The Challenge Tour is back in China for the first time in four years and while any opportunity to play has to be welcomed by those striving for promotion, it's probably not ideal that a co-sanctioned event is the final chance to earn spots in the Grand Final.

Almost half of this field is made up by players from the China Tour and that means only the top 75 Challenge Tour players were invited – some of whom have, bizarrely on the face of it, decided against travelling to Danzhou Ancient Saltern Golf Club for the Hainan Open.

Jacques Kruyswijk for instance is 46th on the Road to Mallorca standings yet isn't here, despite the fact that at the conclusion of this week's event, only the top 45 will secure spots at the Grand Final and the opportunity to earn DP World Tour membership. Kristoffer Broberg isn't far behind and this former winner in China has also opted against making the journey from the south of France.

It's all slightly bizarre and I think the same is true of the market, which has shunted TOM LEWIS down from favouritism after he missed the cut by one shot at a fiddly golf course last week.

Lewis should be much more comfortable here and while it's a new venue, at close to 7,400 yards and with the anticipated receptive conditions in mind, it should play soft and pretty long.

That's often the way in this part of the world and you only have to look as past renewals of the event to get a feel for what we might expect again: Erik van Rooyen, Grant Forrest, Adrian Meronk, Pep Angles, Tapio Pulkkanen, Sean Crocker, Wil Besseling, Niklas Lemke, Adri Arnaus and Sebastian Heisele all feature, and all are big hitters.

Lewis has a past top-five finish in Shenzhen to his name and for a while now he's been threatening to win again at this level. In fact prior to last week's narrow missed cut he'd been inside the top 20 at halfway in six consecutive starts, including when going on to sit eighth through 54 holes on the DP World Tour in Northern Ireland.