Zhang Lianwei (; born 2 May 1965) is a Chinese professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er. Zhang was the first golfer from the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to achieve substantial success on the international professional circuit. In January 2003 he became the first Chinese golfer to win on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

, and the following year was the first to compete in the Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships.

Career

Zhang was born in

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pear ...

in Guangdong Province. The People's Republic of China's first golf course opened in 1984, and Zhang took up the game soon afterwards. He worked as a caddie and won the China Amateur Open Championship three times before turning professional in 1994. Early in his career, Zhang won a number of smaller tournaments around Asia, in China, Malaysia and Thailand. He has competed predominantly on the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wo ...

since 1997, but has also played extensively on the

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour ( ja, 日本ゴルフツアー機構) is a prominent golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006 it offers the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after th ...

. He has also played outside Asia with limited success. However he did win a tournament in Canada in 2000. Zhang came to global attention at the 2003 Caltex Singapore Masters, where he edged out

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature (he stands ) along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victor ...

with a

birdie Birdy or Birdie may refer to: Places in the United States * Birdie, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Birdie, Mississippi, an unincorporated community People with the name * Birdie Blye (1871–1935), American pianist * Birdy (singe ...

on the final hole to become the first Chinese golfer to win on the European Tour. With this victory he also became the first Chinese golfer to make the top 100 in the

Official World Golf Rankings The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

. As a result, in 2004 he received a special invitation to play in the Masters Tournament, becoming the first player from mainland China to compete in the tournament. His invite drew significant criticism, with many players believing that there were other Asian golfers more deserving of a place in the Augusta field. Zhang has won a total of five tournaments on the Asian Tour, and has a best end of season ranking of 2nd on the Order of Merit, achieved in 2003. He has also won six times on the China Tour, where he topped the Order of Merit in 2006. In 2009, while being invited to compete in the

Omega European Masters The Omega European Masters is the Swiss stop on professional men's golf's European Tour, and in 2009 it became the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour. Founded as the Swiss Open in 1923, the tournament was prefixed with E ...

in Crans-sur-Sierre Switzerland, Zhang met Stéphane Barras the local club pro, who later became his coach.Stéphane Barras in China, Olympic Quest full story
/ref> In February 2010 Zhang and Stéphane opened a golf training center in Haigeng, Kunming in the province of Yunnan, (the Olympic training ground of China). In April 2010, Zhang regained his title at the PGA of China and in 2011 he finishing -13 and best Chinese at the China Open co-sanctioned with European Tour, OneAsia tour and Asian Tour. In 2014, Zhang hit the very first tee shot in the history of the newly established

PGA Tour China PGA Tour China is a China-based men's professional golf tour as part of the PGA Tour's global expansion. The tour started in 2014. After a hiatus in 2017, the tour resumed in 2018. It is known as PGA Tour Series China. An earlier tour, the Omega ...

. In 2015 he was a rookie on the

European Senior Tour The Legends Tour is the current branding of the European Senior Tour, a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over, run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was branded as the Staysure Tour for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after UK-based insu ...

. In 2016, he won his first senior title, the SSE Enterprise Wales Senior Open.

Amateur wins

*1989 China Amateur Open Championship *1991 China Amateur Open Championship *1994 China Amateur Open Championship

Professional wins (20)

European Tour wins (1)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asian Tour wins (5)

¹Co-sanctioned by the

Asian Tour playoff record (1–0)

Canadian Tour wins (1)

Omega China Tour wins (8)

*1995 (1) Volvo Open *1996 (1) Blue Ribbon Open *1997 (1) Hugo Boss Open *2006 (2) Omega China Tour – Zhuhai, Omega China Tour – Shanghai *2007 (2) Omega China Tour – Qingdao, Omega China Tour – Guangzhou *2010 (1) China Tour – PGA Championship

Other wins (5)

*1995 (2) Volvo Masters of Malaysia, Volvo Masters of Thailand *1996 (2) Volvo Masters of Malaysia, Volvo Masters of Thailand *1998 (1) Hong Kong PGA Championship

European Senior Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the halfway cut
''Note: Zhang only played in the Masters Tournament.''

Results in World Golf Championships

"T" = Tied
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

Team appearances

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing China):

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, 1996, 2001, 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, 2009 * Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing China):

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Dynasty Cup Dynasty Cup was an East Asian international association football tournament. The tournament was held every 2 or 3 years. It was hosted by Beijing in 1990 and 1992, Hong Kong in 1995, Yokohama and Tokyo in 1998. In 2002 the East Asian Football F ...

(representing Asia): 2003 (winners), 2005 (winners) *

Royal Trophy The Royal Trophy was a men's professional team golf tournament which was played between 2006 and 2013. The competing teams represented Europe and Asia. Eight man teams played a series of 16 matches involving foursomes, four-ball and singles for the ...

(representing Asia): 2006

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Lianwei Chinese male golfers Asian Tour golfers European Tour golfers Japan Golf Tour golfers European Senior Tour golfers Asian Games medalists in golf Asian Games silver medalists for China Golfers at the 1994 Asian Games Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games Sportspeople from Guangdong People from Zhuhai 1965 births Living people 20th-century Chinese people 21st-century Chinese people