Shanghai: China’s Liang Wen-chong will carry the hopes of the world’s most populous host nation when the WGC-HSBC Champions gets underway at the Sheshan International Golf Club on Thursday.

As the highest-ranked Chinese in 146th place on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), Liang hopes to reward the local crowd with a performance that will put China on the world golf map at the year’s final world golf championship.

“I always go into any competition with the sole intention of doing well. This week is no different and I’ll give my all. I’m striking the ball well and hopefully my game will come together this week,” said Liang.

Liang, who earned the distinction of becoming the first Chinese player to win the prestigious Asian Tour Order of Merit title in 2007, has enjoyed several sterling performances this year including top five finishes in India, Russia and Austria.

With the recent talk about the rise of golf in Asia, Liang is hoping to create more history and continue to be a role model for the next generation of golfers from China who will compete alongside him this week. They include Hu Mu, Wu Ashun, Li Hao-tong, Huang Ming-jie and Huang Wenyi.

“I’ve enjoyed some measure of success on the world stage and it’s important I continue to do well as I know lots of people are watching. If I do well, they will start believing in themselves and say to themselves that they can do it do,” said Liang.

Apart from his merit win in 2007, the 35-year-old was also the first ever Chinese golfer to make the cut at a Major at The Open in 2008.

Liang holds the honour of being the first, and so far only, Chinese golfer to have broken into the top-100 on the OWGR with his career high of 57th place in 2010.

As golf will be making its return to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in three years’ time, Liang knows the importance of chalking up valuable OWGR points as they will be the main pathway for players to qualify for the Olympics in 2016.

“One of my goals would be to improve on my world rankings before the Olympics in 2016,” said Liang.

“It’s important to take advantage of whatever opportunities given so that you can develop into a better player. You’ve got to take your game beyond China and play across Asia, Europe and America so that you can compete against the best. Only then can you improve,” added the Chinese.

For the first time, the HSBC Champions will become part of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup schedule, with money earned counting as official money on the PGA TOUR, and the winner earning a three-year exemption on the PGA TOUR.

The HSBC Champions will also award full FedExCup points, plus the 10 percent premium awarded by all World Golf Championships compared to a regular PGA TOUR event. With these changes the HSBC Champions is now in line with the other three World Golf Championships played in the United States and is also a key part of the 2013 European Tour’s Final Series.

The WGC-HSBC Champions prize fund has increased to $8,500,000 from $7,000,000 and is one of four World Golf Championships sanctioned and organised by the operational committee of the International Federation of PGA Tours, which includes the Asian Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA TOUR, PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour.

The other World Golf Championships include the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, WGC-Cadillac Championship and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.