Local women to face stiff test at Orient China Ladies Open
Four-time JLPGA winner Zhang Na of China will lead a strong list of local golfers to challenge some of the toughest competitors from South Korea during next month's Orient China Ladies Open in Xiamen, Southeast China's Fujian Province.
The $250,000 Orient China Ladies Open, set up last year, has become the country's first national Open Championship and the annual finale for the four-stage China Ladies Tour, equivalent to the KLPGA in South Korea and JLPGA in Japan.
"The China Ladies Tour was the cradle for my golf career," said Zhang, now ranked No 32 in the world. "I am so glad to come back to compete in the tournament. There are strong opponents coming and I hope I will be the first Chinese to win such a big event."
Zhang's dazzling success in her debut season in JLPGA has made her one of the title favorites, along with fellow Chinese Yang Hongmei, the three-time China Ladies Tour champion,
Another player, based overseas, Feng Shanshan, has also boosted China's charge to the podium.
Feng, 16, is the first student from China to enroll at the International Junior Golf Academy on Hilton Head Island (IJGA). She qualified for the 2007 US Women's Open and has spent most of her career in the US.
Feng is also the first Chinese amateur to compete in the US Women's Open; Ye Liying and Yang had previously competed in the tournament as professionals.
But a star-studded list of overseas players could pose a challenge to the Chinese. At the top of the list is 19-year-old South Korean Shin Ji-yai, the 2006 and 2007 KLPGA money leader who is currently ranked ninth in the world.
Shin, also the tournament's reigning champion, will be backed up by fellow South Korean Ji Eun-hee, who has won two KLPGA tours this year and is in second place behind Shin in prize-money rankings.
KLPGA is sending last year's other top 40 prize money winners to China as well.
"I did not expect to have so many good golfers coming to compete in Xiaman," said Zhang Xiaoning, director of China Multi-ball Administrative Center and vice president of China Golf Association (CGA). "I'm so pleased to see women's golf is making rapid progress in China in the past four years."
Two years ago, there were only around 20 women competing in a stage of the China Ladies Tour. Last year that number quadrupled to more than 80.
This year's event in Xiamen is expected to draw 144 golfers from South Korea, the US, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
"Zhang's success marks a breakthrough for the sport in China. It's a result of years of hard work and effort," Zhang Xiaoning added. "Chinese players' improvements will make the tournament more competitive.
"I hope our players are able to take the great opportunity to compete with some of the world's best women and play their best golf."
T.K. Pen, president of the tournament's sponsor, Orient International Golf Group, is also surprised by the big stride in four years time.
"We started to launch the China Ladies Tour four years ago while Orient China Ladies Open was only set up last year. But now we can have the world's top 10 players and some of top 100. It's amazing," said Pen. "As a leading golf club chain group in China, we are committed to developing the sport."
Zhang also said recent achievements in women's golf are encouraging CGA to pay extra attention to the sport's development.
"Women golfers are playing better than men's golfers in international competitions. I believe we will have more breakthroughs in women's golf in the near future as long as we continue to support the sport."
(China Daily 11/20/2007 page22)
