New venue for HSBC Women's Champions
BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2013 HSBC Women's Champions | Preview | 27 Feb 2013
The LPGA Tour plays the last event of its three event swing through Australia and Asia when an elite field tees it up at the HSBC Women’s Champions event at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore, the first occasion the event has been played at this facility after several years at Tanah Merah.
Following events in Canberra and Bangkok where Koreans Jiyai Shin and Inbee Park were the winners, Angela Stanford defends the title she won after a playoff with Jenny Shin, Na Yeon Choi and Shanshan Feng.
Stanford’s form has not been all that good of late although interestingly it is no worse than was the case when she arrived in Singapore last year.
Karrie Webb, Ai Miyazato, Jiyai Shin and Lorena Ochoa have been other winners of this event since first played in 2008.
All of the game’s leading five players are again in the field with Yani Tseng perhaps the favourite because of her great recent form and because she has finished inside the top five in each of her last three starts in this event.
Na Yeon Choi played her first event of 2013 at last week’s Honda LPGA Thailand event and finished 7th which was an encouraging start to the year. As the world number two she will be one of the players to beat this week and having finished runner-up last year her chances look even better.
Stacy Lewis lost a spot in her world ranking last week despite finishing third in Thailand. She finished 9th in this event last year and could still do well although the woman who went past her in the world ranking last week, Inbee Park, is playing at an almost unprecedented level of consistency.
Park does not enjoy a great record in this event although in 2013 the new venue may well play into her hands.
Jiyai Shin won two weeks ago in Australia and although only 14th last week in Thailand, now that she is getting back to her best she is sure to be a factor.
Karrie Webb is a former winner of the tournament and although her last two tournaments have been below the form she displayed when winning at Royal Pines a month ago she is still capable of winning again.
The only other Australian in the event is Katherine Hull-Kirk.
