LPGA Tour event tees off in Singapore tomorrow

LPGA Tour player Amanda Blumenherst conducts a clinic for juniors at Tanah Merah (Courtesy of Gerry Images/HSBC Women's Champions). Click to enlarge.

Michelle Wie is a Catriona Matthew fan!

By Lewine Mair
That Lorena Ochoa is desperate to regain the HSBC Women’s Champions title she won in Singapore two years ago was evident from the moment she stepped off her plane from Thailand on Monday.
Where others arrived in their regular clothes, with Michelle Wie’s bright pink boots catching the eye of every photographer in town, Ochoa was ready for golf. Her first port of call was the practice ground at Tanah Merah.
As much as anything, she was anxious to recapture her rhythm after finishing in an anticlimactic share of 18th place behind Ai Miyazato in the Honda PTT. “I was a little frustrated that I couldn’t score better,” she admitted, before putting the blame fairly and squarely on her shots to the green.
Now, Ochoa is confident that her swing is in a better position and feels ready “to start making birdies.”
Ochoa’s companions for a first round which starts tomorrow at 10.19 are Miyazato and Jiyai Shin, the latter of whom is this week's defending champion. Though Ochoa has the utmost respect for both, she will not be watching either. “In my case, I’m never really thinking about other players. I just try to focus on my own game and make as many birdies as I can.”
Another key group will be 9.45 trio of Catriona Matthew, Yani Tseng and Michelle Wie.
For Matthew, the reigning Ricoh Women’s British Open champion, this will be the first time she has been in Wie’s group in over a year.
“It’s going to be interesting to play with Michelle again,” said Matthew, who has revelled in the heat of Thailand and Singapore after a winter of Scottish frost. “There will be a lot of people watching her but that’s not going to worry me. You maybe have to wait a couple of seconds for the crowds to quieten down but that’s about as far as it goes.”
The other thing which is never going to bother Matthew is if Wie’s drives go bounding past hers. The truth is, of course, that nothing bothers the Scot, with Tseng saying that she would love nothing more than to pick up something of Matthew’s body language. “My shoulders tend to go down when things are going wrong but Catriona always keeps her chin up,” said the Taiwanese golfer.
Wie is another of Matthew fan. “I so admire Catriona and the way she won the British only weeks after having a second baby,” said Wie. “She’s amazing. I look up to her a lot and, hopefully, I’ll learn from her.”
There are times when Wie would seem to favour university over golf and others when the golf matters more.
For the moment, though, it is golf first every time. “I’ve had an overload of studying in the last couple of months,” she explained cheerfully.
Overall, Wie is entirely happy with where she is on both fronts – happy that she turned professional when she did and happy that she is at Stanford.
“I couldn’t imagine life any other way. I made the right decisions at the right time.”