The Top 5 Asian Players - Number 5: T.C. Chen
On the number 5 spot we have a Taiwanese player, Tze-Chung Chen, who made history by hitting the first ever albatross (double-eagle) in a US Open history in 1985. Although the shot didn’t get him the tournament win, he finished second, one shot behind Andy
North, which was enough for the world to sit up and take notice of the talented player.
Where T.C. Chen became the first player to hit an albatross in US Open History; he also earned a place in the most disastrous shots in the final round of a major list. In his fourth and final round the golfer scored a quadruple bogey eight that included
a chip shot that he hit twice in one swing. As a result of this shot he came to be known as the “Two Chip” Chen. Chen recalls the experience as "the very bad luck"; is remembered by the world as "the very good luck" for it gave us the only known albatross
that a player has yet to replicate at an Open.
Chen played on the PGA tour for 10 years, 1987 being his best year. He won the Los Angeles Open and finished 12th at the Masers and 51st on the earnings list that year.
1990 saw the golfer returning to Asia where he played on the Japan Golf Tour extensively and won six tournaments.
In 2008 the golfer decided to retry his luck in the world of international golf. "I am ready for the second spring of my golfing career," Chen says, "but I know it won't be easy." The last time we saw him on the course was at the Senior British Open in 2008
on the Champions Tour.
The Asian Continent has been making a lot of progress and not only in the economic world but also in sports. Golf has been seeing a rise of talented players from Asia in recent years, which leads us to believe that that the region is very talent rich.
The first time the world became aware of this talent was when Isao Aoki gave Jack Nicklaus a good run for his money in the 1960 US open. However, it took 49 years for an Asian to win a major championship; a feat achieved by Y.E. Yang when he won against
Tiger Woods in the 2009 PGA Championship.
The day does not seem too far away when Asian Players will be dominating the game. Even the great Jack Nicklaus agrees. "I was asked on a trip over there about a year ago, 'Will we ever see a Chinese golfer in the top 10 in the world?’ I wouldn't be a bit
surprised to see five Asian players in the top 10 ... in a fairly short period of time, 10 or 15 years," he said.
This success is not limited to Asian males only. The women of the continent have not only caught up with the rest of the world’s players but In fact surpassed them. In November, half of the top twelve women in the world rankings were South Korean with the
top 20 having an additional five.
Greg Norman the former world No.1 agrees that the continent has immense talent "I truly believe in the next 20 years the East will take over the West with the domination of the game, there’s no question about it."
"I think that the most drastic growth in our game over the next 20 years will take place in Asia," said Annika Sorenstam, who retired in 2008 as one of the world’s best golfer and recently returned from a golf summit in Bangkok. "Golf is a relatively new
sport there, but the fans there are fanatical and the government is determined to make golf the sport there."
In the past Japanese players seem to have shown the most promise in the game; with three out of five top Asian Players hailing from Japan. However, the golfing community in Japan may soon be reaching its maturity stages.
China on the other hand seems to have a huge untapped market for new player and courses as only 1 million out of the 1.3 billion populations have taken up the sport. The Chinese government also seems to be aware of this fact and is seen taking a number of
initiatives to promote the game in the country. This stance is further cemented by the fact that the Chinese have decided to increase their funding in the game, ever since the sport was made part of the Summer Olympics to be held in 2016.
All eyes in the golfing world seemed to be glued to China at the moment and if we our analysis is correct will remain there for a good many years to come.
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