Power Play

Twenty-year-old Korean Ji-Yai Shin's British Open victory emphatically underscores a new world order

Shin is the third consecutive Asian to win a women's major in 2008. At 20, she is the oldest of the trio.

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By Ron Sirak

Photo By Warren Little/Getty Images

August 8, 2008

That rumble beneath the magnificent fairways of Sunningdale GC you felt was the shifting of the epicenter of women's golf decidedly east. The tsunami warning whispered for several years was shouted loudly last week at the Ricoh Women's British Open in this London suburb—the Age of Asia has arrived. Not only did Ji-Yai Shin of Korea win in a virtual cakewalk Sunday, closing with a bogey-free 66 for a three-stroke victory over Yani Tseng of Taiwan, her next three closest challengers after Tseng were from Korea or Japan. This tour, dominated by the United States and Europe since the LPGA was formed in 1950, has gone global and, by long hours of practice even more than sheer force of numbers, is undergoing a dramatic power shift. If the traditional forces in the game want to remain even remotely competitive, they must cultivate young talent as do those nations on the tomorrow side of the International Date Line. They are the future. The sun rises in the East.

As symbolic gestures go, there could have been no more appropriate place for the game to make its most definitive statement yet about the direction of women's golf than in the last major championship played by Annika Sorenstam, the retiring superstar who carries the passports of Sweden and the United States. "I think what we are seeing is going to continue for awhile," Sorenstam said about the Asian influence after closing with a 68 to finish T-24 at six-under-par 282, 12 strokes behind Shin's 270.

"The key is to grow the game at an early age," Sorenstam, a product of the highly successful Swedish youth program, said about what must be done to keep up with the Asians. "It's very important to stimulate the juniors and get them involved."

The victory by Shin was the third in a row by Asians in the women's majors. Tseng took the McDonald's LPGA Championship and Inbee Park of Korea won the U.S. Women's Open. Of the three, Shin at 20 is the oldest. Both Tseng and Park were 19 when they won their majors. In all, 13 of the top 20 finishers at Sunningdale were from Asia—nine Koreans, three Japanese and a Taiwanese—with four from the United States and none from Britain, despite the fact it was a home game for the Brits.

"It's a global game, and I think you are going to see a continued growth of Asians," Sorenstam said. "If you watch the KLPGA, there is some tremendous talent and they all want to be [on the LPGA], so the next five years will probably be about the same." Asked who among the young players impresses her, Sorenstam quickly said: "Yani Tseng. I wouldn't be surprised if she was No. 1 in four years."

Actually, if the effort to get golf into the 2016 Olympics is successful next year when the International Olympic Committee votes on which two sports to add to the Games, the domination by Asian players may well extend beyond five years and may be even more complete. China hasn't even weighed in on the issue, sending only one player to Sunningdale, Shanshan Feng, who missed the cut. Sources in China say it will make a big push in the women's game after the Beijing Olympics, which begin this week.

Asked her impression when she looked at the final leader board, Juli Inkster, who turned pro five years before Shin was born in 1988 and finished T-14 at Sunningdale at 279, let out a long rush of air and said, "It's not stopping either."

Shin, who now has 22 career victories, trailed Yuri Fudoh of Japan by one stroke as the final round began. But Shin shot 33 on the front nine while the 31-year-old Fudoh, who has 43 career victories and has led the JLPGA money list six times since turning pro in 1996, managed only to equal par of 36, giving the Korean a lead that was never threatened on the back nine. Birdies by Shin on Nos. 10, 13 and 14 put the tournament away as she became the first non-member to win an LPGA major since Laura Davies took the 1987 U.S. Women's Open.