Gary Player and Liang Wenchong

This is Player’s quote (based on versions found here and here):

That was on everybody’s lips, particularly in China, about golf being in the Olympic Games. I’ve been known as a kook with my predictions throughout my career. I said everybody would be doing weight training in sports. They all said I was mad. Now, I’m going to make another prediction and say that by the time the 2016 Olympic Games come along, I think there will be three Chinese players — or even five — in the top 100 in the world. They’ve already got one, a man named Liang (Wenchong), who I’ve watched swing for a long time. Particularly in China, the Olympics mean so much to them and little towns where they really didn’t know about golf will now start to have golf courses. We are busy negotiating and bidding on at least nine golf course in China — we’ve already done nine — so they’re coming at us like a tsunami, not only economically, but in the sports field and golf, for a man to win a gold medal for his country I think is the ultimate.

Liang Wenchong is currently ranked 85th in the world. The next Chinese golfer, Zhang Lianwei, is 708th. Liang and Zhang will be 38 and 51 years old, respectively, in 2016.