Thongchai Jaidee celebrated his 40th birthday with a top-20 finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions on Sunday.

The Thai star fired a two-under-par 70 at the Sheshan International Golf Club for a share of 19^th place on eight-under-par 280 in the US$7 million event, which was Asia's first staging of a World Golf Championships tournament.

India's Jyoti Randhawa was also tied 19^th after a 72 while Chinese Taipei's Lin Wen-tang settled for joint 33^rd place after a frustrating 76 to end the tournament alongside Asian Tour members Chapchai Nirat of Thailand, Jeev Milkha Singh of India and Australia's Scott Strange.

Asia's first Major champion Yang Yong-eun of Korea was also tied 33^rd after his week's best of 67.

Thongchai, the current Order of Merit leader thanks to two victories this season, couldn't buy a putt in his final 18 holes but declared that his game was in top shape ahead of next week's event in Hong Kong, which marks the resumption of the Merit race. Only China's Liang Wen-chong can deny him an unprecedented third Merit crown.

"I'm looking forward to Hong Kong. I'm thinking about it as I have a good chance to finish off the Asian Tour Order of Merit. It's going to be another big event with many big names there," said the Thai, whose playing partner Francesco Molinari was also coincidently celebrating his birthday on Sunday.

"It was solid today. I hit 15 greens and made one bogey. I putted good but the lines were difficult to read. There were some putts which had double or triple breaks and I missed a lot of putts coming in. I'm still happy with a top-20 finish.

"I know the course well in Hong Kong. I'm just going to think about my own game. I'm feeling confident about next week."

Randhawa admitted that the big occasion got to him after a birdie on one pushed him closer to the lead.

"I guess I was a little tentative today. I wanted to play well but I didn't hit the ball the way I wanted to. I lost a bit of focus in between. I guess the event got to me as suddenly I realised where I was and made a few mistakes," said the Indian, Asia's number one in 2002.

"It was nice to get a birdie on the first hole but I couldn't keep it up. It was a good experience. It has been a good week. I have kept my card in Europe which I'm happy about. Now, I can go out and just play the game in the next few weeks. I need to get rid of this thing of trying to make a score and just go out to play golf.

I think I realised that I need to be more mentally focussed to play my best golf. Today, I wasn't mentally there."