HSBC Champions at Tanah Merah, Singapore

The Art of Golf: LPGA stars are dab hands

By Lewine Mair, working with www.HSBCGolf.com
Several top players were tangling with the Singapore orchids prior to this week’s $1,300,000 HSBC Champions at Tanah Merah. It was not that they had strayed off line in their early practice rounds. Rather that they had been invited to put the finishing touches to a Batik painting at a press conference at Raffles Hotel.
Michelle Wie, Lorena Ochoa, Jiyai Shin, Cristie Kerr and Ai Miyazato were asked to colour in an orchid apiece before the picture was prepared for display at the Pro-Am dinner. One way and another, it was an exercise in which the women’s attention to detail went a long way towards explaining how they have all worked their way into golf’s top ten. Meanwhile, the fact that Batik painting was originally practised as a form of meditation gave rise to the suggestion that it could only help the group to get into tournament mode.
Earlier, Guy Harvey-Samuel, the CEO of HSBC Singapore, and Giles Morgan, HSBC Head of Sponsorship, welcomed everyone to Singapore and said that the company took great pride in the way the golfers had turned out in force, with 54 of the top 55 ranked players ready to do battle. The sponsors expressed the wish to give competitors and fans alike the best possible week and, at the same time, to inspire the youth of Singapore. Currently, HSBC have 400 players on their youth programme on the island, with girls making up a healthy 30% of that figure.
“We are keen to see our young players maximising their potential,” said Harvey-Samuel, who spoke proudly of how the 16-year-old Joey Poh, who was the local qualifier last year and this, had come through the scheme. Poy dreams of turning professional when she has finished her education.
Michael Whan, the LPGA’s new commissioner, thanked HSBC for their continuing sponsorship and described himself as “Flat-out honoured" to be in Singapore for a tournament which has become universally known as “Asia’s major”. Whan stressed that he saw himself as a fan no less than a commissioner. “If you want to see great golf,” he advised the media-packed ballroom, “it’s going to start here on Thursday.”
Kerr, in an impromptu response to HSBC on behalf of the LPGA players, said that a variety of things had to be right for a tournament to be great “and HSBC have hit it on the head”.
Shin, last year’s winner at Tanah Merah, said she had “only good memories of Singapore.” All of which was hardly surprising in that she finished the tournament with a couple of exquisite 66s to win by two.
Ochoa, who came out on top in 2008, was similarly thrilled to be back. “This is a beautiful week, we love to be here,” she assured the audience.
Wie, whose first visit this is to Singapore, described Tanah Merah as “fantastic” and the competition as “fierce”.
In answer to a question on her progress, Wie said she had been happy with 2009, her first year, and was revelling in the weeks she was spending on tour. “The girls are cool people and great players. I’ve learned a lot. I felt I had a great year last year but hopefully I will do better this season.”
For the record, Wie won last year’s Lorena Ochoa Invitational and finished ninth on the season-ending money-list.
Yet if any player stole the show, it was Miyazato who has come to Singapore having bagged the season’s opening Honda tournament in Thailand.
The Japanese player’s eyes sparkled and cameras flashed as the crowd recognised her efforts with a special round of applause.
The least boastful of competitors, Miyazato wasted no time in pointing to her sister players at the top table and saying that much of her success was down to them.
“They give me lots of inspiration,” she said.