WLC drops team event to spark intensity

The sixth edition of the World Ladies Championship returns to Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island this weekend, with a streamlined schedule aimed at intensifying the competition.

No longer encompassing a team event, this year's tournament, also an opening stage of the China LPGA tour, is focused on individual competition among 126 golfers, cut to the top 60 and ties after round two.

Defending champion Lee Jung-min of South Korea leads the field, but the home course advantage belongs to Zhang Weiwei, a Haikou native who finished third on the 2016 CLPGA Order of Merit.

"We eliminated the team event in order to bring the tournament to a higher level over the next five years," said Li Hong, managing director of China LPGA Tour Ltd.

Also sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association, the event showcases some of the best from both while providing a competitive platform for homegrown talent.

"The WLC has proved to be a successful event over the past five years, especially in the sense that it helped China win its first golf medal at last year's Rio Olympic Games," Li said.

"This year marks the start of our next five-year cycle. By staging a better WLC, we want to increase the competition level of women's professional golf in China and build a larger fan base for the sport."

Feng Shanshan, China's bronze medalist in Rio, won the inaugural WLC in 2012 and there has been a different winner each year since.

Lee's strongest competition could come from compatriot Ko Jin-young, her partner when they won the team event last year.

France's Gwladys Nocera, a winner of 14 European titles, and 21-year-old rising star Anne Van Dam of the Netherlands are also worth watching.

"I've heard some really good things about the tournament, so I can't wait to play. I think China will always be special for me because it's where I won my first LET tournament," said Van Dam, who took the title at the Xiamen International Ladies Open last October.

Van Dam has been working with a new coach, David Dickmeis, after finishing 17th on the 2016 LET Order of Merit.

"We worked a lot on my short game and it has been going pretty well; I'm seeing some nice progress," she said.

Meanwhile, China's Li Jiayun, who won the Le Coq Sportif Beijing Ladies Classic last May, has been training with Gary Gilchrist, Feng's South African coach.

"He didn't make big changes to my movements, but his simple guidance was very effective," said Li Jiayun, who flew to the US in February and stayed in Gilchrist's golf academy for a month. "He is very strong in mental instruction. He encouraged me and fueled my confidence and passion for golf."

The $600,000 WLC was contested at Mission Hills Haikou for four years before the fifth edition switched to Dongguan, Guangdong province, in 2016.

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