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SHANGHAI -- The PGA Tour China Series began in 2014 and by all accounts is ahead of schedule in developing local talent.Last year, Li Haotong was one shot out of the lead going into the final round of the HSBC Champions and played in the penultimate group with reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth. After a rough start with a nation watching, he shot 72 and tied for seventh.This year, the honor went to Zhang Xinjun, who opened with rounds of 68-69. He received a larger gallery than he would have expected because he was in the same group as Rory McIlroy. Zhang matched McIlroy with a 70, and then he faded to a 76 on the final and tied for 21st.Its great for the tournament, McIlroy said. I knew the atmosphere of the day was going to be a bit bigger than it has been, especially playing with Zhang. Its nice they have a local. They came out to watch him and support, and I was along. So it was a bonus that we both played together.All the kids watching, it can only inspire them to try to emulate the local hero, as well as guys like us.Li won four times in China in the inaugural year to advance to the Web.com Tour, where he was 49th on the money list. He was playing the Web.com Tour again this year until he won the Volvo China Open to secure his European Tour card. He now is at the Turkish Airlines Open this week as part of the Final Series on the Race to Dubai.Zhang is No. 5 on the China money list, hopeful of staying there for the second half of the season so he can advance to the Web.com Tour.This is what we hoped would happen, said Paul Johnson, head of international affairs for the PGA Tour. It just happened sooner than we thought. When we built the platform, we thought it would take five years. Some of these guys have shot through more quickly.Next in line is Zecheng Dou. He already has won four times on the PGA Tour China Series to easily lead the money list. Zecheng is virtually a lock to be on the Web.com Tour next year, and he should have status all year.For Zecheng, coming to America wont be too great of a shock to the system. He once lived in Canada, and he played several junior events in America growing up. He saw the PGA Tour China Series as his best route to the PGA Tour.Its developing fast, he said of the 3-year-old circuit. It seems like every winning score was 20 under. Its getting harder, and theres more foreign guys coming to play. A lot better players are coming over.The second half of the season resumes this week with the Clearwater Bay Open.---WALK-UP MUSIC: Expect the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship to be a little bit louder next January.At least before the first shot is struck.Giles Morgan, the global head of sponsorship for HSBC, plans to have music on the practice range at Abu Dhabi. Players would choose the playlist. Music also was blaring on the range at Hazeltine during the Ryder Cup.Morgan also wants to create a little more atmosphere as players approach the first tee.We want to celebrate the moment, he said. Were looking at them coming from the putting green with the soundtrack they choose, and that sound feeds up from the hill when its their time to go up. Theyve chosen their walk-up music. It happens in other sports, and it seems to work. It allows them through their choice of music to connect with the fans, and it humanizes them.---TRAVEL PROBLEMS: Tyrrell Hatton of England nearly parlayed a pair of strong finishes in the majors to a PGA Tour card.Some of the blame can be attributed to a bad day of travel.Hatton tied for fifth in the British Open. He tied for 10th in the PGA Championship, which got him into the Travelers Championship the following week. He closed with a 66 and tied for 17th. All he needed was one good tournament to finish in the equivalent of the top 125 on the money list and earn his PGA Tour card.The Wyndham Championship helped out by giving him an exemption. It was getting there that proved to be the problem. A shocker of a journey, Hatton said.He flew from Hartford, Connecticut, to Greensboro, North Carolina, via Philadelphia. But when he reached Philadelphia, his flight to Greensboro was canceled and he was routed through Washington, where that flight was nearly canceled.It should have taken me 14 hours from leaving the hotel, and it took 34, Hatton said. I managed eight holes of a practice round. I was just a zombie.He missed the cut and headed back to England. Hes not sure the travel issues cost him a chance in the tournament, though it didnt help.Just one of those weeks, Hatton said. But Im looking forward to playing more events out there.---RYOS BACK: Hideki Matsuyama has been on such a tear that its easy to overlook the return of longtime friend Ryo Ishikawa.Ishikawa sat out most of the PGA Tour season with a back injury. He returned to the Japan PGA Championship and missed the cut, took an additional six weeks off and now is starting to roll. Ishikawa has posted five straight top 10s in Asia. The streak began with the 14th victory of his career. He followed with a runner-up finish, third at the ANA Open, a tie for seventh at the Japan Open and a tie for 10th at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.Next up for Ishikawa is Las Vegas.Later this month, he will join Matsuyama in Melbourne to represent Japan in the World Cup at Kingston Heath.---DIVOTS: One of the highlights at the HSBC Champions is a party to celebrate the HSBC Caddie of the Year. This years winner? Austin Johnson, the brother of U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson. It was a vote of the other caddies at the HSBC Champions. ... Gary Woodland married Gabby Granado before playing the Asia swing. ... Three left-handers have won on the PGA Tour this year, none of them with the nickname Lefty. Bubba Watson won at Riviera, Greg Chalmers won in Reno and Cody Gribble won in Mississippi. ... The John Deere Classic raised a record $10.5 million for 491 local and regional Quad Cities charities, ranking it among the top three in charitable giving on the PGA Tour. ... The FedEx Cup playoff event at the TPC Boston will be called Dell Technologies Championship.---STAT OF THE WEEK: Chesson Hadley (No. 92) at the 2014 Puerto Rico Open was the last player in the top 100 to win an opposite-field event on the PGA Tour.---FINAL WORD: When I got to six ahead I was thinking, `If I blow this, its not going to be good. I felt a bit of pressure with that thought. -- Hideki Matsuyama, on his seven-shot victory in the HSBC Champions. Lance McCullers Astros Jersey . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Hector Rondon Astros Jersey . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. http://www.baseballastrosproshop.com/roberto-osuna-astros-jersey/ . Brett Kulak and Jackson Houck of the Vancouver Giants were each charged with assault causing bodily harm on Aug. 18, according to the B.C. court services. Brad Peacock Astros Jersey .C. -- Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA hes still amazed at some of the things LeBron James does. Jake Marisnick Jersey . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. A few years ago, Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson took it upon themselves to rank the 100 greatest Test hundreds. It was a meticulous and exhaustive exercise, one that provoked much debate. More importantly, whatever your view on matters ordinal, it was a collection of fine writing on some unarguably great batting. Now they have laboured lovingly over a follow-up, Supreme Bowling: 100 Great Test Performances, and the discussions can begin again.As with Masterly Batting, the original book, this is an immensely thorough and (as least as far as possible) scientific attempt to list crickets best Test-match bowling. Ferriday sets out the methodology in the opening section, taking into account seven key factors, such as wickets/runs (converted into relative value), opposition, conditions, and match and series impact. Of these, match impact is considered the most important - reflective of the adage that it is bowlers who win games - which is a notable tweak from the Masterly Batting formula, where the conditions and opposing attack took on greater significance.The cut-off point is a five-for, of which there had been almost 2800 in Tests up to the start of 2016 (the books other cut-off point, meaning Stuart Broads 6 for 17 in Johannesburg misses out). Quite a bit of sifting required, then. If magnitude is all you are after, that list already exists; in Supreme Bowling, Jim Laker is brought down to size - though the calm destroyer still takes his place in the pantheon.Once again, the Ferriday-Wilson ranking system is largely dispassionate. Lots of numbers are punched in - including, for instance, a precisely calibrated measure of each wickets worth using historical ICC batting ratings - and out burp the results. There is a category for intangibles, which takes into account first-hand reportage, but the attempt is to be as objective as possible. The authors, of course, know they wont be able to please everybody, noting in their introduction the reaction to Masterly Batting: almost every innings in the 100 was considered either too high, too low or a foolish inclusion and many outside the 100 were denounced as absurd omissions.From which quarters will the brickbats come this time? Shane Warnes boosters will doubtless contest the suggestion that only one of his 37 five-wicket hauls merits inclusion - especially when Phil Tufnell gets in twice. Malcolm Marshall, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir and Dennis Lillee, meanwhile, are among the illustrious names who fail to make the grade. (Akram and James Anderson are the only bowlers with 400-plus Test wwickets not to feature.dddddddddddd)However, its worth noting that the Wisden 100, which was compiled in 2001, came to similar conclusions: Marshall, Wasim and Lillee were again absent, while Warnes only entry was for his 8 for 71 against England in 1994-95 (in Supreme Bowling it is his 6 for 34 versus South Africa three years later). Perhaps sweeping up Poms by the bagful isnt necessarily the stuff of greatness.Both lists find agreement on the apex bowling performance in Tests too. Hugh Tayfield, the South Africa offspinner, is perhaps not as feted many of the names that come after him but he is one of only four players to have three or more entries in the Supreme 100 (Kapil Dev, Muttiah Muralitharan and Mitchell Johnson are the others). Of the big beasts, only Curtly Ambrose manages two appearances in the top ten. But all this is really parlour talk before sitting down to enjoy the banquet. The great strength of the book - as was the case with its predecessor - is the quality of the writing, in particular the Pinnacle section, which covers performances 25 to 1 and takes up two-thirds of the 300-odd pages. Ferriday and Wilson can call upon an all-star attack themselves: Rob Smyth channels Ezekiel 25:17 (and Pulp Fictions Jules Winnfield) to describe Ambrose as he struck down upon England with great vengeance and furious anger at Port-of-Spain in 1994; Dileep Premachandran relates Harbhajan Singhs turbanating of Australia in Chennai days after the Miracle of Eden - a far preferable destiny to driving long-haul trucks in Canada; and Russell Jackson summons some appropriately muscular prose for Johnson: The He-Man fitness freak with the Hells Angels moustache said bollocks to self-preservation and up yours to workload management.A particular favourite of mine was Rob Bagchis beautifully evocative piece on Sarfraz Nawaz - Pakistans swing-bowling dandy - which manages to reference Keyser Soze, Omar Sharif and Marlies Gohr while retelling the story of his match-stealing 9 for 86 at the MCG in 1979. Then there is Richard Hadlee and his talking ball at the Gabba, not to mention the Dylan-infused folk tribute to Bob Willis in 1981… I could go on.If the concept is a touch High Fidelity, the resulting collection is high quality. There should be no need for argument about that.Supreme Bowling Compiled and edited by Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson Von Krumm Publishing, 2016 321 pages, ￡15 (Kindle edition ￡4.91) ' ' '