Liang Wen-chong In The Hunt At The Australian PGA

Today at the Australian PGA, Liang Wen-chong of the People's Republic of China finished the day at six under and a share of third place alongside Australians Steven Bowditch and Peter Fowler. 

Not bad for a 32-year old who took up the game at 15 in a country where golf had only recently been re-legalized.

This is not Liang's first success, either. In fact, it's another in a long line of successes for the young player.

In August set a new course record at Whistling Straits with his 8-under 64 in the third round of the 2010 PGA Championship.

He's also the first player from his country to make the cut at a major championship, when in July of 2008 he earned his way to weekend play at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

Not only that, he was the first player from his country to even play in an Open Championship.

He has one European Tour win, two Asian Tour wins, 16 professional wins overall and is the only player from his country currently in the Official World Golf Ranking Top 100.

Many say that Liang is the trailblazer in what's sure to be an eventual parade of players from China that succeed at all levels of the game.

As Duncan Weir, the R&A Director of golf development said in 2007, "Liang's success must serve as an inspiration to these kids and aspiring golfers everywhere. It shows what can be achieved in countries where golf is only just beginning its development. [His success] is a milestone for golf in China and I'm sure that many more Chinese golfers will [follow him.]"

Golf is a new phenomenon in China. There, under Mao Tse Tung leadership, golf was forbidden until the late 1980s after it was deemed a burgeois threat to the [Communist] revolution. That mindset changed after Mao, golf was deemed to be not so evil after all and slowly, courses began opening in the giant Asian country.

 
Liang picked up golf a few years later in his home province of Guangdong, in a serendipitous coincidence: the teenager just happened to live close to China's first golf course, and the local golfing association chose him to participate in their newly liberalized sport.  According to CNN, to play, Liang

made his own wooden clubs and woke at 5 a.m. to practice before school.

"Not even rain and storms could stop him from playing, and when everyone else thought it was too hot and couldn't bear it, he was still practicing outside alone," his mother Jiefang Lu said.

Liang's practice quickly paid off, as within ten years of picking up a golf club for the first time he had turned pro. He was no token pro either, as in a few short years Liang had earned enough to improve his parent's living circumstances when he moved them from their small, worn down home and into a new four story house. 

Today, Liang continues to improve and one day hopes to be among the top players in the world.  Whether or not that ever comes to pass, Liang Wen-Chong will forever hold a place of honor in Chinese golf because of his breakthroughs in the sporting world at large.  Clearly the most successful player to date in a country just taking up golf, Liang will almost certainly not be the last to hail from China that succeeds in the global game of professional golf.