“Face the camera!” recommended the interviewer at the HSBC Women’s World Championship when she wanted to ask the shy 17-year-old Singaporean amateur, Xingtong Chen, what she thought of her opening two-under par 70. The teen did as she was told and, amid a riot of lovely smiles, she said, “It’s the same score as Lydia Ko’s!”
The way she swung from side to side during the first half of the interview was a bit like her opening hole when her hands were shaky. However, the first half, over she calmed down as she followed one promising drive with another and made some easy ups and down. By then, the the locals were encouraging her on a non-stop basis. “It was pretty unreal, I was very grateful to them.”
She was grateful, too, to Inbee Park, who had advised on Wednesday that she should stick to her process and have fun — “and that’s what I did”.
Shannon Tan, the other gifted Singaporean in the field, would have been feeling the pressure on a day when she was hoping to put on a performance in keeping with her No. 1 spot on the LET’s 2025 order of Merit. Alas, she had a 75, but not to worry. So, too, did Carlota Ciganda and Gaby Lopez.
The great thing is that we can rest assured that Tan would have taken her indifferent day well. When she finished in that No.1 spot on the LET Order of Merit, she also won the “Player’s Player of the Year” for being a great sport as well as golfer.
Meanwhile, the leader going into the second round is America’s Auston Kim on six under par, with China’s Yan Liu one to her rear. Kim was picked out as one to watch last year, while Liu just missed the birdie putt at the 18th which would have enabled her to share the top spot. Liu is famous for the albatross she had in the ’25 Chevron. (Apparently, there have only been 30 albatrosses on the LPGA tour since ’71.)
Neither Lydia Ko nor Charley Hull was at her best. Ko was feeling dizzy and struggling with inserting tees and retrieving the ball from the hole. As for Charley, she was a bit askew with her tee shots and a painful right hip maybe had something to do with it.
Inbee Park, twice a winner of the HSBC Women’s World Championship, is a sponsor’s guest on this occasion. Now if anyone has the makings of a good mother — she married her coach in 2014 and the couple now have two daughters — it is her, and never was it more obvious than when she won the 2015 Open at Turnberry.
On the day she played with Minjee Lee and and the Australian was at one point hitting in and out of the woods, she stood to the side of the green with her arms patiently folded and looked for all the world as if she was waiting for a small child to come out of school.
In watching Ko, as the latter compensated for an early bogey with some fine putts, Inbee said she would rather like Ko to teach her daughters how to put.
Let’s hope that doesn’t hurt the husband’s feelings!
