He comes as advertised: quiet and thoughtful. Accommodating to a fault, it seems. He hails from China and according to a press release in my hand there is little that matters more to him than doing something very special to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to his country.
And while I have met scores of people from China over the years who have instinctively shrugged with indifference when the topic of Hong Kong's reunification with the motherland is mentioned, there are 1.3 billion people living in the country. Presumably, a few of them care. I am just not sure the number-one golfer in the People's Republic is among them.
He then proceeds to pose for pictures with a pair of top junior players from the Hong Kong Golf Association, Sibo Yan and Tiana Lau, who were, not coincidentally, both born in 1997. Their parents beam and so does their junior coach. As photographers crowd around, the kids are understandably shy and a tad uncomfortable at all the attention.
For Liang Wenchong, however, the spotlight is becoming fairly routine so he jokes with the children to relax them. The 29-year-old resident of Zhongshan currently leads the Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit with earnings of US$454,734. This year he had a breakthrough victory when he won his first European and Asian co-sanctioned tournament at the Singapore Masters. Today, he is being trotted out at the first of a series of events leading up to the UBS Hong Kong Open at Fanling between November 15 and 18.
At this stage, Liang is really the only player confirmed and with a world ranking of 103, his name recognition is hardly high. Still, it's all relative. In the increasingly desperate world of attracting top-notch players to golf tournaments, particularly in distant Asia, you have to start somewhere. The title sponsor UBS sits on more money than most countries in the world. One could safely assume something is in the works.
A number of top players, like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia, will be lurking in Asia the week before the UBS Open when they tee off at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. The week after the Hong Kong Open will be the World Cup of Golf in Shenzhen. It stands to reason that some of them will find their way to Hong Kong in the time between those events.
'We know there are a lot of big-name players coming to the region in November,' said Oliver Bertschinger, UBS head of sponsorship for Asia, 'and we hope the Hong Kong Open's tradition and heritage will draw them here.'