And, indeed, when we look at how players performed in past runnings of this week's BMW Asian Open at the Tomson Pudong GC in Shanghai on the back of the Volvo China Open in Beijing, we see a strong correlation.

In 2006, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano finished second in Beijing before going on to win here while Paul Casey, Peter O'Malley, Simon Dyson and Paul Lawrie all made the top 10 in both events.

And last year the results were even more starting with the top five finishers in the China Open all making the top 10 in the BMW.

So we're almost falling over ourselves to recall who did well in Beijing last week.

The top 10 were:

278 Damien McGrane 68 69 68 73

287 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 69 72 79, Oliver Wilson 72 66 70 79, Simon Griffiths 68 72 73 74

288 Graeme McDowell 73 72 68 75, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 69 72 76, Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 71 69 77

289 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 71 71 74 73, Peter Whiteford 73 72 71 73, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 73 68 73 75, Jason Knutzon (USA) 68 72 72 77

Those who like to take a blanket approach may want to back them all and there's certainly some fancy prices flying around on some of the lesser names.

Despite the presence of Retief Goosen and Henrik Stenson in the field, I feel the trends are strong enough to make China Open top-tenners four of my five selections this week.

First name up is Markus Brier.

The Austrian has a win and two top fives from his last five starts in China (the others were tied 21st and tied 29th) so his trips to the Far East have proved extremely lucrative.

One of those top fives came in this event last year and last week's tied fifth suggests he can pull off a repeat and hopefully push for the win.

Brier was in the top eight for both greens hit and putting average last week and having posted a win on the European Tour in each of the last two seasons we know we're not just playing for the each-way money.

The 33/1 about Brier is very acceptable.

It's a welcome surprise to see one of last week's top 10 priced at 140/1 this week - especially as he's posted two previous top 20s in this event.

The man in question is American Jason Knutzon, who finished tied eighth last week.

Knutzon has two wins on the Asian Tour - one in Indonesia last year and the first coming in the Macau Open in 2004 when he beat a field which included Padraig Harrington.

A college buddy of 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, last year Knutzon enjoyed his best season in five years on the Asian Tour and his current good form suggests he's a fair bet to improve upon the 19th place he managed in this event last year.

Go each-way at 140s.

French golfers have taken the eye of late and Raphael Jacquelin is the defending champion this week.

But given our strategy of following those bang in form the one to play this time is Michael Lorenzo-Vera.

Last year's Challenge Tour Number One - secured by victory in the season-ending Apulia San Domenico Grand Final - has had a couple of decent efforts since graduating.

He was ninth in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at the back end of last season and, of course, finished tied second last week after holding the halfway lead.

Looking at his results from the Challenge Tour last year and it's worth noting that he often followed up one good performance with another.

If he can build upon all the positives from last week he could again be challenging on the leaderboard so the 90/1 looks on the high side.

Including his tied second last week, England's Oliver Wilson has finished runner-up four times in the last 12 months.

He also went extremely close to victory in the Volvo China Open in 2005 when pipped by a fast-finishing Paul Casey so he has proven form in this part of the world.

Wilson has improved his Order of Merit position every year since his rookie season in 2005 and definitely has the look of a winner waiting to happen.

He hasn't got great form on this course but he's made the cut on both visits and played some excellent golf last week (second in greens in regulaton and fifth in putting).

That first win can't be far away so back him at 50/1.

Finally, I will just find room for Miguel Angel Jimenez.

True, the Spaniard didn't play last week but he's in excellent nick after a super final round 68 at Augusta lifted him up to eighth place.

If he can bring that form with him, Jimenez could post what would be a fourth win in China.

That includes two wins in the Hong Kong Open - the latest one back in November - and a victory at this course in 2004.

Jimenez also made the top ten at Thomson last year so, if the putts drop, he can become a double winner of this event too.