The Dragon Ladies on Fire
Tim Maitland
One of the most remarkable group of athletes the world has ever seen is growing up fast. Led by Jiyai Shin, until mid-February the world number one, they are the Dragon Ladies and they are the dominant force in the world of women;s golf despite being only 22 or 23 years old.
"We're the girls who were born in 1988, in the year of the dragon; that's pretty much it," explains Inbee Park, 2008 US Women's Open winner, in a massive understatement.
"The Dragon Ladies are unique," states Giles Morgan, HSBC's Group Head of Sponsorship far more emphatically, perhaps because the bank's decision to move their LPGA event out of New York State to Singapore four years ago was based, along with more pure business decisions, on an awareness that their generation was about to emerge.
"Personally I'm surprised the world hasn't sat up and taken more notice, but we're fully aware of them because they bring so much to the HSBC Women's Champions. We brought the tournament to Singapore because we knew Asia and Korea in particular was about to produce some remarkable players and the emergence of such talent from countries that are relatively new to golf is close to our hearts as a business. I honestly cannot think of anyone to compare with them," he adds.
There are now four Dragon Ladies in or around the top 12 of the Rolex Rankings. Jiyai, with eight LPGA wins, was ranked number one in the world, until Yani Tseng made her fast start to the 2011 season, and is on course to secure her place in the LPGA's Hall of Fame faster than any other player in history. Ignoring Na Yeon Choi, who is four months too old to be a Dragon Lady, next comes In Kyung Kim who has won on the LPGA in each of the last three seasons. Sun Ju Ahn is another Korean born a few months before the 1998 year of the dragon, but Inbee Park and Song-Hee Kim are both up there among the world's elite, too. Throw in Ji Young Oh, whose 2010 season was disrupted by hip problems, but who has two LPGA wins to her name, and Na On Min, who finished third in the 2007 LPGA Championship at the age of 18, and you start to understand how great their year group already is.
They're part of a slightly broader generation of women, dubbed Se Ri's kids, who as young girls were inspired by Se Ri Pak winning two majors in her rookie season in 1998 on the LPGA headed straight to Korea's multi-storey urban driving ranges.
When the HSBC Women's Champions first arrived in Singapore in 2008 the Dragon Ladies were only just emerging onto the world stage. Jiyai showed her potential by finishing as the leading Korean in seventh place. A year later, in 2009, she won at Tanah Merah, and last year became only the fifth women to top the world rankings. The 2011 season sees the Dragon Ladies with their careers, in normal golf terms, still in their infancy--most players their age are happy to have their tour card and would be delighted to have a first win under their belt--but Jiyai is adamant that they are long out of their golfing nappies.
"Still babies? No!" she insists.
"We're 23; we're grown up already aren't we? I'm not getting taller anymore," she jokes, showing the same humour that she often uses to explain the secret of her success as being due to "kimchee power."
But Jiyai admits to being amazed at how fast the Dragon Ladies have raced into the superstar echelon of the women's game, something, she admits none of them could have imagined when they first started playing against each other in Korean junior tournaments around 10 years ago.
"We had a dream. We had a dream, but coming through so quickly? All the time we were dreaming of playing on the LPGA tour or being the number one, but it has come so quickly. I'm really surprised about that. We talk as friends and rivals too. A couple of years ago we were saying, 'wow, we're playing on the LPGA tour, we're 21...we can drink!'" she explains, once again dissolving into a mischievous giggle.
The combination of being both friends and rivals is what the Dragon Ladies say has driven them all to such a remarkably high level; spurring each other on with their success and yet, at the same time, supporting each other, too.
"I think we all have had some jealousies; we're all girls. So we kind of pushed each other a little bit harder. I think that's what made us. What interests me is I don't think I'm the one that practiced hardest. I wish I knew how all of us got here because I'd make a fortune!" says In Kyung, who is also known as IK and Inky.
"We didn't come in the same direction, after middle school or high school, but we all ended up here. I think we came from playing against the best. Since the age of 11, 12, 13 we all played against each other. I think rivalry is really important in sports and we made each other better. Sometimes it wasn't easy."
Those different routes included Inbee moving to the US at the age of 12 and In Kyung going to the States on her own at the age of 16 and getting her LPGA Tour card at the age of 18, while Jiyai spent three years winning on the KLPGA, re-writing their record books.
All of this proves that beyond having an exceptionally high level of competition and rivalry at an early age, the other ingredients were probably in place before they reached their teens. Fundamentally, the Korean War from 1950-53 and the fact that it theoretically never ended, play a role. The conflict brought the west, in particular the American military, into South Korea, and the fact that it ended in a ceasefire kept them in the country to create the initial demand for golf.
At the other end of the scale is Se Ri Pak, because without her bursting onto the global stage The Dragon Ladies would not have dived into the driving ranges.
"There were a number of other key cultural factors; like the fact that most of the girls have fathers or families that own their own businesses and are relatively wealthy and well-educated, which economically gave the girls access to golf. The fact that many of these businesses are the kind that need knowledge and expertise but not necessarily the kind of vocational training universities provide, may also have played a role," explains Morgan.
"At the same time, it's accepted in Korean culture that if a child shows talent, whether it's baseball, golf, playing the piano or dancing, that they should dedicate their childhood to making the most of that ability. Then the Korean work ethic--the 'work-hard-and-if-it-isn't-helping-work-harder' attitude--played a huge part," he adds.
"I think all the friends of the '88 girls have practiced harder than the previous generations. I’m really happy for that. We've tried our hardest and done our best to get better. It's been important having those friends, because all the travelling is lonely and you need a lot of people around you to travel together and eat together and spend time together," says Song-Hee, who, in sharp contrast to Shin's outgoing demeanour, stands out from among the different Dragon Ladies' characters for being remarkably shy around relative strangers.
"I think I was the immature one; I was just walking around seeing the flowers! Inbee was so much more mature than us. She's different; more calm than all of us. She came to the US after elementary school. She's always been quieter when she's talking and mature, even when we were talking about boys," says In Kyung, who as an adult has developed a love of reading, voraciously devours new information and has perhaps understood how to jump across the cultural divide better than anyone.
IK's experiences when she first arrived in the States may also help why the Dragon Ladies haven't been as widely reported or appreciated worldwide as one might expect for such an incredible year group.
The stoic, expressionless face that Koreans have is a very thin shell; underneath is a race that is arguably the most fun-loving and, most Koreans will admit, craziest in Asia. To many westerners and Americans in particular, the stern exterior looks rock-like; the lack of apparent emotion saying 'go away' to western eyes.
"Right! And I didn't know!" IK exclaims.
"Those two months were a little bit horrible. It was hard for them to approach me and I didn't know why they weren’t saying anything. The funny thing is I thought Americans were supposed to be friendly. I thought I'd have no problem making friends, but after two months I didn't have any friends. Then I started to say hi and get to know people a little bit through playing golf and they were saying, 'I thought you were, like, really mean!' because I wasn't talking. We [Koreans] don't say hi if we don't know each other. In the West you can go into a grocery store and talk to other people. So, I think I'm more open now and more sociable now. I'm open and I'll talk to strangers. The first year I travelled by myself. It helped me so much. I trust more people now."
So what does the future hold for the Dragon Ladies? Well, one could be glib and say that it is onward and upward. The truth is many of the earlier generations of Korean women golfers have struggled to make the transition into womanhood, especially going from being driven to succeed by their parents to finding their own motivations to work and win.
At the moment, the greatest upside might be with Song-Hee Kim. Unlike the other Dragon Ladies and most of Se-Ri's kids, she hasn't won on the LPGA yet. For that reason, with the exception of a fully-fit Ji Young Oh, Song-Hee might be the one with the most potential to rise further up the world rankings. She's steadily increased the number of top 10 finishes each year, from eight in 2008 to 12 in 2009 and 16 last year, including no missed cuts, two second-places and three 'bronze medals.' That 2010 success rate equates to almost 70 per cent. How good that is can be understood by considering the fact that Jiyai's conversion rate of top 10 finishes in 2009 tournaments, when she came within one shot of winning every single award for the LPGA season, was 48 per cent.
"I wanted to become more consistent. That was my target. Not just at golf, but in everyday life," Song-Hee explains.
"In my rookie year I wanted to so much, I wanted it too badly. I had too many things in my mind and it became a challenge for me. Now I know what I need and it's helping me be more consistent. I'm going to keep to that strategy and keep it simple, but eventually I'm going to win...soon."
While Song-Hee might still have scope to surprise the golf world, there's no doubt among the Dragon Ladies who the biggest surprise has been.
"Me! Myself!" exclaims Jiyai, who lagged behind the others, particularly IK Kim, when the girls were around 13 years old, only to discover the mental strength needed to win after her mother was tragically killed in a car crash in 2003.
"When we were young, I wasn't really that good and suddenly I changed and I played really well on the KLPGA and LPGA Tours, so I've surprised myself. The other girls; they were all really good playing as juniors. I was a little bit on the outside, a little bit, growing up," says Jiyai, who is cutting a more glamorous figure this year since laser surgery allowed her to shed her trademark thick glasses.
In the golfing sense, Jiyai was the ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan. She thinks about it briefly: "The ugly duckling? I think so...I was not THAT ugly, though!"
The Ultimate Dragon Lady
For a bit of fun Song-Hee Kim and Inbee Park sat down to create a Frankenstein's monster, using the strongest bits of each of the 1988 year group's games to create the ultimate Dragon Lady.
The Brain
Song-Hee: "Either Jiyai or Inbee."
Personality
Both: "Ji Young!"
The Body
Inbee: "Physically Song-Hee; she's tall and has long arms."
Driver
Inbee: "Song-Hee's straight; straight and long."
Fairway Woods
Both: "Jiyai!"
Irons
Inbee: "Song-Hee"
Putting
Both: "In-Kyung's putter!"
Bunker Play
Both: "Jiyai"
Chipping
Song-Hee: "Inbee."
Inbee: "Jiyai"
How long would the ultimate Dragon Lady stay world number one?
Inbee: "Forever!"
Showing posts with label guest spot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest spot. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tim Maitland on Karrie Webb
Webb Adds a Legend's Name to the List
Tim Maitland
The remarkable roll of honour at the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore added a touch of golfing royalty when Karrie Webb tapped in to seal a one-shot victory and claim the 2011 title. Webb, a seven-time Major champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, joined a short list of winners from the exclusive club of world number ones: Lorena Ochoa in 2008, Jiyai Shin in 2009 and Ai Miyazato last year.
"I'm glad my name is on the trophy, as well. I'm the oldest player, I don't know by how many years, but I'll take it," said Webb who at 36 years of age is actually 10 years older than Lorena was when she won the inaugural event at the Tanah Merah Country Club in 2008.
"It's definitely a world-class event and you have the best players in the world here. And great players have won this event."
Theoretically, Webb doesn't belong to the number one club, but only because the rankings were introduced after she had relaxed her grip on the world of women's golf. At her peak, the Queenslander was almost unstoppable, winning two majors in both 2000 and 2001 and back-to-back LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Awards in 1999 and 2000. Her last great season was in 2005 (the year she was inducted into the Hall of Fame) when she won five times on the LPGA and claimed the ANZ Masters in her home state and pocketed over US$2 million in prize money.
"For me, personally, to win this event, to win this early in the year, I really hope it sets things up for a great run. You know, I think I handled my emotions very well," said Karrie who has remained a regular winner of the landmark events in her home country, but last won on the LPGA in 2009.
Webb's duel with the latest young Japanese superstar, 23-year-old Chie Arimura, and the presence of home favourite and newly-crowned world number one Yani Tseng on the leader board led to record crowds for the HSBC Women's Champions, with around 28,000 crowding the fairways--an increase of almost 20 per cent on the previous year.
"We've crowned another great champion, this time a legend of the game, after two years of supremely talented young Asians winning," said Giles Morgan HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"We've also seen another glimpse of the future in Chie who has been hugely successful in Japan. Yani Tseng's performance was remarkable, too, and then you had all the young Americans and Koreans in the top 10, too; having a leaderboard that looked like the United Nations and a crowd that was just as culturally diverse is a wonderful metaphor for us as a business!"
Webb, too, was eager to point out that no-one should think Chie "lost" the tournament after posting a one-under-par final round only to be trumped by her own three-under-par 69.
"I think she played well. It wasn't easy out there. I think any score under par under that pressure was a good score and she was there with a chance right until the end. I don't think she should hang her head at all. I think she should be very proud of how she played," Webb said.
[Update 1 (9:52 am): Here's a great article from the Australian press on Webb's career and her struggles after the wins stopped coming as easily as they did in her 1st decade on tour.]
Tim Maitland
The remarkable roll of honour at the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore added a touch of golfing royalty when Karrie Webb tapped in to seal a one-shot victory and claim the 2011 title. Webb, a seven-time Major champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, joined a short list of winners from the exclusive club of world number ones: Lorena Ochoa in 2008, Jiyai Shin in 2009 and Ai Miyazato last year.
"I'm glad my name is on the trophy, as well. I'm the oldest player, I don't know by how many years, but I'll take it," said Webb who at 36 years of age is actually 10 years older than Lorena was when she won the inaugural event at the Tanah Merah Country Club in 2008.
"It's definitely a world-class event and you have the best players in the world here. And great players have won this event."
Theoretically, Webb doesn't belong to the number one club, but only because the rankings were introduced after she had relaxed her grip on the world of women's golf. At her peak, the Queenslander was almost unstoppable, winning two majors in both 2000 and 2001 and back-to-back LPGA Rolex Player of the Year Awards in 1999 and 2000. Her last great season was in 2005 (the year she was inducted into the Hall of Fame) when she won five times on the LPGA and claimed the ANZ Masters in her home state and pocketed over US$2 million in prize money.
"For me, personally, to win this event, to win this early in the year, I really hope it sets things up for a great run. You know, I think I handled my emotions very well," said Karrie who has remained a regular winner of the landmark events in her home country, but last won on the LPGA in 2009.
Webb's duel with the latest young Japanese superstar, 23-year-old Chie Arimura, and the presence of home favourite and newly-crowned world number one Yani Tseng on the leader board led to record crowds for the HSBC Women's Champions, with around 28,000 crowding the fairways--an increase of almost 20 per cent on the previous year.
"We've crowned another great champion, this time a legend of the game, after two years of supremely talented young Asians winning," said Giles Morgan HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"We've also seen another glimpse of the future in Chie who has been hugely successful in Japan. Yani Tseng's performance was remarkable, too, and then you had all the young Americans and Koreans in the top 10, too; having a leaderboard that looked like the United Nations and a crowd that was just as culturally diverse is a wonderful metaphor for us as a business!"
Webb, too, was eager to point out that no-one should think Chie "lost" the tournament after posting a one-under-par final round only to be trumped by her own three-under-par 69.
"I think she played well. It wasn't easy out there. I think any score under par under that pressure was a good score and she was there with a chance right until the end. I don't think she should hang her head at all. I think she should be very proud of how she played," Webb said.
[Update 1 (9:52 am): Here's a great article from the Australian press on Webb's career and her struggles after the wins stopped coming as easily as they did in her 1st decade on tour.]
Monday, February 21, 2011
Tim Maitland on the Dragon Ladies
Dragon Ladies on Fire
Tim Maitland
One of the most remarkable group of athletes the world has ever seen are back in Singapore this week for the HSBC Women's Champions. Led by Jiyai Shin, until a few days ago the world number one and a winner here in 2009, they are the Dragon Ladies and they are the dominant force in the world of women's golf despite being only 22 or 23 years old.
"We're the girls who were born in 1988, in the year of the dragon; that's pretty much it," explains Inbee Park, 2008 US Women's Open winner, in a massive understatement.
"The Dragon Ladies are unique," states Giles Morgan, HSBC's Group Head of Sponsorship far more emphatically.
"Personally I'm surprised the world hasn't sat up and taken more notice, but we're fully aware of them because they bring so much to the HSBC Women's Champions. We brought the tournament to Singapore because we knew Asia and Korea in particular was about to produce some remarkable players and the emergence of such talent from countries that are relatively new to golf is close to our hearts as a business. I honestly cannot think of anyone to compare with them," he adds.
There are now four Dragon Ladies in the top 12 of the Rolex Rankings. Jiyai, with eight LPGA wins, is ranked second in the world and is on course to secure her place in the LPGA's Hall of Fame faster than any other player in history. Ignoring Na Yeon Choi, rated fifth, but four months too old to be a Dragon Lady, next comes In-Kyung Kim, who is number seven worldwide. Song-Hee Kim currently rates eleventh on the planet, just below Sun Ju Ahn, another Korean born a few months before the 1998 Year of the Dragon. Meanwhile Inbee Park rates 12th, due partly to the fact that, like Ahn she plays significantly more events in Japan. Throw in Ji Young Oh, whose 2010 season was disrupted by hip problems but who has two LPGA wins to her name, and you start to understand how great their year group already is.
They're part of a slightly broader generation of women, dubbed Se Ri's kids, who as young girls were inspired by Se Ri Pak winning two majors in her rookie season in 1998 on the LPGA, headed straight to Korea's multi-story urban driving ranges.
When the HSBC Women's Champions first arrived in Singapore in 2008 the Dragon Ladies were only just emerging onto the world stage. Jiyai showed her potential by finishing as the leading Korean in seventh place. A year later, in 2009, she won at Tanah Merah, and last year became only the fifth woman to top the world rankings. The Dragon Ladies return to Singapore with their careers, in normal golf terms, still in their infancy--most players their age are happy to have their tour card and would be delighted to have a first win under their belt--but Jiyai is adamant that they are long out of their golfing nappies.
"Still babies? No!" she insists.
"We're 23; we're grown up already, aren't we? I'm not getting taller anymore," she jokes, showing the same humour that she often uses to explain the secret of her success as being from "kimchee power."
But Jiyai admits to being amazed at how fast the Dragon Ladies have raced into the superstar echelon of the women's game, something, she admits, none of them could have imagined when they first started playing against each other in Korean junior tournaments around 10 years ago.
"We had a dream. We had a dream, but coming through so quickly? All the time we were dreaming of playing on the LPGA tour or being the number one, but it has come so quickly. I'm really surprised about that. We talk as friends and rivals too. A couple of years ago we were saying 'Wow, we're playing on the LPGA tour, we're 21...we can drink!'" she explains, once again dissolving into a mischievous giggle.
The combination of being both friends and rivals is what the Dragon Ladies say has driven them all to such a remarkably high level; spurring each other on with their success and yet, at the same time, supporting each other, too.
"I think all the friends of the '88 girls have practiced harder than the previous generations. I'm really happy for that. We've tried our hardest and done our best to get better. It's been important having those friends, because all the travelling is lonely and you need a lot of people around you to travel together and eat together and spend time together," says Song-Hee, who, in sharp contrast to Shin's outgoing demeanour, stands out for two reasons. Firstly, she's remarkably shy around relative strangers and secondly, unlike the other Dragon Ladies and most of Se-Ri's kids, she hasn't yet won on the LPGA.
For that reason, with the exception of a fully-fit Ji Young Oh, Song-Hee might be the one with the most potential to rise further up the world rankings. She's steadily increased the number of top 10 finishes each year, from eight in 2008 to 12 in 2009 and 16 last year, including no missed cuts, two second-places and three 'bronze medals.' That 2010 success rate equates to almost 70 per cent. How good that is can be understood by considering the fact that Jiyai's conversion rate of top 10 finishes in 2009 tournaments, when she came within one shot of winning every single award for the LPGA season, was 48 per cent.
"I wanted to become more consistent. That was my target. Not just at golf, but in everyday life," Song-Hee explains.
"In my rookie year I wanted to so much, I wanted it too badly. I had too many things in my mind and it became a challenge for me. Now I know what I need and it's helping me be more consistent. I'm going to keep to that strategy and keep it simple, but eventually I'm going to win...soon."
While Song-Hee might still have scope to surprise the golf world, there's no doubt among the Dragon Ladies who the biggest surprise has been.
"Me! Myself!" exclaims Jiyai, who lagged behind the others, particularly IK Kim, when the girls were around 13 years old, only to discover the mental strength needed to win after her mother was tragically killed in a car crash in 2003.
"When we were young, I wasn't really that good and suddenly I changed and I played really well on the KLPGA and LPGA tours, so I've surprised myself. The other girls; they were all really good playing as juniors. I was a little bit on the outside, a little bit, growing up," says Jiyai, who is cutting a more glamorous figure this year since laser surgery allowed her to shed her trademark thick glasses.
In the golfing sense, Jiyai was the ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan. She thinks about it briefly: "The ugly duckling? I think so.... I was not THAT ugly, though!"
Tim Maitland
One of the most remarkable group of athletes the world has ever seen are back in Singapore this week for the HSBC Women's Champions. Led by Jiyai Shin, until a few days ago the world number one and a winner here in 2009, they are the Dragon Ladies and they are the dominant force in the world of women's golf despite being only 22 or 23 years old.
"We're the girls who were born in 1988, in the year of the dragon; that's pretty much it," explains Inbee Park, 2008 US Women's Open winner, in a massive understatement.
"The Dragon Ladies are unique," states Giles Morgan, HSBC's Group Head of Sponsorship far more emphatically.
"Personally I'm surprised the world hasn't sat up and taken more notice, but we're fully aware of them because they bring so much to the HSBC Women's Champions. We brought the tournament to Singapore because we knew Asia and Korea in particular was about to produce some remarkable players and the emergence of such talent from countries that are relatively new to golf is close to our hearts as a business. I honestly cannot think of anyone to compare with them," he adds.
There are now four Dragon Ladies in the top 12 of the Rolex Rankings. Jiyai, with eight LPGA wins, is ranked second in the world and is on course to secure her place in the LPGA's Hall of Fame faster than any other player in history. Ignoring Na Yeon Choi, rated fifth, but four months too old to be a Dragon Lady, next comes In-Kyung Kim, who is number seven worldwide. Song-Hee Kim currently rates eleventh on the planet, just below Sun Ju Ahn, another Korean born a few months before the 1998 Year of the Dragon. Meanwhile Inbee Park rates 12th, due partly to the fact that, like Ahn she plays significantly more events in Japan. Throw in Ji Young Oh, whose 2010 season was disrupted by hip problems but who has two LPGA wins to her name, and you start to understand how great their year group already is.
They're part of a slightly broader generation of women, dubbed Se Ri's kids, who as young girls were inspired by Se Ri Pak winning two majors in her rookie season in 1998 on the LPGA, headed straight to Korea's multi-story urban driving ranges.
When the HSBC Women's Champions first arrived in Singapore in 2008 the Dragon Ladies were only just emerging onto the world stage. Jiyai showed her potential by finishing as the leading Korean in seventh place. A year later, in 2009, she won at Tanah Merah, and last year became only the fifth woman to top the world rankings. The Dragon Ladies return to Singapore with their careers, in normal golf terms, still in their infancy--most players their age are happy to have their tour card and would be delighted to have a first win under their belt--but Jiyai is adamant that they are long out of their golfing nappies.
"Still babies? No!" she insists.
"We're 23; we're grown up already, aren't we? I'm not getting taller anymore," she jokes, showing the same humour that she often uses to explain the secret of her success as being from "kimchee power."
But Jiyai admits to being amazed at how fast the Dragon Ladies have raced into the superstar echelon of the women's game, something, she admits, none of them could have imagined when they first started playing against each other in Korean junior tournaments around 10 years ago.
"We had a dream. We had a dream, but coming through so quickly? All the time we were dreaming of playing on the LPGA tour or being the number one, but it has come so quickly. I'm really surprised about that. We talk as friends and rivals too. A couple of years ago we were saying 'Wow, we're playing on the LPGA tour, we're 21...we can drink!'" she explains, once again dissolving into a mischievous giggle.
The combination of being both friends and rivals is what the Dragon Ladies say has driven them all to such a remarkably high level; spurring each other on with their success and yet, at the same time, supporting each other, too.
"I think all the friends of the '88 girls have practiced harder than the previous generations. I'm really happy for that. We've tried our hardest and done our best to get better. It's been important having those friends, because all the travelling is lonely and you need a lot of people around you to travel together and eat together and spend time together," says Song-Hee, who, in sharp contrast to Shin's outgoing demeanour, stands out for two reasons. Firstly, she's remarkably shy around relative strangers and secondly, unlike the other Dragon Ladies and most of Se-Ri's kids, she hasn't yet won on the LPGA.
For that reason, with the exception of a fully-fit Ji Young Oh, Song-Hee might be the one with the most potential to rise further up the world rankings. She's steadily increased the number of top 10 finishes each year, from eight in 2008 to 12 in 2009 and 16 last year, including no missed cuts, two second-places and three 'bronze medals.' That 2010 success rate equates to almost 70 per cent. How good that is can be understood by considering the fact that Jiyai's conversion rate of top 10 finishes in 2009 tournaments, when she came within one shot of winning every single award for the LPGA season, was 48 per cent.
"I wanted to become more consistent. That was my target. Not just at golf, but in everyday life," Song-Hee explains.
"In my rookie year I wanted to so much, I wanted it too badly. I had too many things in my mind and it became a challenge for me. Now I know what I need and it's helping me be more consistent. I'm going to keep to that strategy and keep it simple, but eventually I'm going to win...soon."
While Song-Hee might still have scope to surprise the golf world, there's no doubt among the Dragon Ladies who the biggest surprise has been.
"Me! Myself!" exclaims Jiyai, who lagged behind the others, particularly IK Kim, when the girls were around 13 years old, only to discover the mental strength needed to win after her mother was tragically killed in a car crash in 2003.
"When we were young, I wasn't really that good and suddenly I changed and I played really well on the KLPGA and LPGA tours, so I've surprised myself. The other girls; they were all really good playing as juniors. I was a little bit on the outside, a little bit, growing up," says Jiyai, who is cutting a more glamorous figure this year since laser surgery allowed her to shed her trademark thick glasses.
In the golfing sense, Jiyai was the ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan. She thinks about it briefly: "The ugly duckling? I think so.... I was not THAT ugly, though!"
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tim Maitland on Ya Ni Tseng's Singapore Wishes
Here's a guest post and interview from Tim Maitland! --The Constructivist
Yani Hopes Number One Rule Applies in Singapore
New women's world number one Yani Tseng is hoping that the HSBC Women's Champions rule that its winners belong to the exclusive club of top-ranked players still applies when she gets to Singapore next week.
The three champions of the tournament at Tanah Merah come from the elite group of six players to have been rated number one since the Rolex Rankings were introduced in 2006: Ai Miyazato of Japan, Korea's Jiyai Shin and Lorena Ochoa of Mexico.
"That sounds really good! Yeah! Thanks for reminding me of that!," said the 22-year-old Taiwanese star, who is playing in the Honda LPGA Thailand this weekend hoping to extend her 2011 record to four wins in four events.
"I'm really looking forward to this year. I know I have lots of confidence right now and I can't wait to get to Singapore and see my old friends, to play that tournament and see all my HSBC friends over there. It'll be pretty nice," said Tseng, who is eager to test herself on the Garden Course after winning the Taifong Ladies Open on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour and claiming the Handa Women's Australian Open and the ANZ Ladies Masters in Queensland in successive weeks.
"It's a great golf course. You can play all 14 clubs on that course; it's not just driver-wedge, driver-wedge. You hit a three wood off the tee, you hit a rescue off the tee--all the different kinds of shots you have to hit. You really need to focus on what your strategy is and every hole is different. Some of the par fives are reachable, which makes it more fun and then there are island greens; it's just a fun golf course to play. You never know the winning score and there are big crowds too," she says.
However Tseng will face fierce competition to keep hold of her number one ranking both this week in Thailand and when she gets to Singapore. As well as 2009 HSBC Women's Champions winner Jiyai Shin, who Tseng toppled from top spot on the Rolex Rankings at the start of this week, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr and Na Yeon Choi are all one win away from taking the number one ranking away.
"It's an incredibly exciting time for golf at the moment. We had Lee Westwood arrive at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last November as the new number one with Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickleson all with the opportunity to topple him that week and it made for a great tournament. The HSBC Women's Champions is going to have that same buzz and excitement," said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"Last year was the first time that a tournament in Asia had impacted the very top of the men's world rankings; now we have young talented Asian women fighting for the right to be world number one in a world-class event in Singapore. It all proves Asia's emerging into the top echelons of the golfing world," he added.
For Tseng, just being able to return to the Lion City as number one, to a place where she played and won some of her earliest junior tournaments as a girl, will be a memorable moment.
"That would be great! I'd really wish that. I'm trying not to think too much about only staying number one for one week, but sometimes you never know. I really just want to stay focused and keep working hard," she says.
"When I first started playing [tournaments] in Singapore, I didn't even think of being women's number one; I just came to play and to try and win those championships. I didn't think about the world. I didn't even know how big the world is. It's only since I went to the United States that I started to know how big it is. But all the tournaments I won in Singapore gave me a lot of confidence too. I'd win a tournament, come back the next year and win again."
YANI TSENG INTERVIEW
Tim Maitland: So, little Ruby* Tseng is the world number one! How about that?
Yani Tseng: It's very exciting for me to be world number one. For the last five or six months everybody in the top six in the world has had the chance to be number one and then finally I've got to world number one. It's really, really exciting. I've dreamed about being world number one and I've talked about being world number one and now that moment has come it feels so unreal. I wasn't expecting that it was really going to come. It makes me so appreciative. I appreciate my friends, my team, my coach and all the people around me that are always supporting me. I just really appreciate it.
Now, I have lots of confidence. I know how to be on top. I feel like I know more how to win a tournament. I'm not afraid to be in the lead. I'm happy to be in the lead. Everything's started to change a little bit; I feel like I'm improving and improving every year and it's very exciting for me to see how I'm getting on this year.
TM: Was there a moment when it really sank in?
YT: Not really. All the moments are there in my mind. I've looked back at every day from the first time I started playing golf and I've finally become world number one, but you know we're all still very close; you never know what will happen this week or next week. So I just want to keep working hard, because everybody's working, so it's very challenging for me. There are still a lot of things to learn. It's not just for the short term. I want to be long-term, like Annika and Lorena.
When I first started playing [tournaments] in Singapore, I didn't even think of being women's number one; I just came to play and to try and win those championships. I didn't think about the world. I didn't even know how big the world is. It's only since I went to the United States that I started to know how big it is. But all the tournaments I won in Singapore gave me a lot of confidence too. I'd win a tournament, come back the next year and win again. Through all the years it's been very successful, as an amateur playing all over Asia. Going back for the HSBC [Women's Champions] I was always very happy to go back there again.
TM: Can you believe the little girl who used to go over there to play tournaments is now number one?
YT: No. I was expecting that, but I didn't know it would be so soon. This year I set out the goal to be world number one, but it's been just two weeks! After three tournaments this year I've become world number one! It feels unreal.
TM: Your game seems to be so good. It's not just that you're winning, but you don't seem to be making mistakes!
YT: Yeah. I'm trying. I'm working out with my coach Gary Gilchrist and I've been changing my swing and I think my swing is better now. I've been working on my putting; my putting has always been sometimes up and sometimes down, but I'm working to be more consistent. My putting is working pretty well and I think everything is all set.
TM: And the HSBC Women's Champions? A course you HAVE to be straight on...
YT: Yeah, that's for sure. It's a great golf course. I'm really looking forward to playing that course. You can play all 14 clubs on that course; it's not just driver-wedge, driver-wedge. You hit a three wood off the tee, you hit a rescue off the tee--all the different kinds of shots you have to hit. You really need to focus on what your strategy is and every hole is different. Some of the par fives are reachable, which makes it more fun and then there are island greens; it's just a fun golf course to play. You never know the winning score and there are big crowds too.
TM: And always a good champion. The three champions so far** have all been...
YT: Number one! That sounds really good! Yeah! Thanks for reminding me of that! I'm really looking forward to this year. I know I have lots of confidence right now and I can't wait to get to Singapore and see my old friends, to play that tournament and see all my HSBC friends over there. It'll be pretty nice.
TM: Is it important to you to keep that number one so you can go back and see those friends as number one?
YT: That would be great! I'd really wish that. I'm trying not to think too much about only staying number one for one week, but sometimes you never know. I really just want to stay focused and keep working hard.
TM: And what's happening in Taiwan? They must be going crazy.
YT: Yeah, I think so. On Sunday (at the ANZ Masters) I wrote on Facebook, "Everybody wear pink. I'm going to wear pink and want everyone to support me," and lots of people were wearing pink on Sunday in Taiwan. That was really interesting. I want to thank them for their support in Taiwan. It's huge. I'm going back to Taiwan after the HSBC.
TM: So you have two homecomings? A homecoming in Singapore and then a homecoming in Taiwan.
YT: Yeah. Yeah.
[*Ruby was the western name Yani used for a time when she was an amateur.]
[**Strictly speaking, it's better to say the three winners of the HSBC Women's Champions also belong to the group of six women to have been ranked number one since the Rolex Rankings were introduced in 2006.]
Yani Hopes Number One Rule Applies in Singapore
New women's world number one Yani Tseng is hoping that the HSBC Women's Champions rule that its winners belong to the exclusive club of top-ranked players still applies when she gets to Singapore next week.
The three champions of the tournament at Tanah Merah come from the elite group of six players to have been rated number one since the Rolex Rankings were introduced in 2006: Ai Miyazato of Japan, Korea's Jiyai Shin and Lorena Ochoa of Mexico.
"That sounds really good! Yeah! Thanks for reminding me of that!," said the 22-year-old Taiwanese star, who is playing in the Honda LPGA Thailand this weekend hoping to extend her 2011 record to four wins in four events.
"I'm really looking forward to this year. I know I have lots of confidence right now and I can't wait to get to Singapore and see my old friends, to play that tournament and see all my HSBC friends over there. It'll be pretty nice," said Tseng, who is eager to test herself on the Garden Course after winning the Taifong Ladies Open on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour and claiming the Handa Women's Australian Open and the ANZ Ladies Masters in Queensland in successive weeks.
"It's a great golf course. You can play all 14 clubs on that course; it's not just driver-wedge, driver-wedge. You hit a three wood off the tee, you hit a rescue off the tee--all the different kinds of shots you have to hit. You really need to focus on what your strategy is and every hole is different. Some of the par fives are reachable, which makes it more fun and then there are island greens; it's just a fun golf course to play. You never know the winning score and there are big crowds too," she says.
However Tseng will face fierce competition to keep hold of her number one ranking both this week in Thailand and when she gets to Singapore. As well as 2009 HSBC Women's Champions winner Jiyai Shin, who Tseng toppled from top spot on the Rolex Rankings at the start of this week, Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr and Na Yeon Choi are all one win away from taking the number one ranking away.
"It's an incredibly exciting time for golf at the moment. We had Lee Westwood arrive at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai last November as the new number one with Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickleson all with the opportunity to topple him that week and it made for a great tournament. The HSBC Women's Champions is going to have that same buzz and excitement," said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"Last year was the first time that a tournament in Asia had impacted the very top of the men's world rankings; now we have young talented Asian women fighting for the right to be world number one in a world-class event in Singapore. It all proves Asia's emerging into the top echelons of the golfing world," he added.
For Tseng, just being able to return to the Lion City as number one, to a place where she played and won some of her earliest junior tournaments as a girl, will be a memorable moment.
"That would be great! I'd really wish that. I'm trying not to think too much about only staying number one for one week, but sometimes you never know. I really just want to stay focused and keep working hard," she says.
"When I first started playing [tournaments] in Singapore, I didn't even think of being women's number one; I just came to play and to try and win those championships. I didn't think about the world. I didn't even know how big the world is. It's only since I went to the United States that I started to know how big it is. But all the tournaments I won in Singapore gave me a lot of confidence too. I'd win a tournament, come back the next year and win again."
YANI TSENG INTERVIEW
Tim Maitland: So, little Ruby* Tseng is the world number one! How about that?
Yani Tseng: It's very exciting for me to be world number one. For the last five or six months everybody in the top six in the world has had the chance to be number one and then finally I've got to world number one. It's really, really exciting. I've dreamed about being world number one and I've talked about being world number one and now that moment has come it feels so unreal. I wasn't expecting that it was really going to come. It makes me so appreciative. I appreciate my friends, my team, my coach and all the people around me that are always supporting me. I just really appreciate it.
Now, I have lots of confidence. I know how to be on top. I feel like I know more how to win a tournament. I'm not afraid to be in the lead. I'm happy to be in the lead. Everything's started to change a little bit; I feel like I'm improving and improving every year and it's very exciting for me to see how I'm getting on this year.
TM: Was there a moment when it really sank in?
YT: Not really. All the moments are there in my mind. I've looked back at every day from the first time I started playing golf and I've finally become world number one, but you know we're all still very close; you never know what will happen this week or next week. So I just want to keep working hard, because everybody's working, so it's very challenging for me. There are still a lot of things to learn. It's not just for the short term. I want to be long-term, like Annika and Lorena.
When I first started playing [tournaments] in Singapore, I didn't even think of being women's number one; I just came to play and to try and win those championships. I didn't think about the world. I didn't even know how big the world is. It's only since I went to the United States that I started to know how big it is. But all the tournaments I won in Singapore gave me a lot of confidence too. I'd win a tournament, come back the next year and win again. Through all the years it's been very successful, as an amateur playing all over Asia. Going back for the HSBC [Women's Champions] I was always very happy to go back there again.
TM: Can you believe the little girl who used to go over there to play tournaments is now number one?
YT: No. I was expecting that, but I didn't know it would be so soon. This year I set out the goal to be world number one, but it's been just two weeks! After three tournaments this year I've become world number one! It feels unreal.
TM: Your game seems to be so good. It's not just that you're winning, but you don't seem to be making mistakes!
YT: Yeah. I'm trying. I'm working out with my coach Gary Gilchrist and I've been changing my swing and I think my swing is better now. I've been working on my putting; my putting has always been sometimes up and sometimes down, but I'm working to be more consistent. My putting is working pretty well and I think everything is all set.
TM: And the HSBC Women's Champions? A course you HAVE to be straight on...
YT: Yeah, that's for sure. It's a great golf course. I'm really looking forward to playing that course. You can play all 14 clubs on that course; it's not just driver-wedge, driver-wedge. You hit a three wood off the tee, you hit a rescue off the tee--all the different kinds of shots you have to hit. You really need to focus on what your strategy is and every hole is different. Some of the par fives are reachable, which makes it more fun and then there are island greens; it's just a fun golf course to play. You never know the winning score and there are big crowds too.
TM: And always a good champion. The three champions so far** have all been...
YT: Number one! That sounds really good! Yeah! Thanks for reminding me of that! I'm really looking forward to this year. I know I have lots of confidence right now and I can't wait to get to Singapore and see my old friends, to play that tournament and see all my HSBC friends over there. It'll be pretty nice.
TM: Is it important to you to keep that number one so you can go back and see those friends as number one?
YT: That would be great! I'd really wish that. I'm trying not to think too much about only staying number one for one week, but sometimes you never know. I really just want to stay focused and keep working hard.
TM: And what's happening in Taiwan? They must be going crazy.
YT: Yeah, I think so. On Sunday (at the ANZ Masters) I wrote on Facebook, "Everybody wear pink. I'm going to wear pink and want everyone to support me," and lots of people were wearing pink on Sunday in Taiwan. That was really interesting. I want to thank them for their support in Taiwan. It's huge. I'm going back to Taiwan after the HSBC.
TM: So you have two homecomings? A homecoming in Singapore and then a homecoming in Taiwan.
YT: Yeah. Yeah.
[*Ruby was the western name Yani used for a time when she was an amateur.]
[**Strictly speaking, it's better to say the three winners of the HSBC Women's Champions also belong to the group of six women to have been ranked number one since the Rolex Rankings were introduced in 2006.]
Thursday, November 11, 2010
How Fast Is China Coming?
The LPGA's Asian swing is over and there are no Chinese golfers in the field at Lorena's invitational (although the PRC government would disagree), but I can't help but wonder whether we'll be seeing a documentary about China's emergence as a golfing power in 2020 like we did on South Korea in 2010. Tim Maitland wonders whether that day might come even sooner than I anticipated around this time last year.
***
There are few definitive truths one can utter about a nation of China's massive scale. There are however some useful generalisations about the "Middle Kingdom," especially in the last 10 or 20 years. Firstly, it tends to develop, in whatever it is doing, far quicker than almost all outside predications. Secondly, China, just as it did with its "socialist market economy," tends to find its own way. The same broad brush strokes apply for golf.
Just as surpassing Japan's gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2010 confirmed China's status as an economic power, China's position as a global tournament host has also been confirmed. It took just one edition of the HSBC Champions as a World Golf Championships event to complete a process started by the Volvo China Open, the first truly international Chinese professional event in 1995, to convince most of the naysayers that Shanghai was going to work.
That it happened faster than anyone imagined is beyond issue. As world number one Lee Westwood exclaimed recently: "It's achieved a high-profile status very quickly, amazingly quickly when you look at other tournaments and how much history they have before they achieve that kind of fame."
Westwood also neatly plucked out three factors that indicate that Shanghai's growing importance on the global golf calendar--this is after all the event that Tiger describes as "the crowning jewel of all of Asian golf"--is unlikely to do anything but continue its upward trend
"The Chinese economy is probably the strongest economy in the world right now, it's a good tournament, a great tournament, and it's a great golf course; that's really all you can ask for," Westwood said.
The point seems to have been taken on board across the board in America, where the credit crunch closed courses and the stagnation in terms of the numbers of golfers is increasingly being seen as a decline. A very American golfer like Ben Crane had, until going to Shanghai, never ventured further than the (British) Open Championship. Significantly, Crane now wears the logo of Swiss financial services company Zurich and German fashion brand Hugo Boss on his cap and chest, whereas a couple of years ago it was a windows and doors company from his home state of Oregon and the American ball brand Titleist.
"We want it to be a worldwide game and that’s why this event is so great for golf," said Crane, winner of the PGA Tour's 2010 Farmers Insurance Open, revealing an important shift in his mindset in common with many of his fellow countrymen.
"For us Americans it's a minimum of a 22-hour trip, so I was surprised to see this good of a field this late in the year. You know what? When the best players show up it makes the other players want to show up. It's a really well done event on a great site. The hotel and the accommodation here is fantastic, the food is good; all the things add up for it to really be one of the world's best tournaments and it has proved to be."
A roll of honour that working backwards from 2010 goes Francesco Molinari-Mickelson-Garcia-Mickelson-Yang adds to Crane's point rather well. When the best players show up and win, everybody wants to be on the guest list.
The addition of the PGA Tour's first foray into South East Asia (the limited field CIMB Asia Pacific Classic took place at The Mines Resort in Malaysia the week before Shanghai) is further indication that China's place on the world-class calendar is cemented. It also signals that the battle for position either side of the first week of November is truly on with the Barclays Singapore Open competing with the JB Were (Australian) Masters as the quality of field across the region skyrockets.
"To go over there for one week is kinda silly, so I don't see why guys won't go over there and play more," another American, Nick Watney, the winner of the 2009 Buick Invitational, explained.
"There'll be more than one or two events. You have a huge market over there and if it's growing and wants golf you'd be a fool to not do it. I think it will only grow."
That the number of golf courses in China will continue to grow as well is also beyond doubt. Despite a long-standing moratorium at central government level making permission for new layouts harder to get, China has found a Chinese solution and, loathe as one is to make broad sweeping statements, many of the world's top golf course designers are there and they're not there on holiday.
The question now is how? To understand the way golf is evolving there it helps to think of golf as a feature, like an elaborate marble fountain; a centerpiece to a real estate lifestyle business. That will only continue; Imperial Springs near Guangzhou, which is close to completion, will make all the palatial developments that have preceded it look, in comparison, for want of a better word...a bit Caddyshack.
Among the more promising developments for those of us who can't let go of our western concepts of "sport" being something more in a Corinthian way isn't the massive new Mission Hills project on Hainan Island, although that points the way to where the world's next big tourist magnet will be, but the low-grade locally-designed tracks that form a part of the equally enormous but little-known Nanshan International Golf Club in Shandong province. It is also worth remembering that virtually all of the members clubs allow daily-fee golf and that as China's middle class grows wealthier the sport is going to become more affordable to them.
However, arguing that golf in China needs to trickle down the societal layers to reach the masses before we can address the next question--where China's stars are going to come from--is made redundant by Korea's example.
The Land of the Morning Calm has produced if not one of the greatest generations, certainly the single greatest year group of women golfers the world has ever seen--without them ever seeing golf courses regularly. Shin Ji-Yai, Kim In-Kyung, Choi Na-Yeon--the so-called "Dragon Ladies"--honed their games on the top tier of Korea's multi-story urban driving ranges, not on the drastically expensive, tee-off-at-5 a.m.-oversubscribed golf courses.
As well as proving that access to courses isn't critical, Korea also provides possibly the greatest wisdom when it comes to answering where China's Woods, Mickelson, Wie or Miyazato is going to emerge from. For the sake of finding a fancy name for it, we could call it the "Shin-Park paradigm" after two of Korea's most recent women's Major winners, Shin Ji-Yai and Park In-Bee. Ji-Yai grew up as a golfer in Korea, winning on the KLPGA as a high-school student in 2005. In-Bee went to the States at the age of 12 to do her growing there.
The answer to the Shin-Park puzzle in China is probably both. The clues, when it comes to looking into the future, ironically, weren't to be found during the WGC-HSBC Champions but just before: on the day of the Pro-Am on the previous weekend when the year-long HSBC National Junior Championship had its own version of the Champions: a winners-only finale at the Sino-Bay Country Sports Club located in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park outside Shanghai.
In its fourth year, the HSBC National Junior Championship passed a notable landmark: the entry list at Sino-Bay took the number of children to have benefited from an early taste of tournament golf past one thousand.
"A thousand children may not sound like a lot over the four years that we have been investing in the China Golf Association's programme, but that's the top of the pyramid," said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"Below the top of that pyramid, we have had 8,000 children who have come through our summer and winter camps, learning the great game of golf, and below that, at the foundation of the pyramid, we have had 200,000 children touching golf for the first time in their schools' PE lessons through the HSBC Education Programme," added Morgan, whose investments in Chinese golf have been aimed at being the catalyst for the growth of the sport there.
If you're asking yourself whether China's fledgling golf industry--remembering that the first modern course only opened in 1984--is mature enough to grow future champions yet, the raving enthusiasm of European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie answers that question emphatically.
After holding a clinic for some of the younger juniors before the WGC-HSBC Champions, Monty was effusive in his praise of what he saw.
"These are the Olympic champions and world champions of the future. They're fantastic! Fantastic!" Monty bubbled.
"They're proper golfers. They're not just kids that can hit a golf ball on the range. These are complete golfers at nine years old: driver, putting, and short game! I think in the next 10 years you'll see a tremendous growth into competitive golf; I'm talking about into the world's top 100. That's inevitable. It's going to happen. We have to accept that. The competition is coming from this part of the world: Korea, China especially. Golf is booming!" the Scotsman said.
A more cautionary note was sounded recently by Asian Tour Executive Chairman Kyi Hla Han who questioned whether the tournament structure was in place to grow China's male professionals. Han might have a point, but reports of his comments also failed to acknowledge the existence of the China PGA Tour as a successor to the Omega China Tour, which is far less visible than its predecessor outside of the Chinese language, and that at the time of writing the number of professional men's tournaments in China in 2010 looked likely to match those of the previous two seasons.
The probability is that the women will come before the men, or, remembering how Jenny Feng Shanshan came from nowhere as a teenager to earn her LPGA card, the girls will come before the boys. The reality is for every Matteo Manassero, Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa there are many more young female golfers who have proved competitive at an early age at the pinnacle of the women's game. The domestic tour--the China LPGA--is in its second year and aims at staging 10 tournaments annually and Zhang Na’s four wins on the Japan LPGA in 2007 have established an alternative roadmap to the American route.
It's already been suggested that the girls' work ethic exceeds that of the Chinese boys by one high-profile overseas coach. And while one makes generalisations with trepidation, perhaps also the Asian serenity, what long-time LPGA caddie Shaun Clews refers to as a "certain calmness" that the Korean stars benefit from, will also serve the Chinese girls too.
How ready are they? Well the stars at the WGC-HSBC Champions didn't see the girls closest to joining the professional ranks, players like 15-year-olds Lu Yue and Apple Yang Jiaxin, because 12-year-old Lucy Shi Yuting won the rights to play the 17th hole on Pro-Am day. What they saw wasn't just the potential to get onto the LPGA; they saw the potential to star, in much the same way that Koreans were saying Shin Ji-Yai would have a Hall of Fame LPGA career when she was still a teenager.
"She hit a 6‑iron to about 15 feet from the hole, lipped out the putt and made par. She was an incredible player!" exclaimed Masters champion Phil Mickelson.
"You could tell right away that she's got a lot of potential to be a great golfer. She has a wonderful swing, a great short game, great putting stroke. And at only 12, it's amazing how talented she is at such a young age. I hope that she continues to develop and continues to play well and improve and become a force on the LPGA."
Seven-time PGA Tour winner Adam Scott of Australia was just as fulsome with his praise, which was generous, considering Lucy beat him on the hole, kindling unwelcome reminders of the only other time he lost to a girl: the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii when he was beaten by two shots by a 14-year-old called Michelle Wie.
"Phenomenal! Everything, for 12 years old, looks great! A natural golf swing and hands look good on the club; hopefully she kicks on. No doubt we'll be seeing her on the tour in the next five or six years on the tour, popping up at the US Open or something...and she’ll be leading!" said the 2010 Valero Texas Open winner.
"She looks like all the potential in the world. You can only encourage her because she's 12 years old and just let her game develop naturally. As long as she still enjoys practicing, she'll be on a path to the LPGA, Majors; all that sort of stuff."
Whether it will be the regular winners on the HSBC National Junior Championship (girls like Apple Yang, Lu Yue or Lucy Shi and boys like Zhang Jin or Zhou Tian) or those following the Park In-Bee route (Cindy Feng Yueer and the unrelated Feng Simin are both prominent on the American junior circuit) or one of the young men going through the US Colleges (Hu Mu, Wang Minghao or Han Ren) who will arrive first, only time will tell. Simin, originally from Beijing, is already an AJGA Rolex All-American while Yueer, from the city of Shenzhen in China's golfing heartland Guangdong province, rates in the top on Golfweek's junior ranking despite being a couple of years younger than her rivals, but then as a counterpoint Feng Shanshan was hardly on anyone's radar outside Guangzhou when she went to the LPGA's Q School.
The reality is that all these players are going to get even greater opportunities because of golf's entry to the Olympics in 2016. Olympic status has moved the China Golf Association from a cul-de-sac (it was until a couple of years ago lumped in with and effectively financially supporting sports like cricket and snooker in the so-called "small ball" section) onto the six-lane superhighway of China's sports ministry, The State General Administration of Sports.
However, after the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions the questions being asked might need to change. Before it was "are they going to be good enough to compete with us?" Now perhaps it should be "are we going to be able to compete with them?" because Monty reckons China's kids are streets ahead of any others he's seen in the US or Europe.
"Oh, of course they are! Way ahead! And of course the work ethic here is different. These kids are prepared to put in the hours it takes nowadays to become very, very good. You can see how they love it. They're all involved. It's fantastic and the work ethic here is different to ours," Monty said, adding that the focus of the kids he saw put him to shame.
So the answer when you ask whether China is coming is an emphatic yes. The question that remains is just exactly how good, where from, how many and how fast?
China's Firsts
1984 First modern golf course: Chung Shan Hot Spring, opens in Zhongshan, Guangdong province.
1985 May 24th. First governing body: the China Golf Association is established.
1986 January. First "international" tournament: Chung Shan hosts the Chung Shan Cup, featuring foreign players but not recognised by any outside sanctioning bodies; the Pro-Am event is hailed in China as the first international tournament.
1990 September/October. First big event: The Asian Games golf tournament is held at Beijing Golf Club, Shunyi District. The Asian Games itself was the first large-scale international sports event to be held in the People's Republic of China.
1994 October. First medals: At the Asian Games in Hiroshima Zhang Lianwei wins an individual silver medal behind Kaname Yokoo, while China's women's team claims bronze.
1994 April. First professionals: Zheng Wengen and John Xiao Chenghan are among a handful of golfers to become the first Chinese professionals when they pass a newly-introduced CGA exam.
1995. First Domestic Tour: The Volvo China Tour, China's first domestic circuit, consisted of four 36-hole tournaments.
1995 April. First Official International Pro tournament: The Volvo China Open in Beijing (Beijing International Golf Club) is won by Raul Fretes of Paraguay. Total prize money was US$400,000.
1997 April. First Chinese Winner of an International Tournament: Cheng Jun is victorious at the Volvo China Open in Beijing.
2001 November. First Visit by a World Number One: Tiger Woods makes his first trip to China, an exhibition at Mission Hills near Shenzhen in Guangdong.
2003 January. First Chinese win in a European Tour event: Zhang Lianwei wins the co-sanctioned Caltex Masters in Singapore.
2004. First Chinese Player in a Major championship: Zhang Lianwei receives an invitation to the Masters.
2004 May. First Chinese Golf World Record: Mission Hills entered into Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest golf club after its expansion to 180 holes.
2005 November. First Time to Host Asia's Leading Tournament: With US$5M prize money, the HSBC Champions, then Asia's richest tournament, debuts in Shanghai. The inaugural tournament is won by English Ryder Cup star David Howell.
2007 First Fully-Integrated Junior Development Scheme: The HSBC China Junior Golf Program and HSBC National Junior Championships are launched.
2007 First Chinese to win Asian Tour's Order of Merit: Liang Wenchong clinches the title with nine top-ten finishes including a win at the Singapore Masters.
2007 First Chinese to join American college circuit: Han Ren enrolls on a golf scholarship at Indiana University.
2008 July. First Weekend Play in a Major: Liang Wenchong makes the cut at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
2008 November. First Impact on the Official World Golf Ranking: Sergio Garcia moves up to number two after winning the HSBC Champions. It's the first time an Asian event has had such a profound effect on the global standings.
2009 April. First Women's Tour: The China Golf Association announces the birth of the China LPGA Tour. The circuit will have strong links with the Orient Golf chain, playing the majority of the events on their courses.
2009 Asia's First WGC event: WGC status is awarded to the HSBC Champions in April, making it indisputably Asia's single-most important tournament. The event in November features Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing in the same tournament for the first time in Asia. Paired together in the leading group on the final day, Mickelson triumphs.
2010 First Impact on World Number One: Four players--Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson--arrived in Shanghai for the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions, knowing a good week would make the number one in the world. No Asian tournament had ever impacted the very top of the Official World Golf Ranking.
20??: China's First World Number One....
***
There are few definitive truths one can utter about a nation of China's massive scale. There are however some useful generalisations about the "Middle Kingdom," especially in the last 10 or 20 years. Firstly, it tends to develop, in whatever it is doing, far quicker than almost all outside predications. Secondly, China, just as it did with its "socialist market economy," tends to find its own way. The same broad brush strokes apply for golf.
Just as surpassing Japan's gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2010 confirmed China's status as an economic power, China's position as a global tournament host has also been confirmed. It took just one edition of the HSBC Champions as a World Golf Championships event to complete a process started by the Volvo China Open, the first truly international Chinese professional event in 1995, to convince most of the naysayers that Shanghai was going to work.
That it happened faster than anyone imagined is beyond issue. As world number one Lee Westwood exclaimed recently: "It's achieved a high-profile status very quickly, amazingly quickly when you look at other tournaments and how much history they have before they achieve that kind of fame."
Westwood also neatly plucked out three factors that indicate that Shanghai's growing importance on the global golf calendar--this is after all the event that Tiger describes as "the crowning jewel of all of Asian golf"--is unlikely to do anything but continue its upward trend
"The Chinese economy is probably the strongest economy in the world right now, it's a good tournament, a great tournament, and it's a great golf course; that's really all you can ask for," Westwood said.
The point seems to have been taken on board across the board in America, where the credit crunch closed courses and the stagnation in terms of the numbers of golfers is increasingly being seen as a decline. A very American golfer like Ben Crane had, until going to Shanghai, never ventured further than the (British) Open Championship. Significantly, Crane now wears the logo of Swiss financial services company Zurich and German fashion brand Hugo Boss on his cap and chest, whereas a couple of years ago it was a windows and doors company from his home state of Oregon and the American ball brand Titleist.
"We want it to be a worldwide game and that’s why this event is so great for golf," said Crane, winner of the PGA Tour's 2010 Farmers Insurance Open, revealing an important shift in his mindset in common with many of his fellow countrymen.
"For us Americans it's a minimum of a 22-hour trip, so I was surprised to see this good of a field this late in the year. You know what? When the best players show up it makes the other players want to show up. It's a really well done event on a great site. The hotel and the accommodation here is fantastic, the food is good; all the things add up for it to really be one of the world's best tournaments and it has proved to be."
A roll of honour that working backwards from 2010 goes Francesco Molinari-Mickelson-Garcia-Mickelson-Yang adds to Crane's point rather well. When the best players show up and win, everybody wants to be on the guest list.
The addition of the PGA Tour's first foray into South East Asia (the limited field CIMB Asia Pacific Classic took place at The Mines Resort in Malaysia the week before Shanghai) is further indication that China's place on the world-class calendar is cemented. It also signals that the battle for position either side of the first week of November is truly on with the Barclays Singapore Open competing with the JB Were (Australian) Masters as the quality of field across the region skyrockets.
"To go over there for one week is kinda silly, so I don't see why guys won't go over there and play more," another American, Nick Watney, the winner of the 2009 Buick Invitational, explained.
"There'll be more than one or two events. You have a huge market over there and if it's growing and wants golf you'd be a fool to not do it. I think it will only grow."
That the number of golf courses in China will continue to grow as well is also beyond doubt. Despite a long-standing moratorium at central government level making permission for new layouts harder to get, China has found a Chinese solution and, loathe as one is to make broad sweeping statements, many of the world's top golf course designers are there and they're not there on holiday.
The question now is how? To understand the way golf is evolving there it helps to think of golf as a feature, like an elaborate marble fountain; a centerpiece to a real estate lifestyle business. That will only continue; Imperial Springs near Guangzhou, which is close to completion, will make all the palatial developments that have preceded it look, in comparison, for want of a better word...a bit Caddyshack.
Among the more promising developments for those of us who can't let go of our western concepts of "sport" being something more in a Corinthian way isn't the massive new Mission Hills project on Hainan Island, although that points the way to where the world's next big tourist magnet will be, but the low-grade locally-designed tracks that form a part of the equally enormous but little-known Nanshan International Golf Club in Shandong province. It is also worth remembering that virtually all of the members clubs allow daily-fee golf and that as China's middle class grows wealthier the sport is going to become more affordable to them.
However, arguing that golf in China needs to trickle down the societal layers to reach the masses before we can address the next question--where China's stars are going to come from--is made redundant by Korea's example.
The Land of the Morning Calm has produced if not one of the greatest generations, certainly the single greatest year group of women golfers the world has ever seen--without them ever seeing golf courses regularly. Shin Ji-Yai, Kim In-Kyung, Choi Na-Yeon--the so-called "Dragon Ladies"--honed their games on the top tier of Korea's multi-story urban driving ranges, not on the drastically expensive, tee-off-at-5 a.m.-oversubscribed golf courses.
As well as proving that access to courses isn't critical, Korea also provides possibly the greatest wisdom when it comes to answering where China's Woods, Mickelson, Wie or Miyazato is going to emerge from. For the sake of finding a fancy name for it, we could call it the "Shin-Park paradigm" after two of Korea's most recent women's Major winners, Shin Ji-Yai and Park In-Bee. Ji-Yai grew up as a golfer in Korea, winning on the KLPGA as a high-school student in 2005. In-Bee went to the States at the age of 12 to do her growing there.
The answer to the Shin-Park puzzle in China is probably both. The clues, when it comes to looking into the future, ironically, weren't to be found during the WGC-HSBC Champions but just before: on the day of the Pro-Am on the previous weekend when the year-long HSBC National Junior Championship had its own version of the Champions: a winners-only finale at the Sino-Bay Country Sports Club located in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park outside Shanghai.
In its fourth year, the HSBC National Junior Championship passed a notable landmark: the entry list at Sino-Bay took the number of children to have benefited from an early taste of tournament golf past one thousand.
"A thousand children may not sound like a lot over the four years that we have been investing in the China Golf Association's programme, but that's the top of the pyramid," said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
"Below the top of that pyramid, we have had 8,000 children who have come through our summer and winter camps, learning the great game of golf, and below that, at the foundation of the pyramid, we have had 200,000 children touching golf for the first time in their schools' PE lessons through the HSBC Education Programme," added Morgan, whose investments in Chinese golf have been aimed at being the catalyst for the growth of the sport there.
If you're asking yourself whether China's fledgling golf industry--remembering that the first modern course only opened in 1984--is mature enough to grow future champions yet, the raving enthusiasm of European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie answers that question emphatically.
After holding a clinic for some of the younger juniors before the WGC-HSBC Champions, Monty was effusive in his praise of what he saw.
"These are the Olympic champions and world champions of the future. They're fantastic! Fantastic!" Monty bubbled.
"They're proper golfers. They're not just kids that can hit a golf ball on the range. These are complete golfers at nine years old: driver, putting, and short game! I think in the next 10 years you'll see a tremendous growth into competitive golf; I'm talking about into the world's top 100. That's inevitable. It's going to happen. We have to accept that. The competition is coming from this part of the world: Korea, China especially. Golf is booming!" the Scotsman said.
A more cautionary note was sounded recently by Asian Tour Executive Chairman Kyi Hla Han who questioned whether the tournament structure was in place to grow China's male professionals. Han might have a point, but reports of his comments also failed to acknowledge the existence of the China PGA Tour as a successor to the Omega China Tour, which is far less visible than its predecessor outside of the Chinese language, and that at the time of writing the number of professional men's tournaments in China in 2010 looked likely to match those of the previous two seasons.
The probability is that the women will come before the men, or, remembering how Jenny Feng Shanshan came from nowhere as a teenager to earn her LPGA card, the girls will come before the boys. The reality is for every Matteo Manassero, Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa there are many more young female golfers who have proved competitive at an early age at the pinnacle of the women's game. The domestic tour--the China LPGA--is in its second year and aims at staging 10 tournaments annually and Zhang Na’s four wins on the Japan LPGA in 2007 have established an alternative roadmap to the American route.
It's already been suggested that the girls' work ethic exceeds that of the Chinese boys by one high-profile overseas coach. And while one makes generalisations with trepidation, perhaps also the Asian serenity, what long-time LPGA caddie Shaun Clews refers to as a "certain calmness" that the Korean stars benefit from, will also serve the Chinese girls too.
How ready are they? Well the stars at the WGC-HSBC Champions didn't see the girls closest to joining the professional ranks, players like 15-year-olds Lu Yue and Apple Yang Jiaxin, because 12-year-old Lucy Shi Yuting won the rights to play the 17th hole on Pro-Am day. What they saw wasn't just the potential to get onto the LPGA; they saw the potential to star, in much the same way that Koreans were saying Shin Ji-Yai would have a Hall of Fame LPGA career when she was still a teenager.
"She hit a 6‑iron to about 15 feet from the hole, lipped out the putt and made par. She was an incredible player!" exclaimed Masters champion Phil Mickelson.
"You could tell right away that she's got a lot of potential to be a great golfer. She has a wonderful swing, a great short game, great putting stroke. And at only 12, it's amazing how talented she is at such a young age. I hope that she continues to develop and continues to play well and improve and become a force on the LPGA."
Seven-time PGA Tour winner Adam Scott of Australia was just as fulsome with his praise, which was generous, considering Lucy beat him on the hole, kindling unwelcome reminders of the only other time he lost to a girl: the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii when he was beaten by two shots by a 14-year-old called Michelle Wie.
"Phenomenal! Everything, for 12 years old, looks great! A natural golf swing and hands look good on the club; hopefully she kicks on. No doubt we'll be seeing her on the tour in the next five or six years on the tour, popping up at the US Open or something...and she’ll be leading!" said the 2010 Valero Texas Open winner.
"She looks like all the potential in the world. You can only encourage her because she's 12 years old and just let her game develop naturally. As long as she still enjoys practicing, she'll be on a path to the LPGA, Majors; all that sort of stuff."
Whether it will be the regular winners on the HSBC National Junior Championship (girls like Apple Yang, Lu Yue or Lucy Shi and boys like Zhang Jin or Zhou Tian) or those following the Park In-Bee route (Cindy Feng Yueer and the unrelated Feng Simin are both prominent on the American junior circuit) or one of the young men going through the US Colleges (Hu Mu, Wang Minghao or Han Ren) who will arrive first, only time will tell. Simin, originally from Beijing, is already an AJGA Rolex All-American while Yueer, from the city of Shenzhen in China's golfing heartland Guangdong province, rates in the top on Golfweek's junior ranking despite being a couple of years younger than her rivals, but then as a counterpoint Feng Shanshan was hardly on anyone's radar outside Guangzhou when she went to the LPGA's Q School.
The reality is that all these players are going to get even greater opportunities because of golf's entry to the Olympics in 2016. Olympic status has moved the China Golf Association from a cul-de-sac (it was until a couple of years ago lumped in with and effectively financially supporting sports like cricket and snooker in the so-called "small ball" section) onto the six-lane superhighway of China's sports ministry, The State General Administration of Sports.
However, after the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions the questions being asked might need to change. Before it was "are they going to be good enough to compete with us?" Now perhaps it should be "are we going to be able to compete with them?" because Monty reckons China's kids are streets ahead of any others he's seen in the US or Europe.
"Oh, of course they are! Way ahead! And of course the work ethic here is different. These kids are prepared to put in the hours it takes nowadays to become very, very good. You can see how they love it. They're all involved. It's fantastic and the work ethic here is different to ours," Monty said, adding that the focus of the kids he saw put him to shame.
"I was a lazy player myself; two or three hours and I was getting a little bit bored. These kids? Six, seven hours a day and just golf! Then they're studying as well. This is where the future is. Now golf has become an Olympic sport, in this country it can only add to the opportunities given to them and the incentives given to them. They're well ahead of our youngsters. If it's a numbers game China wins every time hands down. I've had a successful career I suppose and I started at six and I couldn't even get the ball airborne when I was ten, never mind hit the ball like this. These are golfers!"
So the answer when you ask whether China is coming is an emphatic yes. The question that remains is just exactly how good, where from, how many and how fast?
China's Firsts
1984 First modern golf course: Chung Shan Hot Spring, opens in Zhongshan, Guangdong province.
1985 May 24th. First governing body: the China Golf Association is established.
1986 January. First "international" tournament: Chung Shan hosts the Chung Shan Cup, featuring foreign players but not recognised by any outside sanctioning bodies; the Pro-Am event is hailed in China as the first international tournament.
1990 September/October. First big event: The Asian Games golf tournament is held at Beijing Golf Club, Shunyi District. The Asian Games itself was the first large-scale international sports event to be held in the People's Republic of China.
1994 October. First medals: At the Asian Games in Hiroshima Zhang Lianwei wins an individual silver medal behind Kaname Yokoo, while China's women's team claims bronze.
1994 April. First professionals: Zheng Wengen and John Xiao Chenghan are among a handful of golfers to become the first Chinese professionals when they pass a newly-introduced CGA exam.
1995. First Domestic Tour: The Volvo China Tour, China's first domestic circuit, consisted of four 36-hole tournaments.
1995 April. First Official International Pro tournament: The Volvo China Open in Beijing (Beijing International Golf Club) is won by Raul Fretes of Paraguay. Total prize money was US$400,000.
1997 April. First Chinese Winner of an International Tournament: Cheng Jun is victorious at the Volvo China Open in Beijing.
2001 November. First Visit by a World Number One: Tiger Woods makes his first trip to China, an exhibition at Mission Hills near Shenzhen in Guangdong.
2003 January. First Chinese win in a European Tour event: Zhang Lianwei wins the co-sanctioned Caltex Masters in Singapore.
2004. First Chinese Player in a Major championship: Zhang Lianwei receives an invitation to the Masters.
2004 May. First Chinese Golf World Record: Mission Hills entered into Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest golf club after its expansion to 180 holes.
2005 November. First Time to Host Asia's Leading Tournament: With US$5M prize money, the HSBC Champions, then Asia's richest tournament, debuts in Shanghai. The inaugural tournament is won by English Ryder Cup star David Howell.
2007 First Fully-Integrated Junior Development Scheme: The HSBC China Junior Golf Program and HSBC National Junior Championships are launched.
2007 First Chinese to win Asian Tour's Order of Merit: Liang Wenchong clinches the title with nine top-ten finishes including a win at the Singapore Masters.
2007 First Chinese to join American college circuit: Han Ren enrolls on a golf scholarship at Indiana University.
2008 July. First Weekend Play in a Major: Liang Wenchong makes the cut at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
2008 November. First Impact on the Official World Golf Ranking: Sergio Garcia moves up to number two after winning the HSBC Champions. It's the first time an Asian event has had such a profound effect on the global standings.
2009 April. First Women's Tour: The China Golf Association announces the birth of the China LPGA Tour. The circuit will have strong links with the Orient Golf chain, playing the majority of the events on their courses.
2009 Asia's First WGC event: WGC status is awarded to the HSBC Champions in April, making it indisputably Asia's single-most important tournament. The event in November features Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing in the same tournament for the first time in Asia. Paired together in the leading group on the final day, Mickelson triumphs.
2010 First Impact on World Number One: Four players--Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson--arrived in Shanghai for the 2010 WGC-HSBC Champions, knowing a good week would make the number one in the world. No Asian tournament had ever impacted the very top of the Official World Golf Ranking.
20??: China's First World Number One....
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Women's British Open Sunday: Can Yani Tseng Win Her Third Major?
Call this the semi-live blogging post. I'm not going to comment on every shot, but give the highlights, do some commentary, and of course an occasional sarcastic comment or two. Would you expect anything less from a person who's given out over 1,000 knucklehead awards?
It is 11:07 as I write this and Katherine Hull has just birdied the 11th hole to pull within two of Tseng. Tseng began play today with a four-shot lead.
Tseng who played almost flawless golf yesterday, has shown a few cracks today. A bogey on 3 before the the ESPN television broadcast began. She followed this up with birdies on 4 and 6.
When Tseng teed off the 8th hole, she had a four-shot lead over Hull. Both players drove it in the fairway bunker on that hole and proceeded to make bogey, but Tseng missed a makable par putt that would have put her up by 5.
Tseng three-putted the 10th and her lead was down to three. Hull made a birdie putt of about twenty feet on 11 to pull within two.
Both players hit their tee shots long on 12, but are all right. As for the other players in field, no one has made a move. In-Kyung Kim began the round at -7 in solo third place. That is exactly where she stands through 12 holes.
11:20 update: Both Hull and Tseng hit terrible first putts on 12 but make par. Inky missed a makeable birdie putt on 13. If Tseng or Hull isn't the winner at the end of play today, I'll start watching pro wrestling. Hey Hey my first sarcastic comment of the day.
11:32 update: Yani Tseng's lead is down to one. Katherine Hull hit her approach shot on 13 to within four feet and made the birdie putt. Game's on.
This year's broadcast of the WBO is great compared to past years just because the play is on live. I rarely can get interested in tape delay broadcasts because I am prone to look at the results early on. There have been exceptions, like the 2008 WBO. I did watch the final round on tape delay but I was in the hospital at the time. Any channel that wasn't repeatedly showing Progressive Insurance or Lakeside Terrace commercials were appealing to me.
11:43 Update: Tseng and Hull both par 14. Now come three par 5s and a not very menacing par 4. The winning score has to be -13 at least.
What's the playoff format for the WBO? Is it 4 holes like the Men's Open Championship?
12:02 Update: Tseng and Hull both go for the par-5 15th in two, both come up short left, but Hull ends up in the bunker. In the end both players make par, after Tseng misses a 3-foot birdie putt.
For those unfamiliar with me, my name is Bill Jempty. The Florida Masochist was my alias when I began blogging. Most of my blogging today is done under my real name at ROK Drop and OTB Sports and in the past at blogs that are now defunct or I was kicked off of.
I will stop blogging for a short time when my wife returns home with lunch. It shouldn't be a long interruption.
12:16 Update: Hull and Tseng both make par at 16. If anyone is reading this live, please acknowledge it with a comment. Either that or bring me a cheeseburger because I'm hungry.
12:34 Update: Hold the food, I just had lunch.
The WBO has what is supposed to be live scoring but at the moment shows Tseng and Hull playing 15. Are they slow or am I in some kind of time warp?
12:36 Update: Tseng and Hull both make par at 17 though the later caused some excitement via a lip out.
The 18th hole: Hull drives it in the right rough, Tseng puts it in the fairway bunker left. Army golf, left, right....
In-Kyung Kim birdies 17 to finish tied for 3rd with Na Yeon Choi. Choi has finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd in her last four events. Is she the hottest golfer in women's professional golf right now?
At the 2003 WBO, Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak came to 18 tied. Pak drove it in a fairway bunker and lost by one shot. That was the last WBO that came down to the 18th hole, though the 2009 version had its share of Sunday drama.
12:44 Update: Hull's 2nd shot goes through the green, Tseng lays up. No clear advantage for either golfer.
12:48 Update: Tseng is just off the green with her third. It's all right, but she wanted better. Hull chips it but leaves herself with a birdie putt of over 15 feet.
12:56 Update: Tseng's putt comes up well short. Hull misses her birdie putt long. Tseng has a five footer for the championship. She makes it. Yani Tseng is the 2010 Women's British Open Champion.
1:15 Update: Hull made par at 18. Tseng got doused with champagne. I'm done blogging the 2010 Women's British Open. I'm sure TC will have his own comments to make.
3:21 Epilogue: Fixed typo in title of post. Also blogging on the WBO are Shane Bacon and Hound Dog.
Update: Brent Kelly also writes on Tseng's win and in process we learn Patty Berg was younger than Yani when they both won their third major championship. Berg wasn't quite 21 when she won the 1939 Titleholders Championship. Great find, Brent!
I'm not trying to show up the Golf record books, but help keep them correct. If golf history isn't preserved, it will be lost.
[Update x (11:41 pm): TC here. Spent half the day at the Futures Tour's final round of the week and a quarter of the day recovering (lunch with the Yuns, dinner with the folks, watching Appleby's 59 live, a few shots at the driving range to see if my back is ready for my return to golf--it is--then out for ice cream)...and, finally, the coverage of the Open! I faithfully avoided the internet and any hint of tv that would give the result away--and rudely cut off anyone who tried to talk about it with me before I watched it--so it was all fresh to me! And what a nerve-wracking finish. I like Katherine Hull, but I really wanted Ya Ni to win. For awhile there, it seemed she was cruising along as on the previous 3 days. Beating back Hull's early challenge and reestablishing her 4-shot lead seemed to give her loads of confidence. But then that 1st tiny putt missed seemed to change her entire mindset. Even with good approach shots, she'd stare them down nervously. She'd back away from putts and shots. She'd take forever to decide what club to use from right in front of 15 in 2. And even though Hull was missing many opportunities, she kept hanging around and started closing in. I never really believed Tseng was going to give this one away, but when she kept failing to take advantage of opportunities to put it away, I got really worried. I haven't been this tense watching a golf tournament in years. I have to give a lot of credit to ESPN's close-ups on the players' faces, Judy Rankin's commentary, and Tseng and Hull themselves. Great drama and compelling television. Glad to have a chance to actually see it this time around!]
It is 11:07 as I write this and Katherine Hull has just birdied the 11th hole to pull within two of Tseng. Tseng began play today with a four-shot lead.
Tseng who played almost flawless golf yesterday, has shown a few cracks today. A bogey on 3 before the the ESPN television broadcast began. She followed this up with birdies on 4 and 6.
When Tseng teed off the 8th hole, she had a four-shot lead over Hull. Both players drove it in the fairway bunker on that hole and proceeded to make bogey, but Tseng missed a makable par putt that would have put her up by 5.
Tseng three-putted the 10th and her lead was down to three. Hull made a birdie putt of about twenty feet on 11 to pull within two.
Both players hit their tee shots long on 12, but are all right. As for the other players in field, no one has made a move. In-Kyung Kim began the round at -7 in solo third place. That is exactly where she stands through 12 holes.
11:20 update: Both Hull and Tseng hit terrible first putts on 12 but make par. Inky missed a makeable birdie putt on 13. If Tseng or Hull isn't the winner at the end of play today, I'll start watching pro wrestling. Hey Hey my first sarcastic comment of the day.
11:32 update: Yani Tseng's lead is down to one. Katherine Hull hit her approach shot on 13 to within four feet and made the birdie putt. Game's on.
This year's broadcast of the WBO is great compared to past years just because the play is on live. I rarely can get interested in tape delay broadcasts because I am prone to look at the results early on. There have been exceptions, like the 2008 WBO. I did watch the final round on tape delay but I was in the hospital at the time. Any channel that wasn't repeatedly showing Progressive Insurance or Lakeside Terrace commercials were appealing to me.
11:43 Update: Tseng and Hull both par 14. Now come three par 5s and a not very menacing par 4. The winning score has to be -13 at least.
What's the playoff format for the WBO? Is it 4 holes like the Men's Open Championship?
12:02 Update: Tseng and Hull both go for the par-5 15th in two, both come up short left, but Hull ends up in the bunker. In the end both players make par, after Tseng misses a 3-foot birdie putt.
For those unfamiliar with me, my name is Bill Jempty. The Florida Masochist was my alias when I began blogging. Most of my blogging today is done under my real name at ROK Drop and OTB Sports and in the past at blogs that are now defunct or I was kicked off of.
I will stop blogging for a short time when my wife returns home with lunch. It shouldn't be a long interruption.
12:16 Update: Hull and Tseng both make par at 16. If anyone is reading this live, please acknowledge it with a comment. Either that or bring me a cheeseburger because I'm hungry.
12:34 Update: Hold the food, I just had lunch.
The WBO has what is supposed to be live scoring but at the moment shows Tseng and Hull playing 15. Are they slow or am I in some kind of time warp?
12:36 Update: Tseng and Hull both make par at 17 though the later caused some excitement via a lip out.
The 18th hole: Hull drives it in the right rough, Tseng puts it in the fairway bunker left. Army golf, left, right....
In-Kyung Kim birdies 17 to finish tied for 3rd with Na Yeon Choi. Choi has finished 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd in her last four events. Is she the hottest golfer in women's professional golf right now?
At the 2003 WBO, Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak came to 18 tied. Pak drove it in a fairway bunker and lost by one shot. That was the last WBO that came down to the 18th hole, though the 2009 version had its share of Sunday drama.
12:44 Update: Hull's 2nd shot goes through the green, Tseng lays up. No clear advantage for either golfer.
12:48 Update: Tseng is just off the green with her third. It's all right, but she wanted better. Hull chips it but leaves herself with a birdie putt of over 15 feet.
12:56 Update: Tseng's putt comes up well short. Hull misses her birdie putt long. Tseng has a five footer for the championship. She makes it. Yani Tseng is the 2010 Women's British Open Champion.
1:15 Update: Hull made par at 18. Tseng got doused with champagne. I'm done blogging the 2010 Women's British Open. I'm sure TC will have his own comments to make.
3:21 Epilogue: Fixed typo in title of post. Also blogging on the WBO are Shane Bacon and Hound Dog.
Update: Brent Kelly also writes on Tseng's win and in process we learn Patty Berg was younger than Yani when they both won their third major championship. Berg wasn't quite 21 when she won the 1939 Titleholders Championship. Great find, Brent!
I'm not trying to show up the Golf record books, but help keep them correct. If golf history isn't preserved, it will be lost.
[Update x (11:41 pm): TC here. Spent half the day at the Futures Tour's final round of the week and a quarter of the day recovering (lunch with the Yuns, dinner with the folks, watching Appleby's 59 live, a few shots at the driving range to see if my back is ready for my return to golf--it is--then out for ice cream)...and, finally, the coverage of the Open! I faithfully avoided the internet and any hint of tv that would give the result away--and rudely cut off anyone who tried to talk about it with me before I watched it--so it was all fresh to me! And what a nerve-wracking finish. I like Katherine Hull, but I really wanted Ya Ni to win. For awhile there, it seemed she was cruising along as on the previous 3 days. Beating back Hull's early challenge and reestablishing her 4-shot lead seemed to give her loads of confidence. But then that 1st tiny putt missed seemed to change her entire mindset. Even with good approach shots, she'd stare them down nervously. She'd back away from putts and shots. She'd take forever to decide what club to use from right in front of 15 in 2. And even though Hull was missing many opportunities, she kept hanging around and started closing in. I never really believed Tseng was going to give this one away, but when she kept failing to take advantage of opportunities to put it away, I got really worried. I haven't been this tense watching a golf tournament in years. I have to give a lot of credit to ESPN's close-ups on the players' faces, Judy Rankin's commentary, and Tseng and Hull themselves. Great drama and compelling television. Glad to have a chance to actually see it this time around!]
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Women's British Open Saturday: Tseng on Cruise Control
Yani Tseng shot a bogey free 68 to maintain her four shot lead. Katherine Hull, who made birdies on her last five holes, is in solo second at minus eight. The next closest golfers are In-Kyung Kim at minus six, and Brittany Lincicome at minus five.
Morgan Pressel made noise early on Saturday. After making bogey on the first two holes, Pressel rattled off 8 birdies and one eagle only offset by one bogey. Her 65 equaled the course record, a mark held byall the extras required for the movie Ben Hur six participants in the 2005 Women's British Open.
Tseng looked almost flawless today. The only wayward shot I remember Tseng hitting was her second on the par five 17 where she got a lucky bounce back into the fairway. Still could only make par on hole. Tseng made up for it by making an eagle on 18.
At the moment Tseng is one round away from her third major championship. Yani has never won a tournament from the lead during her short LPGA career. Hound Dog wrote:
[Update 1 (11:31 pm): TC here. I got to watch an hour plus this morning before heading over to Syracuse for the 2nd round of the Futures Tour event. If I can get up early enough tomorrow, I'll catch the last hour I missed on Friday and the rest of Saturday's round before I head back. But that means that I'll be holding off on observations on each round until tomorrow evening. Like Bill and Hound Dog, I think Ya Ni is playing too well to get caught tomorrow, but Ryan Ballengee (who also thinks Tseng will win) made a good point that Hull has caught Tseng before, at the '08 Canadian Open. Given the way Shin, Kerr, and Pettersen struggled when they had chances to make moves on Tseng, maybe it will take someone who doesn't have to worry about the race for #1 in the Rolex Rankings to chase Tseng down. But Hull will have to put together a great final round. I just don't see Ya Ni coming back to the field in any significant way.]
[Update 2 (11:52 pm): Here are LPGA.com's notes and interviews. And check out how cool the final-round pairings are! Early on Sakura Yokomine gets to play with Stacy Lewis, Ai Miyazato with Karrie Webb, Azahara Munoz with Michelle Wie, and Chie Arimura with Amy Yang. And then:
Start Time: 12:55 PM--Top 2 Seoul Sisters right now
Ji-Yai Shin
Na Yeon Choi
Start Time: 1:05 PM--USA! USA!
Morgan Pressel
Cristie Kerr
Start Time: 1:15 PM--Solheim Cup rematch
Suzann Pettersen
Christina Kim
Start Time: 1:25 PM--Pinx/Kyoraku Cup rematch
Momoko Ueda
Hee Kyung Seo
Start Time: 1:35 PM--Bomber vs. precision player
Brittany Lincicome
In-Kyung Kim
Start Time: 1:45 PM--'08 Canadian Women's Open rematch
Katherine Hull
Ya Ni Tseng
Shweeeet!]
[Update 3 (8/1/10, 11:24 pm): Entertaining remarks on the 3rd round by Mike Southern.]
Morgan Pressel made noise early on Saturday. After making bogey on the first two holes, Pressel rattled off 8 birdies and one eagle only offset by one bogey. Her 65 equaled the course record, a mark held by
Tseng looked almost flawless today. The only wayward shot I remember Tseng hitting was her second on the par five 17 where she got a lucky bounce back into the fairway. Still could only make par on hole. Tseng made up for it by making an eagle on 18.
At the moment Tseng is one round away from her third major championship. Yani has never won a tournament from the lead during her short LPGA career. Hound Dog wrote:
If today's results were any indication, it would have to be blowing a hurricane to knock Yani Tseng off her perch. She's not known as a front-runner but she's definitely known as a major champion. I expect her to get her third one tomorrow.I will be greatly surprised if Tseng isn't hoisting the trophy when play is finished tomorrow. The Constructivist will have more thoughts on the third round later today.
[Update 1 (11:31 pm): TC here. I got to watch an hour plus this morning before heading over to Syracuse for the 2nd round of the Futures Tour event. If I can get up early enough tomorrow, I'll catch the last hour I missed on Friday and the rest of Saturday's round before I head back. But that means that I'll be holding off on observations on each round until tomorrow evening. Like Bill and Hound Dog, I think Ya Ni is playing too well to get caught tomorrow, but Ryan Ballengee (who also thinks Tseng will win) made a good point that Hull has caught Tseng before, at the '08 Canadian Open. Given the way Shin, Kerr, and Pettersen struggled when they had chances to make moves on Tseng, maybe it will take someone who doesn't have to worry about the race for #1 in the Rolex Rankings to chase Tseng down. But Hull will have to put together a great final round. I just don't see Ya Ni coming back to the field in any significant way.]
[Update 2 (11:52 pm): Here are LPGA.com's notes and interviews. And check out how cool the final-round pairings are! Early on Sakura Yokomine gets to play with Stacy Lewis, Ai Miyazato with Karrie Webb, Azahara Munoz with Michelle Wie, and Chie Arimura with Amy Yang. And then:
Start Time: 12:55 PM--Top 2 Seoul Sisters right now
Ji-Yai Shin
Na Yeon Choi
Start Time: 1:05 PM--USA! USA!
Morgan Pressel
Cristie Kerr
Start Time: 1:15 PM--Solheim Cup rematch
Suzann Pettersen
Christina Kim
Start Time: 1:25 PM--Pinx/Kyoraku Cup rematch
Momoko Ueda
Hee Kyung Seo
Start Time: 1:35 PM--Bomber vs. precision player
Brittany Lincicome
In-Kyung Kim
Start Time: 1:45 PM--'08 Canadian Women's Open rematch
Katherine Hull
Ya Ni Tseng
Shweeeet!]
[Update 3 (8/1/10, 11:24 pm): Entertaining remarks on the 3rd round by Mike Southern.]
Royal Birkdale and Taiwanese golfers
Yani Tseng from Taiwan leads the Women's British at Royal Birkdale by four shots with 36 holes to play. Should she win, Tseng would already have amassed three of the four major championships in Women's professional golf.
I won't be conceding the tournament to Tseng quite. Just two years ago, Lorena Ochoa was on a roll and was leading the LPGA Championship by one shot after 36 holes. One golf scribe at the time was all but ready to crown Ochoa at that point. Ochoa ultimately finished third, to Yani Tseng.
Royal Birkdale is an interesting place for Tseng to be going for her third major. Thirty-nine years ago, or 1971 to be precise, the Open Championship was played at Birkdale. It was won by Lee Trevino. The golfer who finished second by one shot that week was Lu Liang Huan. Lu, who is still alive today at age 75, is from Taiwan just like Yani Tseng.
Lu, or as Open Championship fans in 1971 nicknamed him Mr. Lu, was an obscure golfer to even knowledgeable golf people at the time. His three career wins were all in Asia before the 1971 Open Championship.
Mr. Lu's obscurity didn't prevent him from being a fan favorite that week in 1971. He didn't speak much English, but through tips of his straw cap and smiles to the gallery, he had many people in England and through television cheering for him that week.
A week after the 1971 Open Championship, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club issued an invitation to Mr. Lu. It said- "come back to this country as often as you like and we hope you'll bring more fine golfers from the Far East."
Many fine golfers have come to the United Kingdom and the United States since then. Unfortunately, the attitude of people has regressed since then. Asian golfers, even Asian American golfers, are seen as a threat by the media and or fans. No one was bothered by Mr. Lu's poor English in 1971, so I have trouble understanding the attitude of some people today.
I wasn't following pro golf in 1971. At the time I was ten-years-old and more interested in New York Mets baseball. What I learned about the 1971 Open Championship is through media accounts at the time. Even these are hard to find.
What I do know about that Open Championship is-
1 Trevino and Mr. Lu were paired together for the last 18 holes.
2 Lee Trevino made double bogey at 17
3 Mr. Lu and Trevino both made closing birdies on 18
4 As he played 18, an errant golf shot of Mr. Lu's struck a person in the gallery injuring the woman. After the Open Championship, Mr. Lu paid for the woman and her husband to visit Taiwan.
Mr. Lu never again seriously contended for a Major Championship. He did however win the French Open the following week and in 1972 partnered with Hsieh Min-Nan to win the World Cup. When his professional career was over, Mr. Lu had at least twenty professional wins to his credit but he is probably still best remembered for his runner-up finish at the 1971 Open Championship.
So far as I know, Mr. Lu is still alive today at age seventy-five.
I won't be conceding the tournament to Tseng quite. Just two years ago, Lorena Ochoa was on a roll and was leading the LPGA Championship by one shot after 36 holes. One golf scribe at the time was all but ready to crown Ochoa at that point. Ochoa ultimately finished third, to Yani Tseng.
Royal Birkdale is an interesting place for Tseng to be going for her third major. Thirty-nine years ago, or 1971 to be precise, the Open Championship was played at Birkdale. It was won by Lee Trevino. The golfer who finished second by one shot that week was Lu Liang Huan. Lu, who is still alive today at age 75, is from Taiwan just like Yani Tseng.
Lu, or as Open Championship fans in 1971 nicknamed him Mr. Lu, was an obscure golfer to even knowledgeable golf people at the time. His three career wins were all in Asia before the 1971 Open Championship.
Mr. Lu's obscurity didn't prevent him from being a fan favorite that week in 1971. He didn't speak much English, but through tips of his straw cap and smiles to the gallery, he had many people in England and through television cheering for him that week.
A week after the 1971 Open Championship, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club issued an invitation to Mr. Lu. It said- "come back to this country as often as you like and we hope you'll bring more fine golfers from the Far East."
Many fine golfers have come to the United Kingdom and the United States since then. Unfortunately, the attitude of people has regressed since then. Asian golfers, even Asian American golfers, are seen as a threat by the media and or fans. No one was bothered by Mr. Lu's poor English in 1971, so I have trouble understanding the attitude of some people today.
I wasn't following pro golf in 1971. At the time I was ten-years-old and more interested in New York Mets baseball. What I learned about the 1971 Open Championship is through media accounts at the time. Even these are hard to find.
What I do know about that Open Championship is-
1 Trevino and Mr. Lu were paired together for the last 18 holes.
2 Lee Trevino made double bogey at 17
3 Mr. Lu and Trevino both made closing birdies on 18
4 As he played 18, an errant golf shot of Mr. Lu's struck a person in the gallery injuring the woman. After the Open Championship, Mr. Lu paid for the woman and her husband to visit Taiwan.
Mr. Lu never again seriously contended for a Major Championship. He did however win the French Open the following week and in 1972 partnered with Hsieh Min-Nan to win the World Cup. When his professional career was over, Mr. Lu had at least twenty professional wins to his credit but he is probably still best remembered for his runner-up finish at the 1971 Open Championship.
So far as I know, Mr. Lu is still alive today at age seventy-five.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Will Waggle Room's Ryan Ballangee please pick up the red courtesy phone
Is there a GWAA award for factual mistakes per word written? In a fan shot today, Ryan wrote-
1- Carmel Indiana is Crooked Stick, not Broadmoor. Ryan has fixed this mistake.
but
Isn't Snagit wonderful?
Ryan's 2nd(Or 3rd if you count his dismal failure to wipe out all trace of his latest golfwriting blunder.) mistake also stems from his poor reading comprehension.
2- Jackson didn't set the record for 36 holes. Dave Stockton set the record in 1992 and it has been tied or equaled since. One of which was by Jackson. The article used the word tied.
One error per 15.5 words is downright terrible. Brian Wacker formerly of Golf World needed 450 to make his six. If Ryan picks up the page, I'll suggest he take some remedial reading lessons.
Tim Jackson set the 36 hole scoring record at last year's US Senior Open at Broadmoor, and is again in contention on day one of the Sahalee edition of the USSO.Two factual errors in 31 words is pretty terrible blogging. What are those mistakes? Ryan linked to an article on the 2009 USSO.
CARMEL, Ind. (AP) — Tim Jackson has tied the U.S. Senior Open 36-hole scoring record, shooting a 5-under 67 in the second round for a 11-under 133 and a two-shot lead over Fred Funk.
1- Carmel Indiana is Crooked Stick, not Broadmoor. Ryan has fixed this mistake.
but
Isn't Snagit wonderful?Ryan's 2nd(Or 3rd if you count his dismal failure to wipe out all trace of his latest golfwriting blunder.) mistake also stems from his poor reading comprehension.
2- Jackson didn't set the record for 36 holes. Dave Stockton set the record in 1992 and it has been tied or equaled since. One of which was by Jackson. The article used the word tied.
One error per 15.5 words is downright terrible. Brian Wacker formerly of Golf World needed 450 to make his six. If Ryan picks up the page, I'll suggest he take some remedial reading lessons.
LPGA Tour Championship to be played in Orlando Florida Dec. 2-5
The last event of the 2010 LPGA season is set. 120 players will tee it up at the Grand Cypress Resort. Grand Cypress is no stranger to the LPGA. It has hosted tour events in the past, the last of which was the 2001 YourLife Vitamins LPGA Classic. Golfweek has the details.
With luck, I will be able to blog the tournament in person but it will most likely only be Saturday and Sunday. It is great to see the LPGA back playing in Florida.
[Update 1 (8/5/10, 2:48 pm): Here's the official announcement.]
[Update 2 (8/6/10, 3:48 pm): Ron Sirak does a good job listing the problems with the timing and the format of the event, but would you rather not have one at all?]
With luck, I will be able to blog the tournament in person but it will most likely only be Saturday and Sunday. It is great to see the LPGA back playing in Florida.
[Update 1 (8/5/10, 2:48 pm): Here's the official announcement.]
[Update 2 (8/6/10, 3:48 pm): Ron Sirak does a good job listing the problems with the timing and the format of the event, but would you rather not have one at all?]
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Clock is Ticking--Will There Be a 2010 LPGA Tour Championship?
With a little over three months till the tournament's startup date, I'm having increasingly strong doubts this tournament will be played.
With every day that passes, I think my view is well justified. First of all the tournament is listed as TBA on the LPGA's website. This has been the status of the Tour Championship ever since the 2010 LPGA schedule was announced.
The organizing needed to run a tournament has to start well ahead of when the tournament is actually played. In fact the old ADT*, the Tour Championship's predecessor, would already be through taking volunteer applications
The LPGA is silent in the matter. I emailed Mike Scanlan in Daytona Beach. Mike said an announcement will be coming. I believe that, but the news in the announcement may not be good.
Another source(not directly affiliated with the LPGA) told me that they heard the LPGA is talking with ADT again and that also that the tournament will not be in Texas or possibly not played at all. Whether an event is played could be dependent on IMG who floated last year's tournament after the Stanford Financial debacle.
Caddie blogger Larry said in one of his blog posts that the tournament may be played in central Florida.
I'm sure Commissioner Michael Whan has worked very hard on the 2010 LPGA Tour Championship. He and others have done miracle work since Carolyn Bivens resigned. I am not being critical. All I hope is that there is a LPGA Tour tournament after the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2010.
*- The ADT was my hometown tournament and one I was credentialed by the LPGA to blog in 2007. I'd love to see the LPGA return to Palm Beach County.
{Update 1 (7/27/10, 2:18 pm): Here's Ryan Ballengee's take.]
[Update 2 (7/29/10, 4:20 pm): Beth Ann Baldry has a site and a date. If she's right, the annual Korea-Japan team competition is likely to have very weak teams this year.]
[Update 3 (4:26 pm): Looks like it's official--here's Baldry's Golfweek article.]
With every day that passes, I think my view is well justified. First of all the tournament is listed as TBA on the LPGA's website. This has been the status of the Tour Championship ever since the 2010 LPGA schedule was announced.
The organizing needed to run a tournament has to start well ahead of when the tournament is actually played. In fact the old ADT*, the Tour Championship's predecessor, would already be through taking volunteer applications
The LPGA is silent in the matter. I emailed Mike Scanlan in Daytona Beach. Mike said an announcement will be coming. I believe that, but the news in the announcement may not be good.
Another source(not directly affiliated with the LPGA) told me that they heard the LPGA is talking with ADT again and that also that the tournament will not be in Texas or possibly not played at all. Whether an event is played could be dependent on IMG who floated last year's tournament after the Stanford Financial debacle.
Caddie blogger Larry said in one of his blog posts that the tournament may be played in central Florida.
I'm sure Commissioner Michael Whan has worked very hard on the 2010 LPGA Tour Championship. He and others have done miracle work since Carolyn Bivens resigned. I am not being critical. All I hope is that there is a LPGA Tour tournament after the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2010.
*- The ADT was my hometown tournament and one I was credentialed by the LPGA to blog in 2007. I'd love to see the LPGA return to Palm Beach County.
{Update 1 (7/27/10, 2:18 pm): Here's Ryan Ballengee's take.]
[Update 2 (7/29/10, 4:20 pm): Beth Ann Baldry has a site and a date. If she's right, the annual Korea-Japan team competition is likely to have very weak teams this year.]
[Update 3 (4:26 pm): Looks like it's official--here's Baldry's Golfweek article.]
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tim Maitland Talks "Asian Major" with Whan, Inkster, Kerr, Ochoa, Wie, and Webb
Asia Inches Closer to Its First Major
Tim Maitland
New LPGA commissioner Mike Whan chose the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore to declare that the staging of a Major in Asia is "inevitable." As Tim Maitland reports, his statement, coming within six months of Asia getting its first male Major winner and staging its first World Golf Championship event, has brought Major status for an Asian tournament a step closer.
Asia will have a Major and not just in our lifetime. The reality is, particularly as the Asian economies seem likely to gain even more ground on American and European markets that are projected to have limited growth in the near term, it'll happen long before we are reaching for our carpet slippers and writing reminders on the fridge to keep track of all our grandchildren's birthdays.
"Will there be a Major played on the women's tour somewhere in Asia 10 years down the road? I'd actually be surprised if we didn't," is how new LPGA commissioner Mike Whan puts it.
"We're not building one now and we don't have any plans in place, but it is inevitable. I think the whole 'borders' discussion is going to go away. We're going to have Majors. Those Majors are going to be held in locations. I don't think it's going to matter to people--in five or six years, in that soon a time period--where they are."
That the women's game will go down that road first would seem obvious. Simply put, they have the most to gain from doing so. Creating a Major would give them a footing almost equal to the men's game in a continent that, at the moment, is the only one promising golf sustained growth.
"The way golf is changing and the way golf is coming over to the East, I'd bet you it would probably be the LPGA before anybody to have a Major over here," states Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster, despite being a self-proclaimed traditionalist who holds the idea of there being only four Majors close to her heart.
"I just look at the make-up of our tour and I can see a major corporation picking up one of our Majors, and I wouldn't have any problems with that."
However, the stars would need to align unusually quickly for Whan's prediction to be pre-empted. Then again, most experts thought "YE" Yang Yong-Eun's 2009 PGA Championship win wouldn't have happened for at least another 10 or 20 years, and noone would have predicted when the HSBC Champions appeared for the first time in Shanghai in 2005 that its 2009 edition would have World Golf Championship status.
What is clear is, if the decision had to be made now and the choice was down to the players, most would choose the world's local bank's Singapore-based sister event, a tournament whose reputation was only enhanced when Ai Miyazato added her name to those of Shin Ji-Yai and Lorena Ochoa by winning the 2010 event.
"I think it's a testament to the different aspects of the tournament that the HSBC Women's Champions is, from the players' perspective, no doubt, Asia's Major; the competition is fierce," says top-ranked American Cristie Kerr.
"The world number one and the world number two won it year-on-year. It's definitely a testament to the course that we play on, the partnership and the overall feel of the event. You know, there's a lot of different things that go into making a tournament great and they are very hard to do and they have hit it on the head here. They have put together an amazing tournament, and when you have all of those different things come together, the players want to win the tournament. So it makes the competition that much more fierce."
Those sentiments are supported by the world's top player and 2008 winner Lorena Ochoa, who, as a rule, does not scatter praise like confetti.
"I think you can tell, we are all here, very happy and excited to be here. It’s a beautiful week, and you heard so many good comments, and we truly believe this is a great tournament. I think being the Major of Asia; that's right! We love to be here!" exclaims the Mexican.
"It seems like a Major. It seems like an Asia Major, and it definitely lives up to the reputation, and more," adds Michelle Wie.
"It was a really well-run event. It's a first-class event. It really does feel like one of the top events. HSBC has done a fantastic job. I think it's been great."
For a tournament in the East to achieve Major status a number of factors need to fall into place. Not least among them is a fundamental shift in thinking in the ranks of the traditionalists; some are likely to need some time to adjust to the idea. Whan himself admits to being resistant to the concept of adding to the LPGA's current stable of Majors, which runs from the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April to the LPGA Championship in June, and July's US Women's Open and the Ricoh Women's British Open.
"When I talk about being a traditionalist," he explains, "it's only from the point of having four Majors. I'm not a traditionalist with regards to them being in the US and Europe. I didn't get to make that choice; the fans and the players and everybody else, including our business partners, made that choice. We've long since stopped being just a US/European tour. We take this thing around the world."
It’s exactly that quality of the LPGA and in particular the fact that the top ten players in the world represent seven different countries with many of those being Asians--including Miyazato, Korean Shin and Chinese Taipei's Ya Ni Tseng--that appeals to a sponsor like HSBC, whose primary business focus is on developing Asia's rapidly emerging markets.
At the same time, the serious conversations about elevating an Asian tournament to Major status are unlikely to begin until the global economy has stabilized in the wake of the credit crunch, which may explain why HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan is reluctant to be drawn on the subject.
"There's no doubt golf is moving towards the East, but we're taking this approach: we're going to keep working as hard as we can, we're going to continue to try and maintain and then raise our own standards, and we're going to stay as humble as we can and let the tournament speak for itself," he says.
For the time being, another Hall of Fame member, Karrie Webb, would end the debate by creating a tier of elite tournaments to match the men's game's WGC platform and would have the Singapore event be one of those.
"I'd put Evian in there, probably the Canadian Open, this one [the HSBC Women’s Champions] and even an Arkansas, the P&G, that's a US$2 million event this year. That's when you run into the question 'How do you class the category?' You know, 'What is it?' I don't think it is about the money," the Australian veteran explains.
"There's just so much emphasis on Major or not Major. We have four Majors and we have a lot of other tournaments that are great tournaments, and I think if we could build them into some sort of category, like the WGC, so that people know the best players in the world from around the world, not just from the LPGA, will be playing in the event. Saying Asia's Major or the fifth Major or the eighth Major; I don't know why tennis and golf have four Majors, but they do and that shouldn't change. I am very 'old school' and I don't want to see five Majors or six Majors or three Majors."
Whan talks about wanting a 10 or 15-year vision, and presumably a commitment to match, before listing his general criteria for the 'Major' conversation.
"Majors are made up on certain things; they're made up on field, they're made up on how the business partner turns that thing into something more, they're made up on [the quality of the] course and the venue we play in, and they're made up in terms of the exposure we create worldwide," he says.
In the minds of many of the players, particularly the veteran stars, tradition and reputation are two other ingredients to be thrown into the mix. But as Webb points out, while Singapore has only hosted three editions for the LPGA, the sponsor has a longer-standing reputation than that.
"I think the players have loved this tournament the last two years. Well, even from when the HSBC was a match play event in the States. It has a really good feel to it; the hospitality's great, it's a high-class run event. Even since we've moved to Singapore, it just has that feel to it all the time. HSBC hasn’t missed out on how the world economy has gone--they’ve felt it too--but we're glad that they've stayed on as a sponsor and hopefully as things turn around they'll keep building the tournament up," Webb says.
Although Whan won't be drawn on any scenarios, the likelihood is that the Asian Major will fit better at the start of the year, when the players are fresh and travelling halfway around the world is far less onerous than it is for the autumn swing, which this year will add a Malaysian tournament to the events in Korea and Japan.
The spring swing would have to mature, perhaps needing the return of at least one of the Hawaii events before it to shorten the trip out, and perhaps one more Asian tournament to add to the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, with those events all growing to the point where they could sustain full fields, rather than the current 60-strong line-ups.
Yet, while the commissioner avoids the specifics, he has no reservations when it comes to that inevitability, that there will at some point in the not-too-distant future be a demand for an Asian Major.
"The world is becoming the world; not a bunch of different pieces of the world. That's business," Whan explains. "Our largest American business partners are global. Our largest Asian business partners are global. There's a reason why HSBC is based in London, has a CEO in Hong Kong and a tournament in Singapore. We reflect the business partners who come to us to put these events on. Our business is a reflection of them and vice versa. One of the reasons business partners like the LPGA [is that] we look like their business. We come from around the world, we play around the world and we have viewership around the world. We 'sync up' with what they're dealing with."
The logical development of that statement is as the business world goes global, golf goes global and the question of a Major in Asia ceases to be a possibility and simply becomes a case of "when"?
Maybe the sea change comes as the current veterans reach the natural end of their careers and are replaced by the generation of players who grew up when women's golf and the world in general was becoming more of the global village it is today.
Asked about her level of enthusiasm for such a tournament in Asia, Wie sums up that attitude.
"I'm up for anything!" she declares.
"As long as it takes me to neat places like Singapore, I'm down!"
***
TC here. Reading between the lines, I'm thinking that Whan wouldn't be displeased if HSBC or some other large global corporation were to take the LPGA Championship to Asia. The U.S. and British Opens aren't and shouldn't be moving; the KNC has a long and rich history, a fantastic site, and the backing of a major global corporation. That leaves the LPGA Championship, which was used as bait to keep Wegmans from bolting this year. Nice no-pressure non-sales pitch! And congrats to Ryan Ballengee, Nick Mulvenney, and Tim for helping him make it.
Tim Maitland
New LPGA commissioner Mike Whan chose the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore to declare that the staging of a Major in Asia is "inevitable." As Tim Maitland reports, his statement, coming within six months of Asia getting its first male Major winner and staging its first World Golf Championship event, has brought Major status for an Asian tournament a step closer.
Asia will have a Major and not just in our lifetime. The reality is, particularly as the Asian economies seem likely to gain even more ground on American and European markets that are projected to have limited growth in the near term, it'll happen long before we are reaching for our carpet slippers and writing reminders on the fridge to keep track of all our grandchildren's birthdays.
"Will there be a Major played on the women's tour somewhere in Asia 10 years down the road? I'd actually be surprised if we didn't," is how new LPGA commissioner Mike Whan puts it.
"We're not building one now and we don't have any plans in place, but it is inevitable. I think the whole 'borders' discussion is going to go away. We're going to have Majors. Those Majors are going to be held in locations. I don't think it's going to matter to people--in five or six years, in that soon a time period--where they are."
That the women's game will go down that road first would seem obvious. Simply put, they have the most to gain from doing so. Creating a Major would give them a footing almost equal to the men's game in a continent that, at the moment, is the only one promising golf sustained growth.
"The way golf is changing and the way golf is coming over to the East, I'd bet you it would probably be the LPGA before anybody to have a Major over here," states Hall of Fame member Juli Inkster, despite being a self-proclaimed traditionalist who holds the idea of there being only four Majors close to her heart.
"I just look at the make-up of our tour and I can see a major corporation picking up one of our Majors, and I wouldn't have any problems with that."
However, the stars would need to align unusually quickly for Whan's prediction to be pre-empted. Then again, most experts thought "YE" Yang Yong-Eun's 2009 PGA Championship win wouldn't have happened for at least another 10 or 20 years, and noone would have predicted when the HSBC Champions appeared for the first time in Shanghai in 2005 that its 2009 edition would have World Golf Championship status.
What is clear is, if the decision had to be made now and the choice was down to the players, most would choose the world's local bank's Singapore-based sister event, a tournament whose reputation was only enhanced when Ai Miyazato added her name to those of Shin Ji-Yai and Lorena Ochoa by winning the 2010 event.
"I think it's a testament to the different aspects of the tournament that the HSBC Women's Champions is, from the players' perspective, no doubt, Asia's Major; the competition is fierce," says top-ranked American Cristie Kerr.
"The world number one and the world number two won it year-on-year. It's definitely a testament to the course that we play on, the partnership and the overall feel of the event. You know, there's a lot of different things that go into making a tournament great and they are very hard to do and they have hit it on the head here. They have put together an amazing tournament, and when you have all of those different things come together, the players want to win the tournament. So it makes the competition that much more fierce."
Those sentiments are supported by the world's top player and 2008 winner Lorena Ochoa, who, as a rule, does not scatter praise like confetti.
"I think you can tell, we are all here, very happy and excited to be here. It’s a beautiful week, and you heard so many good comments, and we truly believe this is a great tournament. I think being the Major of Asia; that's right! We love to be here!" exclaims the Mexican.
"It seems like a Major. It seems like an Asia Major, and it definitely lives up to the reputation, and more," adds Michelle Wie.
"It was a really well-run event. It's a first-class event. It really does feel like one of the top events. HSBC has done a fantastic job. I think it's been great."
For a tournament in the East to achieve Major status a number of factors need to fall into place. Not least among them is a fundamental shift in thinking in the ranks of the traditionalists; some are likely to need some time to adjust to the idea. Whan himself admits to being resistant to the concept of adding to the LPGA's current stable of Majors, which runs from the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April to the LPGA Championship in June, and July's US Women's Open and the Ricoh Women's British Open.
"When I talk about being a traditionalist," he explains, "it's only from the point of having four Majors. I'm not a traditionalist with regards to them being in the US and Europe. I didn't get to make that choice; the fans and the players and everybody else, including our business partners, made that choice. We've long since stopped being just a US/European tour. We take this thing around the world."
It’s exactly that quality of the LPGA and in particular the fact that the top ten players in the world represent seven different countries with many of those being Asians--including Miyazato, Korean Shin and Chinese Taipei's Ya Ni Tseng--that appeals to a sponsor like HSBC, whose primary business focus is on developing Asia's rapidly emerging markets.
At the same time, the serious conversations about elevating an Asian tournament to Major status are unlikely to begin until the global economy has stabilized in the wake of the credit crunch, which may explain why HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan is reluctant to be drawn on the subject.
"There's no doubt golf is moving towards the East, but we're taking this approach: we're going to keep working as hard as we can, we're going to continue to try and maintain and then raise our own standards, and we're going to stay as humble as we can and let the tournament speak for itself," he says.
For the time being, another Hall of Fame member, Karrie Webb, would end the debate by creating a tier of elite tournaments to match the men's game's WGC platform and would have the Singapore event be one of those.
"I'd put Evian in there, probably the Canadian Open, this one [the HSBC Women’s Champions] and even an Arkansas, the P&G, that's a US$2 million event this year. That's when you run into the question 'How do you class the category?' You know, 'What is it?' I don't think it is about the money," the Australian veteran explains.
"There's just so much emphasis on Major or not Major. We have four Majors and we have a lot of other tournaments that are great tournaments, and I think if we could build them into some sort of category, like the WGC, so that people know the best players in the world from around the world, not just from the LPGA, will be playing in the event. Saying Asia's Major or the fifth Major or the eighth Major; I don't know why tennis and golf have four Majors, but they do and that shouldn't change. I am very 'old school' and I don't want to see five Majors or six Majors or three Majors."
Whan talks about wanting a 10 or 15-year vision, and presumably a commitment to match, before listing his general criteria for the 'Major' conversation.
"Majors are made up on certain things; they're made up on field, they're made up on how the business partner turns that thing into something more, they're made up on [the quality of the] course and the venue we play in, and they're made up in terms of the exposure we create worldwide," he says.
In the minds of many of the players, particularly the veteran stars, tradition and reputation are two other ingredients to be thrown into the mix. But as Webb points out, while Singapore has only hosted three editions for the LPGA, the sponsor has a longer-standing reputation than that.
"I think the players have loved this tournament the last two years. Well, even from when the HSBC was a match play event in the States. It has a really good feel to it; the hospitality's great, it's a high-class run event. Even since we've moved to Singapore, it just has that feel to it all the time. HSBC hasn’t missed out on how the world economy has gone--they’ve felt it too--but we're glad that they've stayed on as a sponsor and hopefully as things turn around they'll keep building the tournament up," Webb says.
Although Whan won't be drawn on any scenarios, the likelihood is that the Asian Major will fit better at the start of the year, when the players are fresh and travelling halfway around the world is far less onerous than it is for the autumn swing, which this year will add a Malaysian tournament to the events in Korea and Japan.
The spring swing would have to mature, perhaps needing the return of at least one of the Hawaii events before it to shorten the trip out, and perhaps one more Asian tournament to add to the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, with those events all growing to the point where they could sustain full fields, rather than the current 60-strong line-ups.
Yet, while the commissioner avoids the specifics, he has no reservations when it comes to that inevitability, that there will at some point in the not-too-distant future be a demand for an Asian Major.
"The world is becoming the world; not a bunch of different pieces of the world. That's business," Whan explains. "Our largest American business partners are global. Our largest Asian business partners are global. There's a reason why HSBC is based in London, has a CEO in Hong Kong and a tournament in Singapore. We reflect the business partners who come to us to put these events on. Our business is a reflection of them and vice versa. One of the reasons business partners like the LPGA [is that] we look like their business. We come from around the world, we play around the world and we have viewership around the world. We 'sync up' with what they're dealing with."
The logical development of that statement is as the business world goes global, golf goes global and the question of a Major in Asia ceases to be a possibility and simply becomes a case of "when"?
Maybe the sea change comes as the current veterans reach the natural end of their careers and are replaced by the generation of players who grew up when women's golf and the world in general was becoming more of the global village it is today.
Asked about her level of enthusiasm for such a tournament in Asia, Wie sums up that attitude.
"I'm up for anything!" she declares.
"As long as it takes me to neat places like Singapore, I'm down!"
***
TC here. Reading between the lines, I'm thinking that Whan wouldn't be displeased if HSBC or some other large global corporation were to take the LPGA Championship to Asia. The U.S. and British Opens aren't and shouldn't be moving; the KNC has a long and rich history, a fantastic site, and the backing of a major global corporation. That leaves the LPGA Championship, which was used as bait to keep Wegmans from bolting this year. Nice no-pressure non-sales pitch! And congrats to Ryan Ballengee, Nick Mulvenney, and Tim for helping him make it.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tim Maitland Profiles Cristie Kerr
Cristie Kerr--Misunderstood?
Tim Maitland
At a time when the psyche of America's best male golfer has been analysed and dissected more than any other human on the planet, there's an irony that the achievements of the top US women's golfer, Cristie Kerr, have to some extent been overlooked because not enough people have taken the time to understand her. Tim Maitland reports.
Walking the course during this week's HSBC Women's Champions, it was hard to find a more committed competitor out there than America's world number six-ranked Cristie Kerr, particularly when it comes to the Singapore tournament, which she regards as the top tournament on the planet outside golf's "Old World"--the USA and Europe.
Perhaps only Suzann Pettersen rivals the 32-year-old from Florida when it comes to straining every sinew and searching every synapse to perform.
With six consecutive years of earning over a million US dollars from tournaments, during which time she has never finished outside the top ten in the season-ending money list, Kerr has scratched and clawed her way into the upper echelons of the women's game.
One thing noone would accuse Kerr of is not making the most of the talent she has, but perhaps we are guilty of judging our male and female sports stars in different ways: qualities we might admire and faults we might turn a blind eye to in a man are not always seen in the same light in a woman.
Certainly noone would claim she is the most popular person among the travelling circus of the world's top women's tour.
The occasional insensitive comment and moments when the competitive fire has burned too bright are well documented, but if anyone had put a fraction of the effort that has gone into psychoanalysing Tiger into understanding what lay beneath the layers of Cristie's personality they would have realised that the spiky exterior conceals a soft core. Equally, they would know that no matter how hard she has been on the people who have come in contact with her in the past, she has been a thousand times harder on herself.
"I think I've won over a lot of the people I offended when I first came out on tour. People didn't understand I was intimidated. I didn't want to let anyone in because I was afraid," Kerr explains.
"I'm not anymore and it's easier to let people in. I can't do it 100 per cent of the time, but over time it gets easier. You don't feel threatened if they get to know who you are."
The roots of what caused Cristie to clash with her contemporaries can't be clearly understood simply by looking at her as the million-dollar-earning, high-ranking, successful sports star she is today. Almost born and raised on the TPC Blue Monster in Doral, home of the WGC-CA Championship--she has been mentored there by Jim McLean since the age of eight--a key to comprehending Kerr is to understand the greater significance of the change she made in 1999 when she shed over 25 kgs (almost 60 lbs.), changed her hair, and shed her pebble glasses.
As anyone who has been beset with negative self-image and self-esteem issues knows, such a transformation is a moment of massive significance, because for someone struggling with themselves to take care of themselves in that way takes a superhuman effort. Those sufferers would also point out that just because you have blossomed in adulthood doesn't necessarily mean you actually feel good about yourself. Those sensations are rooted deep in childhood or adolescence and take far longer to change.
"I changed the way I look and the way I did things, and I do think you have to constantly make yourself over," says Kerr, before admitting it was only four or five years later that she started a process which today allows her to answer the following questions with confidence.
Have you become more comfortable in your own skin?
"I have. I definitely have!" she states.
Are you kinder to yourself?
"For sure! One of the things is learning to forgive yourself--for bad shots and for the things you do in life--you have to forgive yourself or you'll totally torment yourself.
"I'm not afraid to talk to people now, to talk to fans, to sign autographs, not afraid to be myself. Most people go through life thinking they have to be something other than who they actually are, and I've kind of found myself in the last four or five years. My husband has had a lot to do with that. You make each other better. When you're with your soul mate, you make each other better."
That man is Erik Stevens, a sports marketer who has represented many LPGA players and corporations investing in the tour and currently handles his wife's business interests. As fast talking as you might expect when it comes to business topics, around Cristie he shows infinite patience; his gentle, measured tones hinting at how he has been the calming influence that has helped her find a measure of peace with herself.
His comment at this point is spot on too, highlighting the irony that the demands of being an elite-level professional athlete--the almost myopic dedication and focus, the attention to detail and the quest for an unachievable perfection, all of which can easily become obsessive--are all the opposites of the ingredients needed in the quest to become a well-rounded, contented human being.
"People automatically assume if you're a professional athlete and you're in the public eye, that you're a certain way," Cristie adds.
"If you're a golfer and you sign autographs... Natalie [Gulbis] is very good at it and is open to everybody and very accessible. I've had to learn over time how to be better at that, and people judge you automatically if you're not good at it. They project you to be a certain way, when maybe it's something you need to work at."
One of the platforms that has helped has been the work that Cristie has done for her Birdies for Breast Cancer charity, which she started after her mother Linda was diagnosed with the illness in 2003. Meeting and dealing with people in the "safe" environment of raising funds allowed her to slowly come out of her protective shell and start opening up to strangers.
"It's given me a chance to interact more and more over the last four or five years and be more comfortable with that," she explains.
"What happened with my mum and the breast cancer and once I started to raise money for the charity, it changes you. When you go through something like that you see the world with a different perspective. You see that it's bigger than yourself. The Buddhist way is that wanting more than yourself is the path to unhappiness, and I've just tried to make myself happy and everything else has gotten better."
Kerr’s reference to Buddhist teaching leads her to credit Dr. Joe Parent, the author of Zen Golf and mental coach to Vijay Singh, David Toms, and Juli Inkster. She says Parent has played a significant role towards her finding some inner peace, or to put it in more familiar golf parlance, to stop beating herself up all the time.
"I think I'm taking myself less seriously and I'm trying to enjoy what I do more. This is my 14th year on tour and, sure, I want to play until I'm 50, but you never know how long you're going to play. You don't know in life, and I think I've come to the point where I've said, 'You know what? I don't want to be stressed out on the golf course.' If I try and enjoy it and just control the things I can, everything will be all right and everything will take care of itself."
In the context of her personal voyage and her quest to find inner happiness, it somehow seems incongruous to dwell on any details of her golfing goals, although she readily talks about her quest to make one more step up from her current status as one of the best in the world, of her desire to convert her consistency in the Majors (she's had 16 top ten finishes and was challenging for the win in two in 2009, but so far has won only once, the 2007 US Women's Open) into more victories and her desire to get back to multiple-win seasons like she had from 2004 to 2006.
More relevant, indirectly, are her studies to become a sommelier; she's taking her level one sommelier exams in May as part of her and Erik's Curvature wine, which, needless to say, will donate all of its profits to breast cancer research (it's a cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley, if you're interested). It's relevant because the care and attention she puts into choosing a Cotes Du Rhone for a plonk guzzler and the patience she shows explaining the subtleties of the bouquet, highlighting the fruit, but also the sense of the soil the grapes were grown in, and sharing her enjoyment of the way certain foods, in this case lamb, vitalise the flavour, show a gentle side of her nature that her detractors on the tour would find hard to recognise.
"Sometimes people think you're just one way. It's like if they get burned or get a bad impression the first time, they'll never give you a second chance," she says, with a shrug of resignation on that subject.
None of this is to say that Cristie has transformed herself completely. Her voice, which softens noticeably throughout the conversation, perhaps because she senses that someone outside her immediate circle has chosen to understand how she has struggled against her inner turmoil rather than judge her on how she externalises the results, does sharpen again quite quickly when the stress levels rise and her languid sentences become more clipped. However, she is at least halfway to happiness.
"I'm very content right now. I'm enjoying life. Just trying to be simple and not wondering how things will turn out."
None of this is to say that Cristie Kerr will ever be the first to rush smiling on to the green to pour champagne over a rival who has just pipped her to the prize.
You're still going to be a street fighter and a bar brawler, aren't you?
"For sure, I'm a scrapper. I'm a mudder; a grinder. Those are all words that describe me."
And... if you have to walk over someone in the process?
"They'll walk over me if they have a chance, so absolutely!"
***
Cristie's already playing well in 2010, but her struggles with the lead in the last year or so, including last week, show she still has a ways to go when she's on the verge of actually reaching her on-course goals.
Tim Maitland
At a time when the psyche of America's best male golfer has been analysed and dissected more than any other human on the planet, there's an irony that the achievements of the top US women's golfer, Cristie Kerr, have to some extent been overlooked because not enough people have taken the time to understand her. Tim Maitland reports.
Walking the course during this week's HSBC Women's Champions, it was hard to find a more committed competitor out there than America's world number six-ranked Cristie Kerr, particularly when it comes to the Singapore tournament, which she regards as the top tournament on the planet outside golf's "Old World"--the USA and Europe.
Perhaps only Suzann Pettersen rivals the 32-year-old from Florida when it comes to straining every sinew and searching every synapse to perform.
With six consecutive years of earning over a million US dollars from tournaments, during which time she has never finished outside the top ten in the season-ending money list, Kerr has scratched and clawed her way into the upper echelons of the women's game.
One thing noone would accuse Kerr of is not making the most of the talent she has, but perhaps we are guilty of judging our male and female sports stars in different ways: qualities we might admire and faults we might turn a blind eye to in a man are not always seen in the same light in a woman.
Certainly noone would claim she is the most popular person among the travelling circus of the world's top women's tour.
The occasional insensitive comment and moments when the competitive fire has burned too bright are well documented, but if anyone had put a fraction of the effort that has gone into psychoanalysing Tiger into understanding what lay beneath the layers of Cristie's personality they would have realised that the spiky exterior conceals a soft core. Equally, they would know that no matter how hard she has been on the people who have come in contact with her in the past, she has been a thousand times harder on herself.
"I think I've won over a lot of the people I offended when I first came out on tour. People didn't understand I was intimidated. I didn't want to let anyone in because I was afraid," Kerr explains.
"I'm not anymore and it's easier to let people in. I can't do it 100 per cent of the time, but over time it gets easier. You don't feel threatened if they get to know who you are."
The roots of what caused Cristie to clash with her contemporaries can't be clearly understood simply by looking at her as the million-dollar-earning, high-ranking, successful sports star she is today. Almost born and raised on the TPC Blue Monster in Doral, home of the WGC-CA Championship--she has been mentored there by Jim McLean since the age of eight--a key to comprehending Kerr is to understand the greater significance of the change she made in 1999 when she shed over 25 kgs (almost 60 lbs.), changed her hair, and shed her pebble glasses.
As anyone who has been beset with negative self-image and self-esteem issues knows, such a transformation is a moment of massive significance, because for someone struggling with themselves to take care of themselves in that way takes a superhuman effort. Those sufferers would also point out that just because you have blossomed in adulthood doesn't necessarily mean you actually feel good about yourself. Those sensations are rooted deep in childhood or adolescence and take far longer to change.
"I changed the way I look and the way I did things, and I do think you have to constantly make yourself over," says Kerr, before admitting it was only four or five years later that she started a process which today allows her to answer the following questions with confidence.
Have you become more comfortable in your own skin?
"I have. I definitely have!" she states.
Are you kinder to yourself?
"For sure! One of the things is learning to forgive yourself--for bad shots and for the things you do in life--you have to forgive yourself or you'll totally torment yourself.
"I'm not afraid to talk to people now, to talk to fans, to sign autographs, not afraid to be myself. Most people go through life thinking they have to be something other than who they actually are, and I've kind of found myself in the last four or five years. My husband has had a lot to do with that. You make each other better. When you're with your soul mate, you make each other better."
That man is Erik Stevens, a sports marketer who has represented many LPGA players and corporations investing in the tour and currently handles his wife's business interests. As fast talking as you might expect when it comes to business topics, around Cristie he shows infinite patience; his gentle, measured tones hinting at how he has been the calming influence that has helped her find a measure of peace with herself.
His comment at this point is spot on too, highlighting the irony that the demands of being an elite-level professional athlete--the almost myopic dedication and focus, the attention to detail and the quest for an unachievable perfection, all of which can easily become obsessive--are all the opposites of the ingredients needed in the quest to become a well-rounded, contented human being.
"People automatically assume if you're a professional athlete and you're in the public eye, that you're a certain way," Cristie adds.
"If you're a golfer and you sign autographs... Natalie [Gulbis] is very good at it and is open to everybody and very accessible. I've had to learn over time how to be better at that, and people judge you automatically if you're not good at it. They project you to be a certain way, when maybe it's something you need to work at."
One of the platforms that has helped has been the work that Cristie has done for her Birdies for Breast Cancer charity, which she started after her mother Linda was diagnosed with the illness in 2003. Meeting and dealing with people in the "safe" environment of raising funds allowed her to slowly come out of her protective shell and start opening up to strangers.
"It's given me a chance to interact more and more over the last four or five years and be more comfortable with that," she explains.
"What happened with my mum and the breast cancer and once I started to raise money for the charity, it changes you. When you go through something like that you see the world with a different perspective. You see that it's bigger than yourself. The Buddhist way is that wanting more than yourself is the path to unhappiness, and I've just tried to make myself happy and everything else has gotten better."
Kerr’s reference to Buddhist teaching leads her to credit Dr. Joe Parent, the author of Zen Golf and mental coach to Vijay Singh, David Toms, and Juli Inkster. She says Parent has played a significant role towards her finding some inner peace, or to put it in more familiar golf parlance, to stop beating herself up all the time.
"I think I'm taking myself less seriously and I'm trying to enjoy what I do more. This is my 14th year on tour and, sure, I want to play until I'm 50, but you never know how long you're going to play. You don't know in life, and I think I've come to the point where I've said, 'You know what? I don't want to be stressed out on the golf course.' If I try and enjoy it and just control the things I can, everything will be all right and everything will take care of itself."
In the context of her personal voyage and her quest to find inner happiness, it somehow seems incongruous to dwell on any details of her golfing goals, although she readily talks about her quest to make one more step up from her current status as one of the best in the world, of her desire to convert her consistency in the Majors (she's had 16 top ten finishes and was challenging for the win in two in 2009, but so far has won only once, the 2007 US Women's Open) into more victories and her desire to get back to multiple-win seasons like she had from 2004 to 2006.
More relevant, indirectly, are her studies to become a sommelier; she's taking her level one sommelier exams in May as part of her and Erik's Curvature wine, which, needless to say, will donate all of its profits to breast cancer research (it's a cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley, if you're interested). It's relevant because the care and attention she puts into choosing a Cotes Du Rhone for a plonk guzzler and the patience she shows explaining the subtleties of the bouquet, highlighting the fruit, but also the sense of the soil the grapes were grown in, and sharing her enjoyment of the way certain foods, in this case lamb, vitalise the flavour, show a gentle side of her nature that her detractors on the tour would find hard to recognise.
"Sometimes people think you're just one way. It's like if they get burned or get a bad impression the first time, they'll never give you a second chance," she says, with a shrug of resignation on that subject.
None of this is to say that Cristie has transformed herself completely. Her voice, which softens noticeably throughout the conversation, perhaps because she senses that someone outside her immediate circle has chosen to understand how she has struggled against her inner turmoil rather than judge her on how she externalises the results, does sharpen again quite quickly when the stress levels rise and her languid sentences become more clipped. However, she is at least halfway to happiness.
"I'm very content right now. I'm enjoying life. Just trying to be simple and not wondering how things will turn out."
None of this is to say that Cristie Kerr will ever be the first to rush smiling on to the green to pour champagne over a rival who has just pipped her to the prize.
You're still going to be a street fighter and a bar brawler, aren't you?
"For sure, I'm a scrapper. I'm a mudder; a grinder. Those are all words that describe me."
And... if you have to walk over someone in the process?
"They'll walk over me if they have a chance, so absolutely!"
***
Cristie's already playing well in 2010, but her struggles with the lead in the last year or so, including last week, show she still has a ways to go when she's on the verge of actually reaching her on-course goals.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tim Maitland Profiles Ya Ni Tseng
Ya Ni Tseng: The Birdie Machine Switches into Lower Gear
Tim Maitland
Asian sensation Yani Tseng has set herself an unusual target for the 2010 LPGA season. The 2008 Rookie of the Year and Major winner and fastest player ever to reach US$2 million in prize money wants to stop trying.
Or at least stop trying so hard.
"This year I don't have any expectations. I just really want to enjoy it; really enjoy it. It's really easy to say, but hard to do. But my goal this year is just to really enjoy it. I want to relax and just go and have fun. Relaxed is when I play my best golf. When I'm focused and thinking 'be careful of this be careful of that' I can’t play good," says Tseng, who enters the new campaign with the demeanour of someone who is putting her thoughts into action, particularly when it comes to thoughts of next week’s HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore, the place she calls her second home.
"My friends have been sending me messages every day saying, 'I'm so happy you're coming to Singapore,' and I'm happy too. It's a really good course. You're probably going to hit all 14 clubs on that course. And you have to shape the ball. It's not just a straight golf course. You need to stay in focus because if you miss one shot in can get you big time," Ya Ni adds before pausing to consider the fact that each of the previous HSBC Women's Champions winners--Lorena Ochoa and Ji-Yai Shin--have gone on to be dominant players for the rest of the season.
"Then I would love to win in Singapore!" she says, with a characteristic roar of laughter.
"I'm going to win in Singapore!"
The smiles and laughs, the hugs she exchanges with almost every player she encounters at this week’s Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, give no indication that last year Ya Ni faced what she now admits was the first crisis of her golf career.
On face value the 21-year-old from Chinese Taipei did more than enough in 2009 to back up her incredible debut season, which included making her first win a Major at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and winning the 2008 Rookie of the Year award. Her sophomore campaign saw her once again lead the tour in birdies, finish in the top ten of two-thirds of the LPGA's key statistics, record more top 10s than the previous season (14 compared to 10), and win again at the LPGA Corning Classic.
Although she slipped from number two in the world to number five and finished seventh on the money list compared to third 12 months earlier, this was no sophomore slump. But it did catch up with the "Birdie Machine" when a missed cut at the US Women's Open sparked a run of five tournaments where she finished no higher than 20th.
"It's the first time in my life I've felt that golf was really challenging me," Tseng admits candidly.
"Those two months, every tournament I was crying. My tears probably dried out I was crying so hard. I was putting so much pressure on myself. After that, I just wanted to let it go. I didn't care if I dropped to world number 20, I didn't want to care about my status and my rankings. You don't want to care, but you do.
"The tears were frustration. I felt I was working hard, I should be at this point," she said raising her hand high.
"And I was still playing bad. I was crying so hard because I think I was putting too much pressure on myself. It was all my pressure."
The key to getting out of her funk was a chat with world number one Lorena Ochoa, which encouraged her to communicate more clearly with her family and friends about her needs, and three phone conversations with Texas-based sports psychologist Dr. Deborah Graham.
"At that time, when my swing was good, my mental[ity] was off. When my mental[ity] was good, my swing was off. They wouldn't match. I was thinking too much about the results. She just told me don't think about the result. She told me to mark the number of shots where I committed to hit the shot. So now I'm focusing on committing to hit the shot, not focusing on the result. It works pretty good. Now I have an idea of how not to think about the result." Yani explains.
"I started thinking, every time I missed a putt, how many more chances will you have to make that putt in the future? Probably a thousand million! So, if you don't make it today, you'll make it tomorrow, and if you don't make it tomorrow, you'll make it at the next tournament, and if you don't make it this year, you'll make it next year."
Despite such trying times, Tseng regards her time of torture with a fondness, a trial she underwent and a test she passed. In a nutshell, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
"Now I look back, I think it was a really good thing. If I didn't go through those two months I wouldn't have learned that much. The last five tournaments I was top ten. But those two months, I learned a lot of things and it was a good experience. If you never go down, you won’t go up!
"I was just trying too hard; trying too hard to be perfect. But you don't have to try so hard, just do your job," she says with a grin.
***
Nice to see Ya Ni extend her top-10 streak to 6 events, going back to last season, with her T3 in Thailand last week! It looked like she had a lot of fun playing with her friend Momoko Ueda in the final round.
Tim Maitland
Asian sensation Yani Tseng has set herself an unusual target for the 2010 LPGA season. The 2008 Rookie of the Year and Major winner and fastest player ever to reach US$2 million in prize money wants to stop trying.
Or at least stop trying so hard.
"This year I don't have any expectations. I just really want to enjoy it; really enjoy it. It's really easy to say, but hard to do. But my goal this year is just to really enjoy it. I want to relax and just go and have fun. Relaxed is when I play my best golf. When I'm focused and thinking 'be careful of this be careful of that' I can’t play good," says Tseng, who enters the new campaign with the demeanour of someone who is putting her thoughts into action, particularly when it comes to thoughts of next week’s HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore, the place she calls her second home.
"My friends have been sending me messages every day saying, 'I'm so happy you're coming to Singapore,' and I'm happy too. It's a really good course. You're probably going to hit all 14 clubs on that course. And you have to shape the ball. It's not just a straight golf course. You need to stay in focus because if you miss one shot in can get you big time," Ya Ni adds before pausing to consider the fact that each of the previous HSBC Women's Champions winners--Lorena Ochoa and Ji-Yai Shin--have gone on to be dominant players for the rest of the season.
"Then I would love to win in Singapore!" she says, with a characteristic roar of laughter.
"I'm going to win in Singapore!"
The smiles and laughs, the hugs she exchanges with almost every player she encounters at this week’s Honda PTT LPGA Thailand, give no indication that last year Ya Ni faced what she now admits was the first crisis of her golf career.
On face value the 21-year-old from Chinese Taipei did more than enough in 2009 to back up her incredible debut season, which included making her first win a Major at the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and winning the 2008 Rookie of the Year award. Her sophomore campaign saw her once again lead the tour in birdies, finish in the top ten of two-thirds of the LPGA's key statistics, record more top 10s than the previous season (14 compared to 10), and win again at the LPGA Corning Classic.
Although she slipped from number two in the world to number five and finished seventh on the money list compared to third 12 months earlier, this was no sophomore slump. But it did catch up with the "Birdie Machine" when a missed cut at the US Women's Open sparked a run of five tournaments where she finished no higher than 20th.
"It's the first time in my life I've felt that golf was really challenging me," Tseng admits candidly.
"Those two months, every tournament I was crying. My tears probably dried out I was crying so hard. I was putting so much pressure on myself. After that, I just wanted to let it go. I didn't care if I dropped to world number 20, I didn't want to care about my status and my rankings. You don't want to care, but you do.
"The tears were frustration. I felt I was working hard, I should be at this point," she said raising her hand high.
"And I was still playing bad. I was crying so hard because I think I was putting too much pressure on myself. It was all my pressure."
The key to getting out of her funk was a chat with world number one Lorena Ochoa, which encouraged her to communicate more clearly with her family and friends about her needs, and three phone conversations with Texas-based sports psychologist Dr. Deborah Graham.
"At that time, when my swing was good, my mental[ity] was off. When my mental[ity] was good, my swing was off. They wouldn't match. I was thinking too much about the results. She just told me don't think about the result. She told me to mark the number of shots where I committed to hit the shot. So now I'm focusing on committing to hit the shot, not focusing on the result. It works pretty good. Now I have an idea of how not to think about the result." Yani explains.
"I started thinking, every time I missed a putt, how many more chances will you have to make that putt in the future? Probably a thousand million! So, if you don't make it today, you'll make it tomorrow, and if you don't make it tomorrow, you'll make it at the next tournament, and if you don't make it this year, you'll make it next year."
Despite such trying times, Tseng regards her time of torture with a fondness, a trial she underwent and a test she passed. In a nutshell, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
"Now I look back, I think it was a really good thing. If I didn't go through those two months I wouldn't have learned that much. The last five tournaments I was top ten. But those two months, I learned a lot of things and it was a good experience. If you never go down, you won’t go up!
"I was just trying too hard; trying too hard to be perfect. But you don't have to try so hard, just do your job," she says with a grin.
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Nice to see Ya Ni extend her top-10 streak to 6 events, going back to last season, with her T3 in Thailand last week! It looked like she had a lot of fun playing with her friend Momoko Ueda in the final round.
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