HSBC Women’s Champions Preview and TV Schedule
With rising young Tour players Minjee Lee and Jing Yang and Singaporean qualifier winner Koh Sock Hwee joining the limited field of the Tour’s finest players, the HSBC Women’s Champions is a tournament just waiting to explode with action. All top-ten ranked golfers in the world, 19 of the top 20, and 37 of the world’s top 50 players on this week’s Rolex Rankings are teeing it up. All together, the field boasts over 200 LPGA Tour victories and a further 36 major wins. Outside the Majors — and the players refer to this week as Asia’s Major — this is going to be women’s golf at its best!
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A Look at the Rookies
The 18-year-old Lee turned professional last September after leading the Australian team to victory at the Amateur Team Championship in Japan. She made her professional debut at the 2014 Evian Championship and finished in a highly respectable tie for 16th place. Her amateur career includes back-to-back victories in the 2013 and 2014 Australian Women’s Amateur Championship, becoming the No. 1 ranked amateur golfer following her win at the 2014 Oates Victorian Open and the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior title.
I’m obviously familiar with the course and the environment which will hopefully help. I will just be looking to post a good result and reward HSBC’s faith in me. – Jing Yang
Fellow LPGA Tour Rookie Yan, who hails from Shanghai but lived in Singapore from the age of four, is the most notable graduate of Singapore’s HSBC Youth Golfers’ Excellence Programme. She recorded a unique double in 2013, winning the Girls’ British Open Amateur and Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship, as well as clinching a third place finish in the 2013 China Suzhou Taihu Open and a tie for eighth in the 2013 Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.
Playing in a host of professional tournaments last year, Yan was the leading amateur and finished tied for 20th place at the 2014 Evian Championship. Qualifying for the LPGA Tour on her first attempt, Yan became the first Singapore resident to gain LPGA Tour status.
This pair of rookies is on my radar for the Women’s Champions.
The Big 10
Competing alongside Lee and Yan for the title of ‘Champion of Champions’ are defending champion Paula Creamer and the world’s top ten players including the newly crowned World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who’s looking for her 3rd straight win this week, Inbee Park (2), Stacy Lewis (3), Shanshan Feng (4), Suzann Pettersen (5), Michelle Wie (6), So Yeon Ryu (7), Hyo-Joo Kim (8), Karrie Webb (9) and Amy Yang (10).
It’s definitely a big goal of mine to get on the US team – Michelle Wie, Olympic Ambassador
Even though they’re coming into the Women’s Champions fully committed to the immediate victory, every one of these stars is also thinking about 2016 and Rio. Many of them have been actively involved in returning golf to the
. Wie, in particular, has been especially passionate in lobbying for the Olympic cause and is keenly aware of the level of sustained excellence that’s going to be required to achieve that “big goal.”
The Sentosa Golf Club
Singapore’s Sentosa Golf Club, which also hosts the Barclay’s Singapore Open, is the ideal setting to host the Tour’s “Asian Major.” Officially opened in 1974, on the heels of Singapore’s independence, the club was for some time accessible only by ferry. In 1982, in response to golf’s growing popularity, the club added the Serapong Course, where the Women’s Champions will be contested.
With abundant water hazards — two mammoth lakes with stone-lined walls — and some nasty bunkers as well as large, fast greens and an undulating terrain, the 6600-yard, par 72 Serapong provides a championship setting for this contest of champions.
Media Coverage
Keeping in mind that Singapore is approximately 12 hours ahead of the continental US on the international clock, Golf Channel will provide daily delayed coverage of all 4 rounds of the HSBC Women’s Champions:
Wednesday, March 4: 11pm-3am
Friday, March 7 & Saturday, March 7: 4:30-7:30am
Sunday, March 8: 5-7:30am
Check your local listings and monitor the LPGA web site for re-airing notifications for all rounds. You can follow real time scores on the LPGA electronic leaderboard and I’ll notify you via Twitter (@bethbethel) when I publish updates and commentary.