways at Wentworth and elsewhere around Europe. It would be huge for the European Tour and good for his game. Why carry on playing on the Web.com Tour when he can play higher-quality events with top-class fields?
Ultimately, this is his prerogative. His win will be an inspiration to the generation that are coming through just behind, and there are plenty of emerging talents. Darren Clarke played with a 17-year-old at the Thailand Golf Championships at the end of 2015, and the Ryder Cup captain said Jin Cheng was the best player he has seen at that age since Rory McIlroy.
This week, I'm off to the continent of Africa. Morocco is not only the next destination for the European Tour but also for the Ladies European Tour, and you'll be able to watch both the Trophee Hasson II and the Lalla Meryem Cup this weekend on Sky Sports.
I'll be with the ladies with both events coming from different courses at the same venue. In an Olympic year, with the same happening in Rio, I think it's a great idea. As I mentioned last week, I'd love to see an Olympic format that mixes the teams with the best males playing with the best females in competition.
But having events running concurrently is a positive way of embracing the ladies games. It happens in tennis, so why not in golf? We saw the male and female US Opens being played at Pinehurst in successive weeks in 2014, and there is a new collaboration between the LPGA and PGA Tours. So this week in Morocco may not be a one-off.
