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Asian golf continues to conjure up top stars

Asian golf had another stellar year this year, with tournaments growing in stature and crowds flocking to catch a glimpse of an increasing number of top name stars.

The region played host to 31 tournaments over the course of the year, nine of them co-sanctioned with the European Tour.

Three of them -- Singapore Open, HSBC Champions and the World Cup -- offered in excess of four million dollars in prize money as sponsors continued to pump cash into the fast-growing sport.

Winners in Asia in 2007 read like a who's who of world golf -- Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Angel Cabrera, Miguel Angel Jimenez -- as the trickle of big names playing on the continent turned into a flood.

But there was also success for the Asian Tour regulars, with stalwarts like the Philippines' Frankie Minoza, India's Jyoti Randhawa, and Thailand's Thaworn Wiratchant all scoring victories.

In all, there were 28 different winners with only Taiwan's Lu Wen-teh lifting more than one trophy -- the Macau Open and the Taiwan Masters. Scotland won the World Cup team event.

But it was Liang Wen-chong who outshone them all, winning the European-sanctioned Singapore Masters and posting eight other top-10s to become the first man from China to win the Order of Merit title.

He was also voted the Players' Player of the Year.
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