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LPGA experience helps teen pocket junior title

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-04 11:38

Playing alongside some of the world's best-known golfers helped 13-year-old Yang Jiaxin defeat rivals up to five years her senior at the HSBC National Junior Championship in Shanghai.

Cui Zhiqiang(L), a senior official from the Chinese Golf Association, poses with the winners of the HSBC National Junior Championship in Shanghai Sunday.

Yang, whose given names translate as excellent (jia) and happy (xin), was both of those on a wet, miserable day at the Sino-Bay Country Sports Club, beating 15-year-old China national team member Xiao Yi by three strokes to claim her first win in Group A, open to girls aged 15-17.

Afterwards the Beijing-based student of English teaching pro James Slade explained that it was playing exhibition holes alongside Christie Kerr, South Koreans Jang Jeong, Lee Seon-hwa, and China's Feng Shanshan at the previous week's Grand China Air LPGA event that gave her the self-belief to enter and win in the senior age group.

"Jang was so nice - she gave me a flower ball marker - and Karen was very friendly," said Yang.

"It made me feel confident and it made me realize I'm not too far behind them. It encouraged me to think I can get on the LPGA one day."

The Boys Group A title went to Zhao Xiongyi, just two weeks short of his 17th birthday. Zhao has been attending a golf school in the South Korean capital Seoul for the last two years. Coach Han Yun-hee's tutelage paid off as Zhao shot a remarkable 4-under-par final round 68 to pip national team member Liu Yuxiang by one stroke.

"Just before I went to sleep I told myself 'I'll shoot 68 and win'. I told myself that over and over again," said Zhao, who also won the Wenzhou and Taicang legs at the beginning of the HSBC National Junior Championship season.

"I'm still surprised to win. I putted really well and my score was much better than I had hoped for."

Among the other winners as China's top young golfers celebrated the culmination of the championship's seven-tournament season was a pupil of David Leadbetter's son Andy. Thirteen-year-old Chen Zihao, who lives in Zhuhai near Macao and attends the Leadbetter Academy at Mission Hills, won the Boys Group C.

Meanwhile 10-year-old Shi Yuting, who won five of six regular-season events during the year, lived up to her name again in the final. Shi, whose family name means 'rock', put in another rock solid performance to grab the Girl's Group E (aged 8 to 10) title.

In the youngest girls' competition, Guan Ruqing cruised to her third title of the year. Meanwhile Guan Tianling bookmarked his year by capturing the boy's Group D award to add to the Wenzhou Leg title he claimed at the start of the season.

"It's been another year of incredible growth and development," said HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan. The championship was introduced as part of the HSBC China Junior Golf Program in 2007.

"The scores have improved, the number of players has increased, the passion the desire and not just with the children. Just as important is the enthusiasm of all the clubs who have hosted tournaments. The legacy from that will be huge, because China needs the clubs to become more and more aware of the benefits of having strong and active junior golf at their courses."