Apple at the core as Chinaâ€™s juniors end giant-killing season

Tim Maitland in Shanghai

Apple Yang Jiaxin completed a remarkable week of golf by retaining her title at the HSBC National Junior Championship in Shanghai on Sunday. Competing, once again, in the most senior age group and against girls up to three years older than her, the 14-year-old from Beijing shot a final round of 80 in windy conditions at the Sino-Bay Country Sports Club in Shanghai, which proved enough to give her a one shot victory.

It was her sixth round in six days and, even more incredibly, her second triumph having beaten the adults to claim the Hangzhou Leg of the CITIC China Amateur Tour on Thursday before rushing the 90 miles (145 kilometres) to Shanghai in time to tee off on Friday.

“I am so tired!” she exclaimed.

“I had five days in Hangzhou on a very hilly course and rushed straight here. I found it difficult to concentrate here. It felt like my arms and my body weren’t connected.”

After her remarkable six-day stretch Yang won’t have time to rest; she now faces a frantic week with her head in her text books for the important “mid exams”. But even with a stressful week of Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Chinese and English ahead of her, Apple’s mind was more focused on how to get better.

“After a win, you can be happy, but you’ve got to look at what you did and think about the things you need to improve.”

Improvement was very much in evidence as the seven-tournament HSBC National Junior Championships, particularly as four different children from the China Golf Association have won events on this year’s open-age amateur tour, with the girls claiming three of the five events so far.

As well as Yang’s triumph last week, 13-year-old Zhang Jin took the men’s title in his home town as children from the scheme occupied four of the six “podium” places in September’s Beijing Leg at the California County Golf Club. 10-year-old Wang Ziyi was a remarkable winner of the women’s section in the capital, while Liu Yuxiang and Apple Yang filled the bronze medal positions in the respective competitions. In August in Dalian, Yang had finished second behind another 13-year-old winner amongst the adults Liu Yu.

“We’re all improving at quite a fast speed,” said Yang.

“Our technique has improved. The HSBC junior tournaments are the first step of our golf life. I’ve improved since this tournament last year. We just need more experience because we’re all still making stupid mistakes. We’ve got a very good environment with this programme and everyone’s supporting us.”

The progress China’s kids are making is far beyond most expectations according to the London-based boss of the world’s local banks sponsorship, who has arrived in Shanghai to oversee their involvement in next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions.

“To have our children going out and beating adults consistently in a sport where both physical and mental strength is important is stunning! We invested in this programme thinking it would take some time to for the framework of tournaments and the network of coaching and training camps, but we’re seeing that China’s junior golfers are developing with the same remarkable speed that China is showing in almost every other facet of life,” said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.

“It’s been a remarkable season for the programme and it makes me believe that China is going to develop some truly world-class players in the not-too-distant future!” he added.

Arguably the biggest improver of them all, however, is the winner of the 15-17 age group; Zhou Tian. The 17-year-old from Zhejiang-born Beijinger only started practicing properly in May 2007 and when he made his first HSBC National Junior Championship appearance a year later he was only three shots short of a triple-figure score on each day. At Sino-Bay he improved by one shot each day, saving his best – a two-over-par 74 for the trickiest conditions – for the final round.

“My first win! It’s a big prize for me!” he beamed.

“I think I’ve practiced very hard. I’ve thought a lot about how I can be better on the course and these tournaments are an experience that improves your heart, enhance your heart,” Zhou added.

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Brief line about other age group winners to add

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BEATING THE GROWN UPS:

HSBC China Junior Golf Program winners on 2009 CITIC China Amateur Tour

Women

Oct 25^th-29th Hangzhou Leg: Apple Yang Jiaxin, 14 years old.

Sept 13^th-17^th Beijing Leg: Wang Ziyi, 10 years old.

Aug 23^rd-27^th Dalian Leg: Liu Yu, 13 years old.

HSBC National Junior Championship Final

Sino-Bay Country Sports Club, Shanghai October 30^th-November 1^st

Leading scores