“I’ve been trying hard to rest both during and between events,” he said. “I’m playing quite well, but even though I made the cut in Qingdao and Korea, I didn’t do brilliantly. I’d like to do better in Tianjin and Beijing for the Omega Championship, as the last two events of the Omega China Tour.”

　　Also competing in Tianjin are Asian Tour players Shang Lei and Alex Wu Ashun, who both qualified for the regional circuit at the end of last year.

　　The city’s local charge will be spearheaded by 27-year-old Johnson Xing Xiaoxuan, who’s attached to Yangliuqing Golf Club. Xing is enjoying a return to form, having finished joint-sixth in June’s China Pro-Am and tied 13th at Luxehills, his best result on Tour since 2005, when he finished ninth on the Order of Merit.

　　Amateur Chen Minggang is another familiar face at Yangliuqing and on Tuesday he played a practice round with Garth Cusick, the Beijing-based Australian who has coached him since May 2005.

　　Cusick first started teaching Chen during weekly visits to Tianjin and the head pro at the SGA China Coaching Center is delighted to see the rapid progress of his student, who now regularly visits him for tuition in Beijing.

　　“When we first met, his golf experience was a couple of visits to a driving range. He had never even played on a course,” said 36-year-old Cusick, one of a wave of foreign pros competing on this year’s Tour.

　　“He told me he had played football competitively and was seeking a new challenge. He was committed to improving his game and within one year asked me to train him like a professional. It’s great he has progressed to the stage that he was invited to this event in recognition of his success as an amateur.”

　　Cusick is one of a host of foreign PGA professionals competing in Tianjin, including Beijing-based Americans Jim Johnson and Patrick Quernemoen, Zhuhai-based Mark Giles, and Jovick Lee Wing-kei, James Stewart, Nick Redfern and Jason Robertson from Hong Kong.