Ariya hopes to break her barren spell in Shanghai
SHANGHAI: Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn is hoping to go one place farther than last year’s result at this week’s Buick LPGA Shanghai.
The US$2.1 million tournament, co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and the China LPGA Tour, tees off today at Qizhong Garden Golf Club.
It is the first of four consecutive LPGA Tour events across Asia.
Ariya, 23, finished tied for second behind champion Danielle Kang in Shanghai last year.
The 10-time LPGA champion won three tournaments last season, including the US Women’s Open.
But she has had an unconvincing spell and is still looking for her first win of the season.
The former world No.1, who has dropped to No.10, will play in the first two rounds alongside Canada’s Brooke Henderson and Jing Yan of China.
Fuelled by home cooking and the company of friends and family, a happy and content Feng Shanshan is back on home turf this week looking to delight her legion of fans with a win.
In 2015 and 2016, Feng won backto-back tournaments at the Dana Frydesigned course when the CLPGA Tour co-sanctioned the event with the Ladies European Tour.
Feng said she was looking to produce something special this week.
“This Qizhong Garden course is a fantastic golf course. It does play a little differently compared to two years ago because it was a [Ladies] European Tour event and played a little bit shorter,” said Guangzhou native Feng, a winner of 23 tournaments worldwide since 2007.
“Starting last year it became a little longer course so it’s maybe a little challenging for short hitters. This year the weather’s nice. There’s not much rough and the greens are softer, so I am expecting a lot of low scores.”
The 30-year-old added: “I’m looking forward to the food. I miss Chinese food so badly because if you talk about Chinese food in the US you only talk about a few dishes. It’s totally different than China. Here we have so many choices. I just love Chinese food and every time I’m home it’s like ‘yes.’ I have three meals a day so I have 21 meals to decide what to eat.”