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March 12, 2007

Welcome again to our Golf365’s General Mailbox, where, as you know, you get the chance to air your views on anything and everything relating to golf.
Golf the game and its professionals have a good reputation for making meaningful donations to charity, but it’s not every day that their winners give away all the proceeds of their first prize.
And this especially when it’s their first win on a Tour that offers significant purses.
But that’s exactly what China’s Liang Wen-chong opted to do after winning the Euro-Asian co-sanctioned Singapore Masters on Sunday – and we applaud his unselfish action.
Liang 28-year-old native of Zhongshan in Guangdong province picked up a cheque for 183,330 US dollars (£94,800) on Sunday after defeating Iain Steel of Malaysia in a sudden-death play-off at the Singapore Masters at Laguna National Golf and Country Club and promptly disclosed that he intended donating it to charity.
“I am sure that there are a lot of golf enthusiasts in China and I want to take this opportunity to announce that I am donating all of my winnings to start up a fund for the development of golf in China,” said Liang, who shot a closing 1-over 73 to finish tied with Steel on 11-under-par 277.
It is not the first time Liang has made such a magnanimous gesture. Recently he also donated his 19,000 dollar first prize from October’s Omega Championship to the China Golf Tour.
“I hope the winnings from this event will encourage Chinese society to give us more support in assisting the development of all aspects of golf. I hope more young players will pick up the sport,” Liang explained.
“It’s not about the money. I just want to do my part as a golfer to help golf in China.
Liang, who has been playing golf since being encouraged to taker it in his mid teens said he was exceptionally grateful to hometown club Zhongshan Hot Spring Golf Club, for the way in which it had nurtured his development.
“Before them, I never knew what golf was. They helped my development, paid for me to play in tournaments and it was through them that I am what I am today,” he said.
I don’t mean it as criticism, but I can’t see too many young golfers from the free enterprise West being quite as generous with their winnings, possibly because they live in faster, more expensive societies where a first win like this goes largely towards setting them up to play their future golf with less desperation.
Would you agree?
But for now, cheers.Cheers
The Editor