US And European Ladies Want To Beat Asia Ladies Stronghold

Written on January 25, 2007 by Macau

An exciting battle is on the cards when the inaugural US$80,000 Macau Ladies Open presented by CTM gets underway at Macau Golf and Country Club today.

Players from Europe and the US are on a mission here to break the Asian women’s monopoly on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT).

In the inaugural LAGT season last year, Asian players chalked up win in all the five events. Thailand’s Pornnanong Phatlum set the ball rolling by winning the Hong Kong Ladies Masters. Then Kim Hae-jung of South Korea lifted the crystal ware in the Orient Zhuhai Ladies Open. This was followed by another Korean win at the Thailand Ladies Open. Park Hee-young won it at the Pattana Sports Club. The Korean women sealed their domination when Ji Eun-hee won the back-to-back the Malaysian Ladies Open and the LAGT-Macau Championship.

>This time around, Natalie Tucker and Kelly Cap of the US are bent on breaking the Asian girls domination. The duo won has a conditional card in the US LPGA admitted that it is not easy to win in Asia due to several factors.

“However, the Asian girls are not indispensable. All we need is to adapt our game to the undulating fairways and sleek but slow greens in the Asian golf courses. If we can manage that well then the we are capable of denying the Asian women from winning titles,” said Tucker, from Florida.

Tucker said if you look at things, the Asian women who visit the US very often stay, play and learn there for about a year or more. “They adapt to the situation well and get some good results. But we are the reverse. We come here a day or two before the tournament, recovering from jetlag, find the greens slow, the fairways and rough very undulating which does not help us much. Most courses in the US and Europe are flat with fast greens that suit our kind of play,” she said.

Cap, also from Florida, lamented that she’s here to tune up for the USLPGA. “I find this tournament has a strong field and it is a good way to tune up in a tournament that is very competitive,” she said.

<"We come here to prepare ourselves to get into competitive mood to get the desired strengths needed to play in the USLPGA and the same goes for the European players playing on the Ladies European Tour. Perhaps this explains why players outside Asia did not win any titles on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour. Give us fast green and a relatively flat playing course and I reckon we'll hold the advantage," she said.

Come what may the American professional – five of them, including Tucker and Cap, Fame More of England to name a few are bent on giving the Asian women a run for their money. Their quest for champion begins today at the Macau Ladies Open.