Feng Shanshan leads her team to dominate at Sina Cup.
BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Feng Shanshan Team roared out to an 8 to 4 lead over the Liang Wenchong Team on the opening day of the Sina Cup on Friday on the strength of dominant performances in the fourball and foursome sessions.
In the morning, the Red Team, captained by former world No. 1 Feng Shanshan, topped captain Liang Wenchong's Blue Team 4.5 to 1.5 in the fourball matches. The afternoon provided a similar result as the Red Team took 3.5 points to the Blue Team's 2.5 points in the foursomes.
"I'm really happy with this result. No regrets. They proved themselves. Entering this week, I said I wanted all my team to be very competitive, have a chance to win their match and try their best," said Feng, the current world No. 26 who is making her debut as a non-playing captain.
"The matches were very up and down and stressful. I'm proud of my players because they didn't give up even though they were behind sometimes. I nearly cried for them. Tomorrow is a new day. I told my players that they should play their best no matter what happened today."
Liang, one of China's golf pioneers who has won three times on the Asian Tour, said the result was as he expected considering most of his players were seeing their first action in tournament play this year.
"I have played many events like this. I know it is very tough. Our players played great on the front nine but fell behind after the turn. That's the part that I feel a little bit disappointed. But the most important thing is you should learn from your failures. In the future you can succeed that way."
The two-day Ryder Cup-style event at (Beijing) Shadow Creek Golf Club is an unofficial tournament being staged by Sina.com, China's biggest golf media outlet. It pits the Feng Shanshan Red Team, comprising six female pros from the China LPGA Tour and seven male amateurs, against the Liang Wenchong Blue Team made up of six male pros and seven female amateurs. All the players are from mainland China or Hong Kong.
On Friday, the two captains were required to field six pros and six amateurs for their six fourballs in the morning and the six foursomes in the afternoon session. The event concludes Saturday with 12 singles matches where the same sex players compete against each other. ■
