(October 24, 2018; Ta
Shee) Featuring a talented field of elite golfers from around the world
including five of the top-10 players in the Rolex Rankings, the 2018 Swinging
Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship is all set for tee-off tomorrow at Ta Shee Golf
& Country Club, a spectacular championship course in Taoyuan County
redesigned by Robert Trent Jones JR.
In its 8th edition,
the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship, a co-sanctioned event between the
LPGA and Taiwan LPGA, is the third leg of the LPGA's annual Asian swing. Rolex
Rankings no.1 Sung Hyun Park of Korea will look to expand her lead over no. 2
Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand, who takes the week off to rest in her hometown.
Meanwhile, world no. 3 So Yeon Ryu of Korea also has an outside chance of
dethroning Park with a win here this week.
Meanwhile, former
world no. 1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who seeks to win this prestigious event
for the second time, will tee off tomorrow in the final group with local
favourite Teresa Lu of Taiwan and defending champion Eun-Hee Ji of Korea at
10:45 AM. After her practice round, Ko said the greens here are "probably
one of the smallest greens I've played on. I think driving is going to be key,
especially when the greens are so small, just to be on the fairways, they are
obviously going to be a lot easier to hold them," said Ko, who finished
tied for second last Sunday at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
"I am so excited
to play in front of my hometown fans and hope to keep the trophy here in
Taiwan," said Lu, who is making her debut in the tournament. Ji, on the
other hand, revealed the victory in Taiwan last year has been a confidence
booster for her. "I changed my swing from like two years ago, and that
helps a lot. Actually, I'm hitting pretty much a different length than before,
so that makes a lot of difference."
After emerging
victorious at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, Danielle Kang is sure to have more fans
following her in the first group from last. The American will be playing
alongside Wei-Ling Hsu of Taiwan and Moriya Jutanugarn, Ariya's sister.
Hsu said she is not
too familiar with this golf course as she has played here only two or three
times. " You definitely have to hit a good driver, and then I think some
of the greens are really tricky because there's a lot of holes (with) like
one-side slope... So you have to play with the speed," said Hsu, who has
three top-10 finishes so far this season including a tie for fifth place at the
U.S. Women's Open.
Yani Tseng, winner of
the inaugural LPGA Taiwan Championship back in 2011, will be playing in a
threesome with Sei Young Kim of Korea and American Annie Park. Yani said she
had practiced four times at Ta Shee Golf & Country Club over the last two
months. "I feel comfortable playing here because it's a long course and
the fairways are fairly wide, which may work to my advantage," observed
Yani.
At the pre-tournament
pro-am event today under a mostly sunny sky, Sei Young Kim of Korea teamed up
with four amateur guests to card a collective scramble score of 58 and walked
away with the first prize-YONEX golf club sets.
Tickets for the 2018
Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship are available for purchase on the ibon
platform: http://www.sslpgataiwan.com/pages/tickets. To make things
easier for fans, free shuttle buses are scheduled to operate between Ta Shee
Golf & Country Club and Taipei MRT Yongning Station from Thursday to Sunday.
Daily live telecast will also be provided by FTV, FTV News Channel, Hami Video
and Chunghwa Telecom MOD. For more information, please visit the official
tournament website: http://www.sslpgataiwan.com/?locale=tw