Mar 29, 2018: People’s Republic of China’s Shanshan Feng and Republic of Korea’s Inbee Park are two of just 13 golfers to hold the title of Rolex Rankings No. 1 since the rankings system began in 2006. Both have dealt with the pressure that comes with being the world’s best and offered different perspectives on the topic when each met with the media on Wednesday from the 2018 ANA Inspiration. In her seventh outing in a major event, Aditi Ashok will hope to achieve her best result yet. She finished T42 in the ANA Inspiration last year and T29 in the Women’s PGA Championship.
Park, currently No. 9 in the world, has risen to the top spot three different times in her career with the first time coming in 2013, and she has held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 92 weeks. Yet the LPGA Hall of Famer is in no rush to get back under the microscope that comes with being World No. 1.
“When you’re just outside No. 1 and you want to be No. 1, you always want to reach that goal,” said the 19-time LPGA champion. “But once you reach that goal, you’ve been there, sometimes the golf doesn’t work the way you want it to work, like not good all the time, not perfect all the time. So when it’s not working well, that’s where you have to take some time a little bit off and take some pressure off of you. Have some energy in you so when you get back to No. 1 or you get a lot of attention and you have enough energy in you that you can just enjoy while you’re there.”
Feng became the first player from China, male or female, to become No. 1 in the world on November 13, 2017, following her ninth career LPGA victory at the 2017 Blue Bay LPGA. Although she’s been at the top for 20 weeks now, she doesn’t spend a lot of time consciously thinking about that position.
“Well, of course, if I can stay as long as possible,” said Feng. “I mean, but I’m really not thinking about it, but of course, people keep telling me I’m World No. 1, World No. 1 for how many weeks in a row now. Of course that’s going to give me a little pressure because I think people expect the World No. 1 to do well all the time, which, we don’t.”
Inbee has the upper hand on Shanshan at Mission Hills – Park has five top-10 finishes in 11 career starts at the ANA Inspiration, including her win in 2013, while Feng has just two top-10s in this event with a career-best sixth place finish in 2014.
Lorena Ochoa (2008) and Lydia Ko (2016) are the only players in the history of the Rolex Rankings to have won the ANA Inspiration while atop the world rankings.
Park will tee off Thursday’s first round at 1:22 p.m. off the 10th tee with fellow major champion Paula Creamer, while Feng will start from the first tee at 8:30 a.m. with two-time major champion Cristie Kerr.
KORDA POISED FOR MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH
To say Rolex Rankings No. 12 Jessica Korda’s 2018 LPGA season is off to a hot start might be an understatement. In her first start on Tour since she underwent major jaw surgery in December, she picked up her fifth career LPGA victory at the 2018 Honda LPGA Thailand. Korda followed that up with a T10 finish in Singapore, and then collected a commendable T26 finish in her last start at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup before taking a week off to rest up for the season’s first major.
This week Korda is making her eighth career start at the ANA Inspiration, and hopes she can stay hot despite the added pressure that comes at a major championship.
“It’s just you want to play so well, and you put this extra pressure on yourself,” Korda said. “Instead of coming into it like a normal event, obviously seeing everything around you and the atmosphere, the people, the interest, and obviously what it would be like to be a major champion, I think you just sometimes get so caught up in that that you forget to play your own game and concentrate on what you need to do.
“I think the more times I’ll play in them, the more I’ll just feel comfortable with myself, and being mature enough to put that to the side and just play golf.”
Top-10 finishes have historically eluded Korda when it comes to major championships. In 38 career starts in majors, Korda has just two top-10 finishes: T5 at the 2014 Ricoh Women’s British Open and T7 at the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open. Korda’s best finish at the ANA Inspiration was T11 in 2017.
Heading into the ANA Inspiration, Korda leads the LPGA in scoring average (68.25), putting average (28.50) and has the most rounds under par with 11. Korda is paired with Lydia Ko in the first round at 8:14 a.m. off the first tee.
LPGA Tour Release
