Compatriots inspired by feat of Chinese Major winner Yin Ruoning
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Yin Ruoning was the second female Chinese golfer to win a Major at the Women’s PGA Championship.
PHOTO: USA TODAY SPORTS
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SINGAPORE – It was just three years ago that Sun Jiaze was competing alongside Yin Ruoning on the China Ladies Professional Golf Association (CLPGA) Tour, where the latter offered a glimpse of her potential with three straight victories to begin her professional career.
A fortnight ago, the 20-year-old Yin become just the second female Chinese golfer to win a Major – the Women’s PGA Championship – at Baltusrol Golf Club, a feat which not only has a significant impact on the growth of the sport in her country but also signalled the growing clout of Chinese golf.
An inspired Sun, who grew up with Yin and counts her as a close friend, said: “Her achievement on the global stage has spurred me on and has given me a lot of encouragement in my golfing career.”
“The younger generation will definitely be spurred on to stand on the world stage with a higher level of competition,” she added during a press conference ahead of the inaugural Singapore Ladies Masters “Ruoning and others (like Feng Shanshan) have really set a good example to the young generation and more and more young children, young kids, have picked up golf because of them.”
The US$100,000 (S$135,000) tournament is the first CLPGA Tour event to be held in Singapore. The 54-hole strokeplay event will take place at the Laguna National Golf Resort Club from Thursday.
World No. 5 Yin, who also won the LPGA’s LA Open in April, is one of two Chinese golfers in the top 10 of the world rankings. Lin Xiyu is ranked ninth, while there are four others in the top 200 – Liu Yu (No. 128), Haruka Morita (No. 172), Shi Yuting (No. 184) and Liu Yan (No. 186).
Over a decade ago, just after former world No. 1 Feng made history as the first Chinese female golfer to capture a Major title at the 2012 Women’s PGA Championship, there were only two Chinese in the top 200 of the world rankings.
The progress that Chinese golfers have made can be attributed to a variety of reasons, one being the focus on building the sport from the grassroots to the professional level. Li Hong, the CLPGA Tour’s executive director, said the China Golf Association will organise 1,100 junior tournaments in 2023 and about 100,000 juniors are competing regularly in China.
On top of the CLPGA Tour, which has 16 events this season, the organisation has also started the CLPGAQ, a series of tournaments open to female professionals, as well as female and male amateurs.
In 2023, the CLPGAQ has 38 events, with tournaments in different districts every month. Those who finish in the top 10 get prize money of not more than US$1,000.
(From left) China’s Sun Jiaze, Thailand’s Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong and Singaporeans Shannon Tan and Amanda Tan are among the players competing in the Singapore Ladies Masters.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Also relishing the chance to come up against the CLPGA players are Amanda Tan and Shannon Tan, who are among seven Singaporeans in the field of 129 golfers at the tournament.
Amanda, 24, a winner on the CLPGA Tour in 2017 and the first Singaporean to play on the LPGA Epson Tour, said: “It’s fantastic that it’s in Singapore, it’s going to be good for Singapore golf and obviously the up-and-coming players.
“I see a lot of new faces, new players. As compared to when I first started, the competition is as good as it was or even better so there will probably be a lot of good golf out there and I’d expect to see some really good scores out there as well. It’s going to be a really exciting week.”
