Phil Jonas - A Golfing Blog On An Oriental Journey

I have just spent the past two weeks in China working with one of my tour professional students Su Dong and also a little time with a periodic student of mine, Zhang Lian Wei.

The first week they played in a One Asia Tour event in Chengdu. This is an exiting new tour that could one day rival the PGA TOUR and European Tour. The One Asia Tour takes a few events from the Australian, Korean, Japan and China tours to make a tour. Eventually it will have 40 tournaments and players will be shooting for a lot of money. At the moment they are in a conflict with the Asian Tour, but I'm sure it will get resolved.

Coincidently, Australian Terry Pilkerderis got a $5,000 fine for playing, as the Asian Tour wouldn't give him a release to play he made $20,000 in the tournament.
The tournament was played at a beautiful course called Luxehills and a great facility too. There were some notable players in the field, including Craig Parry and Shigeki Maruyama to name a few.

The winner was the number one player in China, Liang Won Chong. My student, Su Dong, played well shooting two-under par but, he missed the cut by one. I think he played well considering he's just 19. He hit so many good shots, but he doesn't score as well as he can. In my opinion knowing how to score and knowing how to score well when you are playing badly is the most important part of golf for anybody who wants to make a career out of this sport. Zhang Lian Wei finished at 10-under in 20th place.

Zhang Lian Wei is the Arnold Palmer of Chinese golf. He started golf when he was 20 and taught himself, working all the way into the top 100 in the world by winning many tournaments, including a European Tour event. He is now 45 and winding his career down having made a lot of money through golf.

He really knows how to play the game with his homemade golf swing that unfortunately limits him a little. He hits the ball too low and now, with age, a little too short, but he knows how to get it around. I've watched him play a lot of golf and I've never seen him hit a stray shot when he couldn't afford to. In the practice round when you watch Su Dong and Zhang Lian Wei play, Su Dong looks so good and Zhang doesn't, but Zhang almost always come out on top.

The next tournament was the first event of the newly formed China PGA Tour. Su Dong's farther, Baecheng Su, is the CEO of the tour. They are having 6 to 10 tournaments this year and the minimum purse is $200,000US. What a great opportunity for those on the tour at the moment.

I was asked to help give some advise to them with this event, but they did such a great job there wasn't much for me to say. They had seven rules officials -- the Canadian Tour struggles by with only 4 -- they had TV and the sign-age was magnificent. The tournament was played at Genzon Golf Club in Shenzhen which isn't far from Hong Kong. The course was great and had one of the toughest stgretch of final five holes I have seen.

Well, Zhang Lian Wei maneuvered his way around to a two-stroke victory; it wasn't pretty, but he hardly ever makes a bogey. He also made his way through through those dangerous finishing holes in one under. He does hit bad shots, but never when he can't afford to. I wish I could get all my students with pro aspirations to watch him and see how he does it. Even though his swing isn't pretty, it's effective.

Terry Pilkerderis finished in second place and got to keep all $22,500 this time. Su Dong played impressively, but finished 18th.

Whenever I watch tournaments it always confirms my belief that the most important part of golf is scoring better than you play. It is better to play like 74 and shoot 70 than the other way around. You might even see this with your regular foursome when one guy plays like a 15 handicasp and scores like an eight. That guy knows how to play golf just like Zhang Lian Wei.

On another note: The Masters never disappoints, even when you have get up 3 a.m. to watch. It amazes me how Phil Mickelson can play so mediocre the first part of the year and then play so great this week. There are many dangerous shots and he keeps pulling them off. The shot that really impressed me was his 2nd shot at the 72nd and last hole, although two shots ahead he had a lengthy shot that is very uphill to a narrow green. Lee Westwood had a short enough shot that he could possibly have made birdie, but after Phil hit his great shot it was all over. Another near miss for Westwood in a Major where has played great the last few years.

Tiger Woods was great again after five months off, and I'm sure his life these past five months has been extremely difficult, which he deserves. It is so difficult to play tournaments after a long lay off, but he was still able to put all the distractions aside and finish fourth. There are a lot of great players that were able to prepare and be ready for the Masters, but only three beat him. He knows how to get it around all the time even when things aren't perfect.

Philip Jonas
CPGA Class A Professional
McCleery Golf Academy
Philip Jonas Golf Academy at Hazelmere
(604) 787 0145