The godfather of Chinese golf paid Liang Wenchong the ultimate compliment after the 27-year-old completed an emphatic victory, taking the Hainan leg of the Omega China Tour to maintain his perfect record on the circuit.
Liang won his second trophy in his second appearance, carding a one-under-par 71 in the final round yesterday for a 15-under total and a nine-shot victory over Zhang Lianwei, who, for the first time, publicly anointed his protege as the mainland's finest player.
'I would like to congratulate Liang from the bottom of my heart. He has brought us four rounds of fantastic golf. I admire what he did in this tournament and I believe he's the best golfer in China at the moment,' said Zhang, the first Chinese winner of a European PGA Tour event.
Those words led Liang to hug his mentor, before admitting that the win actually felt anything but the cakewalk it appeared to be.
'I was really worried when I started because I know Zhang has broken a lot of records coming from behind to win. Also he played with Tiger [Woods] last year and finished only one stroke behind him over 18 holes, and he's beaten Shigeki Maruyama before. So with this kind of history, I couldn't even focus for almost half of the front nine,' Liang said.