"We still don't feel familiar when playing in such high-level golf tournaments. Our mental game is not so strong when we face so many foreign players, especially because they're such good players and so competitive," said Wu, who finished fourth in last year's Omega Order of Merit.

"During the tournaments we think about how many strokes we'll need that day to make the cut. I bet Liang Wenchong doesn't think like that. He just focuses on his own game rather than worrying about other people's scores because mentally he's much stronger."

Last year, Liang became the first Chinese golfer to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit and received an invitation to this year's Masters, where he followed in the footsteps of his mentor Zhang, who played at Augusta in 2004.

"The rest of the Chinese players should really spend more time with Liang and Zhang to learn from them and try to benefit from their experience of playing around the world," Wu said.

"Most of the Omega China Tour players play professional golf tournaments, competing against each other, so we still need time to get used to these higher-level events. This will come as we have more opportunities to play in such events."

Liang, who earned $28,700 on Sunday after finishing joint-10th in The Crowns event on the Japan Golf Tour, will not be competing this week as he's attending his brother's wedding.

Instead, Zhang, a frequent competitor on both the Asian Tour and the Omega China Tour, will spearhead the Chinese challenge in Beijing.

Last year, he and Liang finished tied 10th in the inaugural Pine Valley event, while Qiu Zhifeng, Gao Lei and Wu himself also made the cut.

"Sometimes, Chinese players can post a good round in a European Tour or Asian Tour event, but not many can do so for four rounds," Wu said. "However, I'm still very confident about my career and my future in golf, although I still think it will take a bit of time before I make the next step."

(China Daily May 7, 2008)