2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup - Round 4: China finish proudly in tied 11th

China enjoyed their best finish in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup on Sunday with trailblazer Zhang Lian-wei and Liang Wen-chong convinced they can someday lift the team event billed as the "Olympics of Golf".

The Chinese duo combined superbly for a final round of four-under-par 68 in the foursomes at Mission Hills Golf Club and finished the four-day event in tied 11th place on a 17-under-par 271, eight shots behind winners Scotland.

They were the joint best Asian team alongside Korea’s Lee Sung and Lee Seung-ho in the 28-team competition which will stay in Mission Hills for the next 12 years.

"This is a really good tournament and I think we will play even better next year because throughout these four rounds, I think we are strong and the best team was playing for China," said Zhang, whose previous best outing was tied 17th with Liang in the 2001 World Cup in Japan.

Liang was featuring in only his second World Cup appearance with Zhang but with a bright future ahead, and with the event slated to remain in China, he knows they will have another crack at lifting the Omega Mission Hills World Cup title.

"We really did our best. Players make mistakes and we came good in this round. I think the things that we've been doing today is the best that we can do, and throughout this tournament, I did learn a lot of things," said Liang, who is leading the Asian Tour’s UBS Order of Merit.

"We are really happy with where we finished. Six birdies today were exactly the same as we had in the second round. We coordinated pretty well and are happy with the result."

With age catching up, Zhang, 42, knows that he will not be anchoring the team forever and hopes that the event, which attracted large and enthusiastic galleries, will speed up the growth of the game in China and unearth new stars.

"I’m really glad that I have this partner (Liang) and this result is the best ever. I'm 42, and I consider myself a strong player, but I don't think I can play another 12 years," said Liang.

Final Round Scores (click here for leaderboard):

263: Scotland (Colin Montgomerie/Marc Warren) 63-68-66-66, USA (Heath Slocum/Boo Weekley) 61-69-66-67
(Scotland win with a par at the third hole of a sudden-death play-off)
264: France (Raphael Jacquelin/Gregory Havret) 64-71-62-67
265: England (Justin Rose/Ian Poulter) 63-68-67-67
267: South Africa (Retief Goosen/Trevor Immelman) 63-69-66-69
268: Sweden (Robert Karlsson/Peter Hanson) 66-70-66-66, Germany (Alex Cejka/Martin Kaymer) 62-71-66-69, Holland (Robert-Jan Derksen/Maarten Lafeber) 65-69-65-69, Argentina (Ricardo Gonzalez/Andres Romero) 65-70-64-69
269: Denmark (Soren Hansen/Anders Hansen) 65-68-68-68
271: Korea (Lee Sung/Lee Seung-ho) 65-69-69-68, China (Zhang Lian-wei/Liang Wen-chong) 65-71-67-68
273: Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez/Jose Maneul Lara) 67-71-65-70, Finland (Pasi Purhonen/Mikko Ilonen) 63-74-65-71
275: Paraguay (Carlos Franco/Fabrizio Zanotti) 66-73-67-69, Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee/Prayad Marksaeng) 63-76-63-73
276: Austria (Markus Brier/Claude Grenier) 64-75-69-68, India (Jyoti Randhawa/Gaurav Ghei) 65-75-65-71, Italy (Edoardo Molinari/Francesco Molinari) 65-68-69-74, Canada (Mike Weir/Wes Heffernan) 66-72-64-74
279: Australia (Nick O’Hern/Nathan Green) 66-72-68-73
280: Philippines (Gerald Rosales/Tony Lascuna) 67-73-68-72, Wales (Stephen Dodd/Bradley Dredge) 63-76-67-74
281: Ireland (Michael Hoey/Gareth Maybin) 66-72-65-78
282: Japan (Hideto Tanihara/Tetsuji Hiratsuka) 67-73-69-73
283: Colombia (Jorge Benedetti/Gustavo Mendoza) 68-79-68-68
287: New Zealand (Richard Lee/Stephen Scahill) 67-77-70-73
288: Puerto Rico (Miguel Suarez/Wilfredo Morales) 68-73-71-76

November 25, 2007

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