Steve Elling
The argument sounds heretical at the moment, but as the years roll by it should become defensible, if not obvious.
When South Korea’s Se Ri Pak was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, she was characterised as having had the greatest impact on golf for the past four decades.
Sure, fans tuned in to watch Tiger Woods on television, but his accomplishments never translated into a growth spurt for the game, overall, and there remain no black players on the top professional levels.
Pak, however, spawned a migration from South Korea that changed the face of the sport, especially among women; her compatriots have won six of the past nine major titles. She is rightly revered by many of the nation’s 50 million residents.
Take that population figure and multiply it by 25 – only then does the potential impact of Shanshan Feng, nicknamed Jenny, become jarringly, vividly clear.
During the next decade, Pak’s contribution might seem puny by comparison.
After becoming the first Chinese member of the LPGA tour in 2008, the past two seasons seemingly represent the tiny temblors before the game gets shaken to its core.
Feng, 24, last week won her second LPGA title of the year. Last season, she won a major and the Ladies European Tour event in Dubai, a title she will defend next week.
Feng moved to the United States as a teenager and enrolled at Hank Haney’s junior academy in South Carolina. It was unclear whether she would become the player who would someday lead the country’s inevitable charge.
Her LPGA win in China last month opened her eyes, too. Thousands showed up to cheer her on.
“I think the support of the fans back in China was really, really important,” she said. “So I do think that I’m not alone.”
With golf being added as an Olympic sport in 2016, China is already throwing developmental money at the sport in an attempt to catch up with other Asian nations, such as Japan and Korea.
Four weeks ago, in a news item that received scant attention globally, the PGA Tour green-lighted a developmental men’s tour in China.
With her victory in Florida on Sunday, Feng climbed to world No 4. At the moment, only one other Chinese woman is in the top 200, but check again in five years.
Last summer, after logging the first win for a Chinese in a major, she understood that she was at the leading edge of the wave.
“I think I’m just lucky,” she said. “There are good players from China, young players, right now.
“I became the first one, but I’m sure there will be a second, third, more people winning in the States and winning majors.”
selling@thenational.ae
