As part of its celebrations of ten years of HSBC Women’s Champions, the title sponsor invited five of the world’s top golfers to get their eye in by taking part in a spectacular laser show in downtown Singapore.
“It was really fun to take part in the photo call downtown and it’s all part of the Singapore experience,” said Lexi Thompson. “This event always delivers great entertainment as well as great golf and as a player it’s one you mark in the calendar as ‘Do Not Miss’.”
Taking the stage for a show inspired by the iconic laser show at Marina Bay were some of the biggest names in women’s golf including defending champion Ha Na Jang, World Number One Lydia Ko, Thompson, Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie.
For a video recap of the event please click here - https://www.facebook.com/hsbcsport/videos/1403891932994816/
Play at the 2017 HSBC Women’s Champions will begin on tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. local time.
Ko Ready for Her Third Event of 2017
Coming off a tie for eighth last week in Thailand, Lydia Ko is ready for her third event of 2017 at the HSBC Women’s Champions.
“Yeah, I struck the ball pretty well in Australia and the ones I did miss, I kind of missed it on the wrong holes,” Ko explained. “I was struggling with the putter, so I wasn’t really able to score. But going into last week, I knew that there were a lot of positives from Australia to take from and that’s the kind of mind-set I tried to take. I ended up getting the first Top-10 finish of the season, so yeah, you know, it’s just been a lot of fun and obviously a lot of changes. But it’s been more exciting rather than getting worried about, is it going to work or is it not.”
Singing Along the Way
Ariya Jutanugarn has been known for her fun demeanor on the golf course between shots.
“I just like do something else, sing a song or something, and until it’s really time to hit the next shot, then I think about that,” Jutanugarn explained. “I have a lot of songs, but I stick with one song. It’s just Thai.”
When asked if she’d sing it Jutanugarn smiled and joked, “Better not.”
Players’ Thoughts on the New Sentosa Golf Club
“I like the course a lot. It’s pretty wide open for me tee shot, so I like it. But the greens are pretty tough. It’s really firm and it’s really hard to aim your shot.”
-Ariya Jutanugarn
“The Serapong and Tanjong are two different golf courses. Obviously the Serapong was a really nice golf course but Tanjong I think is more suitable for the average-length LPGA player. I think it’s good.
I think coming into this week, we all were eager to see what this new course was like and I think it’s pretty nice. It is quite different to Serapong. I think we need to focus on where to hit it and go from there.
The greens have a little bit of very subtle undulation, so even though it might not be a very long putt it could break three different ways. So I think the person that normally holes a putt is going to end up on top and I think that’s going to be the case again this week.”
-Lydia Ko
Numbers to Know (2017 Season Thru 3 Events)
- 27.5 – The average age of winners is 27.50
- 31 – At the age of 31, Brittany Lincicome is older than any 2016 tournament winner, and the oldest winner since Cristie Kerr at the 2015 CME Group Tour Championship (38 y.o.)
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – The 2017 Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic was the first time Americans finished 1-5 on the LPGA since the 2011 Canadian Women’s Open, site of Brittany Lang’s first victory.
- $617,106 – Amount of money Lydia Ko needs in order to become the fastest LPGA player to eclipse the $8 million mark (already owns record for fastest to reach $2, $3, $4, $5, $6 and 7 million)
Quote of the Day
“Dustin, he’s a lot stronger, a lot longer than me. But I guess we play a certain-length golf course, and because they are long, they obviously play longer. I think people think that, oh, because guys are so long, they must not be good at something; or because we’re shorter, we must be better at this.
I think to be those top-ranked players, you’ve got to be solid in all aspects of the game. You know how Dustin Johnson has played especially in the past couple of years, I think he has had a PGA TOUR win repetitively for many years. So that just shows how consistently well he’s been playing.
Hopefully in the future, maybe the LPGA and PGA can come together and we can play a game or a tournament together. But I’m a fan of the men’s golf, and I regularly enjoy watching it on TV.”
- Lydia Ko on how her game compares with Dustin Johnson’s