– There are two tournaments left to complete the Asian Swing, a stretch of the calendar of the DP World Tour whose partial ranking grants a place in the PGA Championship, the second Major of the year, to the top three. The first of those two tournaments is the Volvo China Open which starts tomorrow. The Asian Swing will close next week in Turkey.
– In this battle we already have two Spanish players very well placed. Jorge Campillo, who is third in the Asian Swing partial ranking, and Eugenio Chacarra, who is fourth. Adrián Otaegui has also picked up a good number of points and is seventh.
– And just behind the Basque with an Emirati passport sits, in eighth, one of the big emerging sensations of world golf and certainly of the Volvo China Open, the young Chinese prodigy Yanhan Zhou, who has just turned 18 and finished third in the Hainan Classic a month ago, his best result on the DP World Tour, and second last week in a Chinese circuit tournament (China Sports Lottery-Chonqing Open). Will this youngster be able to find a place in the PGA and thus contest the first Major of his career? Zhou, by the way, plays alongside Nacho Elvira and Jordan Gumberg on Thursday and Friday, one of the highlighted groups.
– For those not yet aware of this kid’s abilities, let’s briefly run through some facts. He won his first professional tournament before turning fifteen, still as an amateur. He turned professional at 16 and in 2025 he won a staggering seven tournaments, all on the China Tour, a minor circuit, where he already boasts a total of eleven victories.
– We’ll have to see how coming of age suits him at this Volvo China Open. If he can be up there again, as he was a month ago in Hainan, he will undoubtedly give a boost to his prodigious and effervescent trajectory, but in reality his big test may be next week in Turkey, since all his victories and major performances to date have taken place on Chinese soil. Is he ready for the next step? There’s no rush, of course not, but in two weeks we’ll have an answer.
– The first third of the calendar of the DP World Tour has already been completed. There is a lot ahead, but some calculations can already be made, and you also need to position yourself properly to actually gain entry into all the autumn tournaments, where the most points are awarded. Take, for example, this figure. A solo third place this week at the Volvo China Open would effectively secure Rafa Cabrera Bello‘s objective of retaining his Tour card. The same could almost be said of Alejandro del Rey and Manu Elvira. Meanwhile, Sebas García, Ángel Hidalgo, Iván Cantero, Rocco Repetto and Quim Vidal would need something like a solo second place to secure or get very close to that same objective. There is time and tournaments ahead, but the sooner the homework is done, the better.
