Yuan confident heading into Xiamen Golf Championship

XIAMEN, Fujian Province, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Yuan Hao is hoping he will win his first tournament at this week's 100,000 U.S. dollars golf championship in Xiamen, the second event on the 10-leg Omega China Tour.

Yuan's growing confidence follows impressive top-10 finishes in the past two weeks, as well as three seasons of consistent results on the Chinese circuit.

Last week, the big-hitting Guangdong native was the highest-placed Chinese player in the KEB Invitational in Shanghai, finishing tied for seventh in an invitation-only event featuring professionals from the Korean and Chinese PGAs.

His Shanghai result came on the back of his joint-eighth finish in the Guangzhou Championship, the Omega China Tour's season opener two weeks ago.

"I really want to finally win on the Omega China Tour, so I'm really looking forward to the Xiamen Championship. I feel like I'm playing good golf at the moment," said the 28-year-old, who has twice finished runner-up on Tour, to Zhang Lianwei in last year's Guangzhou Championship and Li Chao in the 2006 Shandong Championship.

"I should have finished higher in Shanghai last week, but I wasa bit affected by the strong wind. Still, it was my second event in two weeks and now we have the Xiamen Championship, so I feel much more confident with three events back to back. With regular tournament play, my preparation is better and mentally I feel much stronger."

Yuan, who is 1.74 meters tall, is one of the longest hitters on the Omega China Tour, regularly exceeding 300 yards off the tee, but said he had learnt a lot from playing with some of South Korea's finest last week.

"It was my first time playing with so many Korean players and I learned a lot from them," Yuan said. "They're very competitive in the golf world. They have a great mental game and are excellent with the shorter clubs."

Yuan will need all his power at the par-70 Orient (Xiamen) layout, which has been extended to over 6,900 yards for this week's event and includes a 488-yard par-four second hole, only two yards shorter than the Tour's longest-ever par-four.

Along with Yuan, a host of other players, including Zhang Lianwei and Li Chao, head into the Chengdu Championship with good reason to be confident of success.

Zhang is looking for his third successive win on the Tour, following victories in last year's season-ending Omega Championship and this year's curtain raiser in Guangzhou.

Li is looking to again win over the Orient (Xiamen) layout where he won last year's Xiamen leg, a victory that gave him an unassailable lead in the Omega Order of Merit, which he also won in 2005.