Asians progress well

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Asians progress well

Kuala Lumpur: Asian captain Hsieh Min-nan is delighted with the way his team is shaping up ahead of next year's inaugural Dynasty Cup clash against Japan at Blue Canyon Country Club in Phuket, Thailand.

With Asian players winning 10 of the 12 tournaments staged on the Davidoff Tour so far this season, the 61-year old Hsieh is confident his charges will give the Japanese players a run for their money in the historic event from March 29 to 31, 2002.

Hsieh featured at last week's Mercuries Masters in Taiwan where he had the opportunity to further assess his likely candidates for his team. The leading eight players from a point rankings will earn automatic places while Hsieh will have four captain's picks.

"Asian players are getting stronger as is evidence by the number of them winning on this year's Davidoff Tour. This is a good sign for our Dynasty Cup prospects and I really believe we have a chance to beat Japan next year," said Hsieh, himself an accomplished player during his heyday where he won a staggering 48 titles.

"I hope to attend a couple more events later this year to further size up the strength of our players. But from what I've seen, the top players from Korea, India and Thailand are very good. However, it is also very important for me to find the right combination for the team matches."

In the latest point rankings, the top eight Asian players remained unchanged, with Thai star Thongchai Jaidee leading the race to make Hsieh's team with 450 points. Thongchai's compatriot Thaworn Wiratchant is third while three Koreans - Charlie Wi, Kang Wook-soon and Anthony Kang – are currently second, fifth and sixth.

Indian star Arjun Atwal is fourth, Singaporean Mardan Mamat is seventh while China's Zhang Lian-wei is eighth on the list. A trio of Taiwanese players - Lin Chie-hsiang, Chung Chun-hsing and Yeh Wei-tze are - on the fringe of automatic selection at ninth, 11th and 12th place respectively.

With the luxury of four captain's selections, Hsieh believes that the foreign-based Asian players such as Korea's Choi Kyung-ju, Frankie Minoza of the Philippines, India's Jeev Milkha Singh and Lin Keng-chi of Taiwan will form the cornerstone for the Asian team.

"I've been following their progress and they are also playing very well. They will certainly form the backbone for the Asian team," said Hsieh.

Last weekend, Choi clinched his fourth top-10 finish on the US PGA Tour with a tied eighth performance at the Canadian Open while Lin, Asia's best player in 1995, is currently fourth on the Japan Tour money list.

Singh, who splits his playing time between Europe, Japan and Asia, have also recorded a string of top-10 finishes this year while Minoza is seventh on the Japan merit list.

Asian Rankings (Events, Points): 1 Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 12, 450; 2 Charlie Wi (KOR) 11, 316; 3 Thaworn Wiratchant (THA) 12, 256; 4 Arjun Atwal (IND) 9, 230; 5 Kang Wook-soon (KOR) 8, 180; 6 Anthony Kang (KOR) 10, 166.83; 7 Mardan Mamat (SIN) 10, 165.75; 8 Zhang Lian-wei (PRC) 5, 150; 9 Lin Chie-hsiang (TWN) 10, 122.83; 10 Thammanoon Sriroj (THA) 11, 121.25.
Other Indians: 14 Arjun Singh 12, 109.5; 18 Vivek Bhandari 11, 80; 19 Amandeep Johl 12, 74.75; 21 Jyoti Randahwa 11, 64.75; 41 Amritinder Singh 8, 18; 48 Jeev Milkha Singh 3, 9; 59 Gaurav Ghei 4, 0.25.