2008 China Tour Guangzhou Championship - Round 1: Taipei duo praise China Tour

Chinese Taipei duo Chan Yihshin and Hsu Mongnan both made very positive comments about the Omega China Tour during their debut appearance on the burgeoning circuit.

Both players are competing in the season-opening Guangzhou Championship at the Dragon Lake Golf Club as the two invites from Chinese Taipei.

"The atmosphere, the organisation and the standard of play is better than back home," said Chan, who finished fourth in the Order of Merit on his domestic circuit last year, while Hsu finished third.

"It feels really professional. I'd like to play as many events on the Omega China Tour as I can this year, along with the events back home."

Hsu was also delighted to be playing on the Tour and wondered if it was just the start of a Chinese Taipei influx.

"To be honest, this field and this tournament are more professional than the ones we play in Chinese Taipei," he said. "If this Tour opened up, there would probably be more of us here. We really need more tournaments to play in, so this is a great opportunity for us."

Starting last year, each Omega China Tour event has welcomed two invites each from Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau. This year, the Tour has allocated a limited number of places to foreign professionals resident in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese Taipei.

Chan drove straight to the heart of the matter when asked by Chinese media whether the growing number of players from other PGAs could see overseas golfers taking a large slice of prize money previously shared only by mainland players.

"The introduction of international players is a good challenge and raises the standard. In fact, I'm well aware of this concern, as it happened to us in Taiwan," Chan said.

"Our tournaments started to open to foreign players and they started to do well. It's called competition and you have to get used to it if you want to improve."

March 14, 2008

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