Low scores were few and far between on Day 2 of the HSBC Women's Champions at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. Only twenty of the seventy-six players in the field managed to break par. All the more credit then, to China's Feng Shanshan, whose one-under score of 71 was enough to move her four places up the leaderboard to a tie for 7th, only 3 strokes behind the leaders – the same as the gap at the start of play.
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Feng Shanshan – keeping China's challenge alive at the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore (Photo by Scott Halleran /Getty Images)
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Feng arrived at the tournament a little undercooked: "In the winter I didn't practice too much so I was not playing very well in Hawaii or Thailand. But I was just warming up. Now I feel like I'm ready for this tournament. Now I'm in a great position so I'm very happy!"
But Shanshan could be forgiven for feeling slightly rueful at the close of her round. A steady start, followed by birdies on 7, 9 and 10, took her to 3-under for the day and an on-course score that no-one was bettering. But her progress was brought to a rude halt with a double-bogey on the par-3 11th, and further damage was done with a bogey on 14. However, she came straight back to birdie the par-5 15th for the second time, and closed out with steady pars to finish on a 3-under par 141.
"I had three birdies and no bogeys until the 11th hole," she said. "Then I had a double on a par three. That was a really unnecessary double - then I made another bogey on the 14th. I wasn't hitting the ball so well. My irons were worse than yesterday. But I'm putting well so I'm confident for the next two days."
Yesterday there were ten ahead of her – today there are five. If Feng can keep up that level of progress she faces the pleasing prospect of a very good finish indeed. She was buoyed up by confirmation from Sponsors HSBC that if she had not qualified for the event she would have been given a Sponsor's invite. "That feels great," she said. "It proves that I did pretty well last year and maybe I can help Chinese golf to grow a little faster and become more international. Maybe if I don't qualify next year, they'll keep a spot for me!"
