During the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air Conditioning Championship, the CLPGA Women's Central Tour organized a "She Power" 2021 China Women's Heritage Forum Inheritance Forum. Ai Ke, executive publisher and editor-in-chief of "Golf Master", presided over by Li Hong, member of the China Golf Association and managing director of the women's Central Tour, Ye Liying, the champion of the women's Daily Tour, and Feng Shanshan, former world number one and Olympic star, sat together to review history and discuss the future development of Women's Golf in China.
"When I went abroad in 2004, there were not many Chinese players on the world stage. It is the participation of us Chinese professional players that makes the five-star red flag rise on the field, which I think is particularly meaningful at that time", 17 years ago, Ye Liying and Yang Hongmei and other outstanding Chinese professional players came to the United States to compete, taking a solid first step. When she turned professional in 2001, there were not many games to play in China, and her participation in the Women's Open in 2004 was only her seventh match. Also in 2004, China had the oriental international women's celebrity game, which gradually evolved into a women's central tour and became a growth platform for Chinese players.
Look back at history, base yourself on the present, and look forward to the future. In the forum, Feng Shanshan also combined her own growth experience to talk about her views on golf, where Shanshan Sports captured and summarized four experiences and shared them with young players and parents who are interested in participating in golf.
Lesson 1: Golf needs to be practiced instead of a game, and the professional game is a good platform for exercise
The history of Chinese golf is not long, and mature events are the results of recent years. During Feng Shanshan's youth, there were very few domestic competitions, and there were only four or five youth competitions per year. As a player, what she does is seize every opportunity to play all the games she can play. "Luckily, I was able to compete at a high level with a wild card," recalls Shanshan, who played 19 games in her junior year of junior high school, including national junior, amateur and professional competitions.
Feng Shanshan admitted that she participated in professional competitions at that time, playing in the same group as Yang Hongmei, Ye Liying and other sisters and predecessors, which made her feel the appearance of professional players at close range and made her path clearer about herself. In her opinion, golf is a sport that needs to be practiced by racing, players improve themselves through competition, and the tour platform is very important! Shanshan also calls on everyone to support the Tour!
"It's hard to produce good players without the support of the Tour! In order to support your favorite players, you should also pay more attention to the tour. The Tour is not held up by one person, it requires the participation of the whole society. Feng Shanshan believes that golf is a healthy and good sport, as a player, to do a good job of time management, to be conscious, self-disciplined, honest, which is extremely beneficial to personality cultivation.
Lesson 2: Talented, but also need to maintain efficient learning
Pan Zhongguang, vice chairman of the China Higher Education Association and founder of the Women's Central Tour, praised Feng Shanshan as a talented player in an interview. Shanshan is very modest about this: "I am not a genius, or you can say that I have a certain talent, but in the whole world, I am not the most talented." 」
"When I was a child, my father gave me planning, taught me a lot of ways to think, and also cultivated my ability to think independently, let me make my own decisions, sometimes encounter setbacks, and then get up. In this process, I summarized the practice methods that suited me, including a set of my own things such as time schedule. So I am not a genius, but the efficiency of this process is relatively high, and later because of the favorable timing and place, some achievements have been made. Feng Shanshan said.
At the forum, Feng Shanshan shared that in 2008, the new year had a situation of not being able to advance for many consecutive games, and she quickly completed a breakthrough through learning. She said that the first thing is to be better mentally, "I don't feel how bad I play. In 2007, I was admitted to the LPGA itself to play at a super level, and when I entered the LPGA arena, I knew that I was a rookie, so I did not hope that I would get the results immediately. I'm just going to learn. We must maintain our own strengths and then learn from the advantages of others. "She remembers the first game in Hawaii, the whole person was so nervous that the first kick-off was completely out of the soul, and by the time the reaction came, I was already walking on the fairway.
In this case, it is normal not to advance consecutively. What Feng Shanshan was doing was to watch the leading group in the last two rounds, and she observed that in fact, the gap between herself and the leader was not large, "maybe people only pushed two more good balls in each round, two or three shots a day", which gave her confidence, and she qualified for the first time at the Safevy International In March. The second breakthrough was when she was in the same group as South Korean player Hee-Won Han, who witnessed Han's predecessor shoot -8 in a single round! Because she has been observing closely, Shanshan feels that playing a super low score is not as difficult as imagined!
Feng Shanshan in July 2008 at the LPGA
"Before that, I always felt that I couldn't make a mistake like -8, but it wasn't like that. Han Jiyuan is very simple to hit the green, push forward to catch birds when there is a chance, baopa without a chance, and swallow bogey is normal, "This makes Feng Shanshan overcome the fear of ultra-low par count from the mentality!" In the following competitions, Shanshan can shoot a good score of 64 and 63, she finished fourth in the Jamie Far Classic, the National Farm Classic, and successfully established herself in the LPGA in the new year.
Lesson three: Playing can not pursue perfection, to allow yourself to make mistakes
Growing from a teenager to a professional player is a long way. In this process, both players and parents must maintain a stable mentality.
Ye Liying's predecessor, as the coach of the Shanghai team and also a parent of a young player, she observed that on the field, sometimes parents will be very anxious, and sometimes when they see the child's short push of one or two yards, she will be anxious with the child. "Playing a game is not the same as playing ball usually, just like walking a balance beam, if it is 1 meter off the ground, many people may be very stable; but 10 meters off the ground, everyone will be nervous." The game is like this, it is much more tense, but parents do not feel this tension, will give the child a lot of high requirements. ”
Feng Shanshan especially agreed with Ye Jie's point of view, she mentioned that she once led 54 holes in the US Open, but faced two cuts and three pushes on the last hole of the final, falling to fifth place. "On the field, the pressure on the players is the greatest, and it is difficult to feel as a spectator." Therefore, Feng Shanshan especially emphasized that players should allow themselves to make mistakes when playing and playing games, and after mistakes, all they have to do is forget it. "We are human beings, not machines, and we can't pursue perfection when playing ball!"
Players who want to gain a foothold on the tour, don't dwell on the past and look forward. A good attitude will have a broader future!
Lesson Four: First the United States and then Japan, impact the "tips" of the Tour
The LPGA Tour in the United States and the Women's Day Tour are the two major tour tournaments in the world that are very popular and have huge prize money, and they are also the targets of many Chinese players. So, first to go to the LPGA or the Day Tour? As a player, how do you choose? On the forum, Feng Shanshan also gave everyone an analysis.
Feng Shanshan believes that although the Japanese Tour is closer to the Chinese in terms of geography, living habits and culture, she recommends going to the United States first. Because the LPGA threshold is relatively low, the third level of the qualifiers will have the opportunity to get the entry card of the Symetra Tour of the second year's LPGA Level II. Moreover, the LPGA First Division and Second Division are both 100 people, and the pressure is relatively small. After the reform, the Women's Day Tour requires five levels of examinations, and the participation cards to get the second level also need to go through many levels! After these five levels of examination, it takes a month in terms of time alone, and the cost in all aspects is also large. Even if you get the japanese tour card, the pressure of the card is not small, only the top 50 seats in the prize list, and the competition is more intense. Therefore, she suggested that players can first go to the United States to rush the LPGA!
"If you rush to the LPGA first-level card, you can stay in the United States and continue to play; if you can't rush the first-level card, after a year or two of second-level competition, you will not waste time on the test day tour," Feng Shanshan said.
Now, Feng Shanshan is also helping young players enter the United States, allowing them to focus more on improving their skills and the game itself. She said: "As people who have come here, we have such an obligation and responsibility to help the next generation! ”