Late yesterday night Beijing time, the latest Edition of the Rolex Women's World Rankings was announced as scheduled, and the ranking of Chinese golfers has undergone major changes - relying on the LPGA Thailand runner-up, Lin Xiyu jumped to 34th place, surpassing Feng Shanshan, who is 38th, and ascended to the throne of China's number one women's player!
This is the first time since November 3, 2008, after 13 years and 4 months, a full 697 weeks, 4879 days, that Feng Shanshan has relinquished the first place in China. It is also the 7th time since the establishment of the women's world ranking system that the number one golfer in Chinese mainland has changed for only 7 times - Lin Xiyu has thus become the 7th golf "Chinese sister" in history after Yang Hongmei, Zhong Xiaolong, Wang Chun, Zhang Na, Shang Linyan and Feng Shanshan!
The surprising coincidence is that just a week ago, the Chinese mainland men's first position had just changed - Wu Ashun relied on the Kenya Open to surpass Yuan Yechun and ascend to the top of China's first throne - "one brother" and "one sister" changed hands in just 7 days, setting a groundbreaking first in the history of Chinese golf.
A brief history of a chinese sister
On February 21, 2006, when the women's world ranking system was officially launched, there was only one Chinese mainland female player with points in the entire ranking - Yang Hongmei. The 425th Sichuan girl also became the first "Chinese first sister". And with Yang Hongmei getting married and having children that year, the weight of points decreased week by week, and the women's world ranking did not appear five-star red flag for more than two months... It was not until September that Beijing player Zhong Xiaolong played a good result in the CLPGA's predecessor, the Oriental Celebrity International Women's Professional Championship, that the name of the Chinese mainland golfer appeared again in the world rankings, and thus became the second Chinese "first sister" in history.
Yang Hongmei and Zhong Xiaolong were the first two Chinese players in the world rankings
At the end of November 2006, the first China Women's Open became the stage for the first collective outbreak of China's Jinhua, Wang Chun, Feng Shanshan and Zhang Na, who were still amateurs at the time, relied on the 9th, 11th and 17th places to gain world points, respectively, and Wang Chun from Beijing also rose to the top of the "Chinese First Sister" and sat in this position for 15 weeks. In early 2007, another Beijing adept Zhang Na and Shanghai girl Shang Linyan briefly took to the backseat of China's first place. But as Zhang Na landed on the Women's Day Tour that spring and created a shocking whirlwind of sweeping 4 crowns in a single season, not only far away from all compatriots, but also became the first world-class star from Chinese mainland, the highest world ranking even came to the highest position of 15th, and the title of "Chinese First Sister" is naturally even more important.
The four-time champion of the Japanese Tour, Zhang Na, once reached the highest ranking in the world at 19th
However, with the entry of Feng Shanshan, who turned professional, into the LPGA arena in 2008, Guangzhou girls began to rise. Her world ranking gradually approached Zhang Na, until the end of November, hainan'Chinese mainland s first LPGA event , the Grand China Airlines LPGA , 19-year-old Feng Shanshan relied on her outstanding performance of tied for 6th place, surpassing Zhang Na's 82-week reign and ascending to the first throne in China, and everything after that, needless to say - Grand Slam champions, 10 LPGA trophies, 7 wins on the Japanese Tour, European Tour prize king, Olympic bronze medal... From "One Sister of China" to "One Sister of the World", for more than ten years, the "National Treasure Shan" dynasty has stood in front of the world.
"Her time" of them
697 weeks ago, when Feng Shanshan was not the first in China last time, do you remember what the world was like?
At that time, Beijing had just hosted the Olympic Games (only the summer version), Obama had just been elected president of the United States for the first time, Apple's mobile phone only launched the second generation (iPhone 3G), and the box office champions in the cinema were "Do Not Disturb", "Chibi (Part 1)" and "Kung Fu Panda 1"...
In 2008, when Feng Shanshan reached the top of the first sister, Lin Xiyu was still a youth player
At that time, Lin Xiyu was only 12 years old, and she was still a small golfer who played the junior women's group C game. Three years later, in 2011, she turned professional, and after winning three games in the women's central tour, she passed the qualifying exam on her expedition to the United States, and from 2014, she became the second Chinese mainland Jinhua to play in the LPGA after Feng Shanshan.
In fact, as early as September 2013, Lin Xiyu had risen to the second place in the world ranking Chinese mainland. But at that time, Feng Shanshan was like a day in the sky, not only Lin Xiyu, Zhang Na (2008-2009), Ye Liying (2008-2013), Lu Wanyao (2014-2018), Liu Yu (2018-2021) had all come to China's second "list eye" position, but they could never go one step further and shake the hegemony of the "Shanshan Dynasty".
Ye Liying and Feng Shanshan
The closest of them was Ye Liying. In mid-January 2010, relying on the good performance of the women's Day Tour newcomers who won the runner-up in the season, the Xiamen girl rushed to the top 100 in the world when Feng Shanshan had not yet won the championship in the LPGA and the Japanese Tour, and once narrowed the ranking gap between Feng Shanshan and Feng Shanshan to only 1 place! Helplessly lacking in stamina, Ye Liying, who finally had the title of Japanese Tour champion in her career and reached 78th place in the world ranking, could only be close to the title of "China's First Sister".
Confined to the epidemic, Feng Shanshan did not play in the whole year of 2020, which made "post-95" Liu Yu rise in a timely manner, setting a new high in the world ranking of 31st in June of that year, and once rushed to a position only 7 seats away from Feng Shanshan. Unfortunately, the Beijing girl also lacked follow-up, not only failed to go further, but was counterattacked by Lin Xiyu in the "second sister" ranking in 2021, and missed the precious tokyo Olympic qualification.
Liu Yu, Feng Shanshan and Lin Xiyu have long ranked among the top three in China
In the end, it was Lin Xiyu who was the most resilient. Under the aura of Feng Shanshan's brilliant achievements, Lin Xiyu was once regarded as the "long-term female No. 2" of the Jinhua Army, once in the second position in China, "five in and five out", at the end of 2018, her world ranking slipped out of the top 300, once fell to the 6th place of the Chinese mainland... However, relying on the 2019 China Women's Open to break the championship drought, Lin Xiyu ushered in a strong rebound like a phoenix nirvana. In particular, in the last 12 months, she has reached the top 15 in 11 of 17 matches, not only partnering feng Shanshan again to compete in the Olympic Games, but also winning two gold medals in the National Games.
In Pattaya, Thailand last week, Lin Xiyu, who felt hot in the hand, slashed 28 birds in four rounds, but the hole was defeated by the opponent of the magic eagle. However, a single runner-up set the best record of her eight-year career in LPGA, and the world ranking also surpassed the original highest 43rd place (March 2016), setting a personal peak of 34th place, and becoming the fourth female player in history to rank among the top 40 Chinese mainland in the world after Zhang Na, Feng Shanshan and Liu Yu.
More importantly, she finally surpassed her idol Feng Shanshan and won the 7th Chinese first sister. The "National Treasure Shan" dynasty of 697 weeks seems to have found the shadow of the "successor of the Queen of Heaven" in this 7-year-old guangzhou beauty compatriot.
Does the first sister still need to be corrected?
"First" is an honor and a pressure.
On the one hand, although it is the result of Lin Xiyu's struggle and breakthrough; on the other hand, we cannot ignore the reality that Feng Shanshan has not participated in an international event in the past 9 months since last year's Olympic Games.
World ranking is a game of no advance or retreat, in the context of "National Treasure Shan" gradually fading out of the professional arena, Lin Xiyu is bound to maintain the first position in China for a long time, but at the same time, the responsibility and burden shouldered by "One Sister" will also follow.
So far, the 10 LPGA championships won by Chinese mainland players have been won by Feng Shanshan alone. This means that the "LPGA China Champion Second Man" has become the common target of all the remaining Jinhua. Especially in 2022, as many as 7-8 Chinese mainland women will be eligible to challenge the LPGA arena under the background of the "golden age", Lin Xiyu, who has now been promoted to the "number one seed", will undoubtedly bear the brunt of the first victory of the PGA Tour, and the pressure on and off the field will surely increase day by day.
Today's 34th world ranking seems to mean that the "world's top 30" will become Lin Xiyu's next goal. So far, only Zhang Na and Feng Shanshan have joined the Chinese mainland, and both have gone one step further and planted the five-star red flag on the stage of the world's top 20. The successful past of the two former "first sisters" must be Lin Xiyu's next challenge.
Lin Xiyu is experiencing a breakthrough year in her career
Only when you climb to the top of the first position can you taste the taste and motivation of being a "ball queen". As the number one female golfer in the world's most populous country, Lin Xiyu's golf life has just opened a new page.
(The information quoted in this article is based on the official data of the Women's World Rankings.)
If there are any omissions and inaccuracies, please correct them)
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