Feng's fame means more steak and shopping

SHANGHAI－When Feng Shanshan was confirmed as the world's No 1 female golfer, she marked the historic achievement by ordering steak at Dallas Airport and sending a photo of it to her parents.

The 28-year-old had every reason to celebrate after becoming the first Chinese－male or female－to top the world rankings.

Feng was already the first Chinese on the women's US-based LPGA Tour and the first Chinese of either gender to triumph at a major championship, in 2012. And in 2016 she won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.

Her latest feat, in November, underlined the growing heft of China in a sport that was once banned in the country for being too bourgeois.

But Feng is not your typical Chinese－hence the steak celebration and cow-print trousers she wears on the golf course. The image of her spending hours repetitively hitting golf balls would not quite be correct either.

"She is more into quality versus quantity, but also she is a person who has a high golfing IQ," said Gary Gilchrist, Feng's long-time swing coach.

"What I mean by that, she understands that the key to this game is more about preparation and mental toughness than anything else," he told LPGA.com, calling Feng "a golfing mother to the Chinese" because of her trailblazing success.

Feng's ascension to the summit came a decade after she turned professional and was sealed with back-to-back LPGA victories late last year, first in Japan and then on home soil in Hainan.