By Tim Maitland
A year ago Feng Shanshan was a surprise member of the LPGA's rookie class beginning a run of nine missed cuts in 10 events that suggested the then-18 year old may have taken the step up to the world's premier women's golf tour a fraction too early.
(Photo by Scott Halleran /Getty Images)
A year later she's started her sophomore season focusing on her first victory.
A sign of how enormously her career changed in the space of just a few months was the unusual announcement made by HSBC this week that, had she not qualified through her final position on the 2008 LPGA Money List, the world's local bank would almost certainly have saved one of its sponsor's invites to the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore next month for the 19-year-old from Guangzhou.
"It's not our usual business practice to discuss contingency plans or to make public our behind-the-scenes discussions but we made that statement to show how much we respect what Shanshan has done for women's golf in China and for the girl's currently developing their game as part of the HSBC China Junior Golf Program," explained Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.
Feng Shanshan in action during the first round of the 2008 SBS open in Hawaii (February 14, 2008).
(Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
What changed? Well, having cashed just four meagre cheques from finishing weekend play nearer the back of the field than the front, Feng, more commonly known as Jenny to her fellow players, suddenly exploded onto the scene last July.
She finished fourth at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic and the LPGA State Farm Classic in successive weeks, was runner-up one shot behind Angela Stanford at the Bell Micro LPGA Classic, finishing the season with five top 10 finishes in 36th place on the official money list.
"At the beginning of last year everyone was thinking "Oh Jenny's just struggling". You know I missed ten cuts in 11 tournaments (including the 2007 US Open) and everyone was thinking "Oh… she's not doing well and she's not going to come back"… but I didn't worry about it too much because I knew I still had time," Feng explained before explaining how her target has now shifted dramatically from just trying to survive the full four rounds.
The Shanshan-effect: Her rise to prominence has been a source of inspiration for the young golfers on the HSBC China Junior Golf Program (September 13, 2008).
(Photo by Dave Martin/Getty Images)
"My next goal is to win a tournament. Once I win a tournament than I'll change to another goal. I like to go step by step. I like to work towards smaller goals, not to make one that is far away. I haven't won as a pro, yet, but I'm sure I will later, because I'm only 19. I know I still have many chances. I have a long time to go, as a professional, so I'm not worried about what I'm doing now."
What Shanshan is doing now is breathing life into the girls trying to follow in her footsteps. Previously inspired by Zhang Na's multiple-win 2007 season on the Japan LPGA Tour, having a fellow teenager make what had until then seemed to be the huge step up to becoming a contender on the LPGA.
"Money can't buy what she has done for the girls playing in the HSBC National Junior Championship events in China," declared Morgan.
"There's an added belief and an extra enthusiasm because Shanshan has proved that what the girls dreamed about is actually possible; not only is it possible, it's not necessarily 10 years away. They now know that a Chinese teenager can succeed as a professional."
The Shanshan-effect will increase exponentially if and when the nine-time winner in China as an amateur achieves her next goal. Although judging from the confidence within her camp, the "if" is not necessary.
"Eventually she will win," declared Jay Chang Jong-Whan, the Korean CEO of Feng's management company HSMG.
"I don't know when it will be, but she's getting closer and closer."
Feng's American caddie Steve Shellard is even more emphatic when posed the question.
"Definitely!" he declared.
"She's got an unbelievably great swing. I think she's got the best swing of anybody I've ever seen. Of all the guys and girls I think she's got an awesome swing – Gary Gilchrist has been working with her – she's got it. She's got the shots. What a great short game too! She's got some great wedge shots. I call her Phil Mickelson. I say "come on Phil you can make this". She can hit some unbelievable wedge shots. Technically it's all there. One of the best things I've seen is her distance control. If I ask her to hit it 148 yards it's not going 153. It's going 148, maybe 148 and a half. It's right on. Then it's just a matter of whether you're hitting it straight. She hits her shots to the distance she wants to hit them. That's her best attribute. She hits it to the distance."
Shellard is not just being nice. Having "looped" for the unknown Chinese girl for the first two events of her pro career in Hawaii last year, Shellard, who caddied on the men's PGA Tour throughout the 1980s, barely recognised the more relaxed and happy-go-lucky player he rejoined, initially reluctantly, at the start of that great run last July.
"She matured and learned what to do and how to act out here on tour. She learned what she needed to do for routines and how to practice. She figured her way around," said Shellard of the girl who has become as popular as any player on the circuit.
"When she first came out she was not as loose. Now if she hits a bad shot she forgets about it, laughs maybe; not that she isn't taking it seriously, but we just go shot by shot. Where's the ball now? OK, let's go. She's done a 180 (degree turn) since I've known her. When we started working together again she was like a whole new girl."
That girl was seemingly born to golf, thanks to her father the General Secretary of the Guangzhou Golf Association in the heart of Guangdong province – the heart of golf in China.
Discouraged from swimming by a sinking backstroke and then from tennis by a lack of mobility, she found golf as a 10-year old when her father began creating a Guangzhou junior team.
She went on to be a three-time China Amateur Champion, competed in the 2006 Asian Games where she finished eighth (Korea's Ryu So-yeon won gold, 2009 LPGA Rookie Mika Miyazato won silver and current world number two Yani Tseng came fourth), moved to the States to attend the International Junior Golf Academy in South Carolina, winning four times on the International Junior Golf Tour in 2006-2007 before she became the first Chinese player to earn an LPGA Tour card.
That she will inevitably become the first Chinese winner on the LPGA is, in her caddie's mind, a given; not for any technical or talent-related reason, simply because she thrives in the spotlight.
"I think she enjoys the pressure of the cameras on her and the crowd around her," Shellard explained.
"She's not gun-shy at all. She's not afraid of the crowd. She enjoys it!"
