18 entered the LPGA year of Feng Shanshan set a goal: to retire after playing LPGA for ten years.
has this idea mainly because the female contestant is about 30 years old and will inevitably face the career pause of getting married and having children. She thought it very clearly that Feng Shanshan, as a professional golf player, is only part of her life. "It has been a very long time to play for ten years. If I want to achieve results, I must have achieved results in the past few years. If I can't achieve results in these ten years, it proves that I can't achieve results, and there is no need to force myself to do these things again." She told Lazy Bear Sports in this way.
Later facts proved that her professional achievements are far more worthy of narration than "scoring results" - In 2012, 23-year-old Feng Shanshan won the World Women's Professional Golf Grand Slam LPGA Championship; throughout her career, she has won the championship on the Women's PGA Tour, Women's Japanese Tour, Women's European Tour and Women's Chinese Tour many times, with 22 professional championships; in 2016, Feng Shanshan won the bronze medal in the women's golf event for the Chinese team; she has ranked first in the world for 23 consecutive weeks and remained in the top 10 in the world for nearly 200 consecutive weeks - every achievement of her can be called the number one person in the Chinese (mainland) golf industry.
On August 2, 2022, in his fifteenth year of becoming a professional player, Feng Shanshan officially announced her retirement, and for the sake of her almost regretful career as a professional golf player came to an end.
On personal social media, Feng Shanshan wrote, "My 33rd birthday will soon be celebrated, and I will also make an important life decision. Everyone says that one life is two, two life is three, and three life is all things. I hope this turn is not the end, but the beginning of more possibilities."
The person who was selected by golf
Entering 2022, Feng Shanshan's life pace has slowed down. No longer have to live according to the planned schedule, she wants to give herself more time to settle down and think about what she wants to do in the future.
"Resting" was once a very luxurious word for her. Since she was 10 years old, her father took her on the road of golf, and for the past twenty years, she has lived almost the whole year.
Now looking back, she is very grateful to her parents for choosing the "right project" for her. Before practicing golf, Feng Shanshan learned swimming, tried skating, and practiced tennis, but she couldn't hold on. In 1999, Guangzhou established the Municipal Youth Golf Team to prepare for the Provincial Games. Feng Shanshan's father worked in the Guangzhou Higher Education Association at that time, so she often followed her father to watch the brothers and sisters in the team train. One day, the coach said to the young Feng Shanshan, "You are watching every day, why not come and try it too." Feng Shanshan tried to pick up the club for the first time and started hitting the ball. The coach who served as the team coach found that she had a high sense of playing ball and was active and serious, so she decided to keep her.
Feng Shanshan's family is a typical "strict father and mother" education. The father himself is engaged in the sports industry and has a clear understanding and plan for cultivating his children to take the path of professional sports, while the mother is more in charge of "logistics" and is responsible for his daughter's life and study.
Feng Shanshan recalled to " Sanlian Life Weekly " that when she was a child, she was golf in addition to going to school. She went to the driving range every day after school. She went home after 8 pm and started doing homework after dinner and showering. The time outside of study is occupied by golf, and occasionally watching TV and playing golf games.
When he was twelve or thirteen years old, Feng Shanshan was able to beat a group of big sisters in domestic amateur events. A reporter asked her what dreams or goals do you have. She had never thought about this. After the reporter asked, she thought of the players in the LPGA round-robin competition I saw on TV. She thought they were very eye-catching, each of them had their own style, and they were all very confident and generous. "I dream of one day if I can compete with these top players from all over the world and in the world." Feng Shanshan blurted out at the time and said that she wanted to go to the LPGA Tour in the future. What determines
cannot be changed easily, and you must be responsible for your own choices. What's more, the whole family is supporting her to realize her dream.
Gilchrist, Feng Shanshan and Zeng Yani
By 2006, Feng Shanshan had no opponents in domestic youth golf events. At this time, golf gold medal coach Gary Gilchrist sent an olive branch to the Chinese girl. In this way, 17-year-old Feng Shanshan left her parents to the United States and began to receive international training.
After the age of 18, Feng Shanshan will take the LPGA qualification examination according to her own plan. At the beginning of registration, she just wanted to see how far her level was from her goal. Unexpectedly, she successfully passed the exam and became the second mainland Chinese female player to compete in LPGA after Ye Liying; she was also the first mainland Chinese female player to win the LPGA competition card. Many years later, her father told her that that year, the family spent all their savings for nearly 20 years. If she failed the exam, the family would plan to sell the house and continue to support her in learning football. After
got the full LPGA card, Feng Shanshan began to participate in the professional arena and earned bonuses. The sponsors also came, so the family no longer had to worry about money.
Dreams come true, the best 18-year-old adult gift .
became famous in one battle, and its commercial value soared
When she was still playing in the junior and amateur games, Feng Shanshan was the ever-winning general on the field, but in the first or two years after she changed her career, she had no major breakthrough.
In the first year of LPGA, she successfully guaranteed her card. Her performance in the second year was not as good as in the first year. She once dropped to 75. She was in the top 80 guaranteed her card at that time, and she almost had to go back to take the qualification exam again.
That winter during the offseason, she returned to Guangzhou, and her father followed her to the training ground as before. When she was focusing on practicing, her father said that she was in a wrong position to hold the pole, and then said that the ball was not in a right position. Feng Shanshan said, Dad, you don’t know how Coach Gary taught me, and you don’t know which ones are good and which ones are bad. She gave her father two options, either to learn how to be a coach from the coach or to be just a father. After hearing this, Feng Shanshan's father said, "Then I'll be my father."
The once harsh father gradually retreated behind the scenes. The twenty-year-old Feng Shanshan is used to persevering for herself and being responsible for her choices and decisions.
When he played in LPGA for three and a half years, Feng Shanshan had a little doubt whether she could win the championship on such a high-level professional stage. So she took the Japanese tour qualification exam, hoping to participate in more competitions to help herself grow. On the 2011 Japanese Tour, Feng Shanshan finally won her first championship after being a professional player - the Meiji Cup in the Japan Women's Tour. "After winning that game, I felt like I broke free. I realized how to win the game. It turned out that I could win in a high-level professional arena."
Feng Shanshan became the first golf grand slam first person
Full in 2012, Feng Shanshan was unstoppable and won six championships in a row, including the Grand Slam LPGA Championship championship - in that game, Feng Shanshan's opponents included Zeng Yani, who ranked first in the world at the time, Stacy Lewis, who ranked second in the world, etc. In the post-match interview, she said that Li Na's French Open won the French Open set off a tennis craze in China. She hopes that by winning the championship by herself, more Chinese people can also understand the sport of golf. After the
LPGA Championship, Feng Shanshan's world ranking jumped to fifth, and her business value soared. The American nicknamed Feng Shanshan "Jenny Money", Jenny is her English name, and "Money" is because she is at the top of the tour prize list all year round - in 2013, she won the CME Championship with the most lucrative LPGA championship, and won a single game of $700,000. From the 2013 to 2015 season, Feng Shanshan's annual income was US$3.6 million, 4.5 million and 4.5 million, respectively, of which the annual business income was US$1.6 million, US$2.8 million and US$3 million, respectively. Both the amount and the proportion of total income were higher year by year.
By the eve of Rio Olympics in 2016, Feng Shanshan had 13 sponsors, including Buick Automobile (Buick), Huabin Manor (Reignwood), Honma Golf (Honma), Kumho Tire , China Trust, Omega Watch, etc.
A reporter once asked her a question: If you were asked to choose one, would you want to win the Olympic gold medal or the Grand Slam championship? Feng Shanshan said that her answer at the time was that she would definitely choose the Olympic gold medal, because it only once in four years of the Olympics, but she played five games in one year.
For golfers, the Olympics were once a distant dream, because for more than a hundred years, golf was not an Olympic event, until Rio Olympics in 2016, golf returned to the Olympic family after 112 years. That was Feng Shanshan's first Olympics and the first time a Chinese golfer entered the Olympics.
In Rio , Feng Shanshan won the bronze medal. She was very excited when she walked off the field and wrapped the national flag around the field for a week. This is a major breakthrough for Feng Shanshan herself and Chinese golf.
In an interview with USA Today, Feng Shanshan said: "If a golfer, a Chinese golfer, can win an Olympic gold medal, or an Olympic medal, it will bring glory to China, make us proud, and may also change people's attitudes (to golf)."
I am the "villain" of Chinese golf
November 2017, that is, the 11th year of becoming a professional player, Feng Shanshan's world ranking has climbed from more than 600 places ten years ago to the world's number one, and sat firmly in the first place for 5 months.
When she made history in 2012, most Chinese people didn’t know what a golf grand slam title was, what exactly was a 72-point 18 holes, and she was the only player from mainland China on the PGA Tour. Nowadays, Chinese golfers have heard from each major tour.
Chinese player Lin Xiyu once said in an interview with Pengpai News that she is Feng Shanshan's "little fan". "Shanshan has always been my role model since the first day of playing basketball. Shanshan's father is the person who brought me into the golf world. The first person I met in the driving range was Shanshan... She not only played well by herself, but also had a lot of positive impact on the entire Chinese golf sports. She has become the goal and idol of many children, and has also helped many players on the tour. This is also the responsibility I hope to achieve."
climbed up step by step, and people have more expectations for Feng Shanshan, whether it is for this sport or the development of this industry in China. But Feng Shanshan has a clear understanding of this. "When I was an athlete, the greatest contribution I could make to this event was actually to play my own ball well. Of course, I have gained a lot from this sport, and we should also assume some corresponding responsibilities and obligations. But as a specific athlete, I let everyone see that Chinese players can win championships on the international stage, see that the Chinese flag is at the forefront of the rankings, and in the Olympics, there are Chinese players who can stand on the podium. This is the greatest contribution I can personally make to this industry." The impact of
is really happening. Before the Rio Olympics, in 2015, the number of young players registered by the China Higher Education Association was less than 3,000. After , the number has exceeded 100,000.
In those years, many more teenagers began to study or engage in this project, but Feng Shanshan felt that the impact was not enough. Maybe Chinese golf still needs an Olympic gold medal. She postponed her retirement plan and wanted to work hard to represent China in the Olympics.
"Everyone said I am a leader in golf. This is how I see it myself - I am a teenage mouse. I have explored the road ahead, so everyone can stop taking detours in the future." Feng Shanshan once said this to Lazy Bear Sports.
Feng Shanshan effect continues
As the most accomplished golfer in China, Feng Shanshan established Shanshan Sports, which has its main business in golf teaching and training in 2014. Since then, Shanshan Sports has continuously expanded the space outside the arena from studio to campus golf promotion to full-time colleges.In May 2017, the full-time Feng Shanshan Golf-Nansha College was completed, becoming another development direction of Shanshan Sports.
Feng Shanshan told Lazy Bear Sports at the time that there are two considerations for the reason for starting a college: one is that China’s golf foundation is weak, and she hopes to cultivate strength from the grassroots level; the other is that she hopes to introduce a good teaching system so that more children can avoid detours and receive high-level international education in China.
“I realized all the financial sacrifices my parents made to get me to play golf – I don’t want other families to have that experience,” she said.
After the Shaanxi National Games last year, the national team found Feng Shanshan, hoping that she could serve as the head coach to train young players. Feng Shanshan also felt that she had a lot of good things on her body and wanted to extract them, so she took a month of training to see if she could become a good coach as a good player. The feeling of trying it is still good. "The advanced and scientific training methods overseas, combined with my own experience as a young Chinese player who is born and raised in China, I integrate my own experiences and experiences to form a set of teaching and training systems that are most suitable for our Chinese players." Feng Shanshan said.
Feng Shanshan thinks that being a coach is not just about her personal preferences. "You have to ask me if you want to be a coach in the future. I can tell everyone very directly and absolutely: I don't want it." Feng Shanshan said, "Because I think there are too many things I can do, and many coaches can do it. I can use my usefulness in other aspects, but I have the responsibility and obligation to continue to do this. In addition, what I should do in the future is actually still under accumulation."
The current pace of life, if there is anything special about it, there is only one more item compared to the past: weight loss. In the past, domestic media nicknamed Feng Shanshan "National Treasure Shan", which was probably related to the image of pandas - Feng Shanshan always smiled and talked freely, and was quite popular among golf media around the world.
When she was a player, Feng Shanshan once tried to lose weight. One winter, she tried to lose more than 20 kilograms, but after returning to the field, she could not play and lost her former strength when she hit the ball. When my weight came, my grades slowly improved. So she gave herself an excuse at that time, not to deliberately lose weight. "And at that time, I really didn't think I was not good-looking. I think fat and cute," said Feng Shanshan. "But now I'm getting older. If I maintain a heavy weight for a long time, it's not particularly good for health. I still have many possibilities in the future, but first of all, I have to have a healthy body, so at this starting point, I made the decision to lose weight." The
golf season is in progress, and Feng Shanshan occasionally watches the game at home, but she doesn't miss the days of fighting around the world. "You now let me choose to play in bad weather with wind, sun and rain. I don't want to. My life as a professional player has turned over. But in retrospect, I still enjoyed the days when I was very much."
She said that the golf course 18 holes are full of uncertainty, and each course has different terrain and obstacles. After playing 18 holes, it is like living a perfect life. The process is ups and downs, full of unknowns and challenges. She likes it very much.
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