LPGA Tour

Report: Shanshan Feng again considering retirement after Tokyo Olympics

June 25, 2021
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Shanshan Feng plays her shot from the ninth tee during the first round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

Edward M. Pio Roda

Shanshan Feng is pondering retirement after missing the cut at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Golfchannel.com reported that Feng, after shooting 74-76 to miss the weekend at Atlanta Athletic Club, is heading back to China to begin preparing for the Tokyo Olympics and may not return to play on the LPGA Tour again.

“I am here for the Olympics,” Feng told Golfchannel.com. “My plan is up to the Olympics. I don't know what I’m going to do after it. I might come back, I might not. We’ll see.”

A 10-time LPGA winner and the 2016 bronze medalist at the Rio Olympics, Feng returned to the LPGA at the ANA Inspiration this year after a 16-month layoff from touching her clubs. She showed little rust, finishing T-3 in the ANA and T-4 in last month’s U.S. Women’s Open, while also reaching the semifinals in the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.

Feng is mulling possible other events she could play. The 31-year-old could appear in the LPGA's fall Asia swing, or return to the United States for one last shot at winning the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in November. She told her team to open the year that 2021 would be the final season of her 13-year career.

Feng's solid play in 2021 might have been most impressive in Las Vegas, where she played 41 holes in 100-degree heat in one day at Shadow Creek to advance to the final four. After losing her semifinal match, Feng then conceding the third-place match in order to try to save energy for the follow week's U.S. Women's Open.

The former World No. 1’s last victory came at the 2019 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, where she shot the second-lowest winning score in LPGA history of 29 under par.