Defending a title refers to winning two consecutive championships in a competition. This is what we call "winning consecutive championships", or "double consecutive championships". In the field of sports, winning the championship has been very difficult, and being able to win the championship for two consecutive years is a dominant performance of superior strength + stable output.
So, when we talk about the Volvo China Open, Chinese mainland the history of the oldest golf national open, how many defending champions have been produced in the past 26 years?
The answer is staggering – 0!
Yes, no one has ever been able to win two consecutive titles at the Volvo China Open.
Looking at other famous "national opens" in the golf world, successfully defending the title is difficult to go to the sky, but it is not an "impossible achievement". For example, the world's oldest British Open, in its 149th history, has produced 22 defending champions. The most recent example is 2007-08, when Patrick Harrington lifted the wine jug twice in a row, and just before him, Tiger Woods also successfully defended the title in 2005-2006.
The same Grand Slam-level US Open, in the history of 121 years, although only 6 champions have successfully defended their titles, the average probability of "once in 20 years" is relatively "much simpler" than the Volvo China Open. Moreover, just three years ago, the US Open just witnessed Brooks Koepka winning two consecutive championships in 2017-2018!
Around us, it's no surprise that successful champions at the National Open are no different. The 82nd japan open has produced seven defending champions, one in less than 12 years. In the 63rd edition of the Korean Open, the two consecutive championships have appeared as many as 12 times, and almost every 5.25 years, one person has successfully "Lianzhuang"!
So why has the Volvo China Open been held for 26 years, but no one has ever successfully defended the title? In other words, why is it so difficult to win two volvo China Opens in a row?
Let's first review the performance of previous champions in the defending volvo China Open next year:
As we can see, the Volvo China Open is not without a chance of successfully defending its title. The closest example occurred in 2012: Belgian cannon gunner Nicolas Kauzitz, who was shouldering the burden of defending his title, did his best in Tianjin Binhai Lake, delivering all six-figure -18 totals in four rounds, and still beating the rock-solid South African good Brandon Grace with a difference of 3 strokes, ranking second!
2011 champion Nicholas Kauzitz
However, Kauzitz lost 3 strokes after all, and if you look at the total number of strokes, the closest you can get to breaking the "defending curse" is actually Alexander Levy in 2015. The Frenchman who won the cup in the middle of Shenzhen the previous year moved to Shanghai Tomson, and his performance was equally steady, entering the final round with a tie-leading posture! However, on that unforgettable Sunday in Shanghai, Levi lost 3 shots in the first nine holes, only played a +1 73, lost to Wu Ashun, who handed over a red letter of 71, and finally tied for third with a difference of 2 strokes, declaring the defending title lost, only to watch Chinese lift the Volvo China Open championship trophy for the first time in 11 years.
2014 champion Alexander Levy
Looking at the past 25 defending champions, 5 of them did not participate in the volvo China Open the following year, and the possibility of two consecutive championships is naturally impossible to talk about. There are different reasons, such as Miko Korhonin in 2020, who had to give up his eligibility because the event was affected by the epidemic. There was also Jeff Miha Singh in 2007, when the Indians' main battlefield had shifted from the European Tour to the PGA Tour, and just a week before the Volvo China Open, the 35-year-old veteran, who did not want to shuttle between the two continents, had to give up the defending trip of Shanghai Xubao two days before the start of the tournament.
Winning the championship for two consecutive years is a difficult thing, not to mention that in history, the Volvo China Open has changed the venue 13 times, Chinese mainland vast, from Beijing to Shanghai, from Suzhou to Chengdu, from Tianjin to Shenzhen, the setting, layout, and even grass species of each course have very different differences... It's a huge test for every champion who comes to defend their title. Moreover, this does not take into account whether the players themselves can maintain the peak of their 12-month form, whether there are differences in the intensity of the player lineup in each year of the game - this may also explain why there are 4 champions in history, including Grand Slam champions such as Liang Rongyin, who have not even crossed the weekend promotion line at the Volvo China Open the following year, and the defending title is even more impossible to talk about...
However, from the perspective of historical development, the more things that have not yet happened, the more likely it is to usher in a "breakthrough of 0"! Today, the historical responsibility of breaking the "two consecutive championships curse" of the Volvo China Open has fallen on the 2020 champion Zhang Huilin.
Defending champion Zhang Huilin
Looking back exactly 12 months ago, Zhang Huilin swallowed the air at the Shenzhen Zhengzhong Stadium and won the fifth Volvo China Open championship trophy in the history of Chinese players with a big 9-stroke victory. Today, the Hunan star is in the 32-year-old when he is playing, and the course is still his familiar home, Shenzhen Zhengzhong Golf Club, which seems to have laid a historical opportunity for Zhang Huilin to win the championship again.
Of course, compared with last year, the level of players in this year's Volvo China Open has increased unabated. Two-time European Tour champion Li Haotong competed for the first time in two years; supernova stars such as Ding Wenyi, Chen Guxin, and Ye Wocheng have grown into Champions of the Central Tour; and Mesozoic players such as Hei Junyi and Liu Yanwei have broken through the championship drought in 2021... In contrast, Zhang Huilin's best result in this year's professional competition is only tied for 3rd place. However, the national games led the Shaanxi team to win the team gold medal, and the strong rebound of 7 birds and 66 strokes in the final round of the Hengdian Classic of the Central Tour last month , the last professional match before the Volvo China Open , still let the world see Zhang Huilin's strength as a national Open champion.
"Playing at home is as comfortable as playing at home,"Speaking of the upcoming defending career, Zhang Huilin maintained a normal heart, "Your heart is looking forward to fighting for the championship, but you must maintain a peaceful attitude during the game." Champions are unattainable, and the more you want to get them, the more you don't get them, and this year I have to hold this mentality. ”
Since its inception in 1995, can the Volvo China Open welcome the first successful defender? Let's wait and see!
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