Yani Tseng and Swinging Skirts Golf Golf to Support AJGA Girls Invitational

          October 28, 2013, BRASELTON, Ga. - LPGA global superstar Yani Tseng, along with the Taiwan-based Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation, will host the Yani Tseng Invitational presented by Swinging Skirts from 2014-2016 in Southern California. 

          The first edition of this American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) invitational will be held from June 30 - July 3, 2014, and features 72 of the top female junior golfers from around the world including 18 of the top international players.

        “I first came to the United States when I was 12 to play in the Junior World Championship in San Diego and subsequently in many other USGA and amateur championships, so I really benefited from playing American junior golf,” Tseng said. “The AJGA is the best organization to bring players together and for me to host such a prestigious AJGA invitational in Southern California, where I played much of my junior golf, makes it extra special. I’m excited to partner with the Swinging Skirts to open a door for international junior golfers to compete at the highest level.” 

          Since turning professional in 2007, Tseng has amassed 26 professional victories by age 24, including major victories at the Kraft Nabisco Championship (2010), the LPGA Championship (2008, 2011) and the Ricoh Women’s British Open (2010, 2011). She was named the LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2008 and earned LPGA Tour Player of the Year honors in 2010 and 2011. Before joining the LPGA Tour, Tseng was the No. 1-ranked amateur golfer in Taiwan from 2004-2006.

        “We are excited to start a new chapter of our organization by building a relationship with the AJGA,” said Kiki Yang, president of Yani Tseng International. “By staging a high-profile international golf tournament here in the United States, we will be able to help expose some of Taiwan’s best players to world-class competition.” 

          The Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation is a non-profit organization based out of Taiwan whose members love golf very much, both male and female, compete in a skirt or kilt on the golf course and help grow the game internationally. In addition to staging the Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters (Taiwan Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Tour co-sanctioned event), the Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation has conducted the “Dream-chasing Cup” throughout northern, central and southern Taiwan to help lay the foundation for Taiwanese junior golfers to make it to the international stage.

         “With the help of Yani’s immense popularity and the tremendous support of the AJGA, it is our hope to get more young people to take up the sport and truly showcase how global the game has become,” said Johnson Wang, chairman of the Swinging Skirts Golf Foundation

        Annual proceeds from the tournament will be used to endow a Yani Tseng Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant, as well as other local charities. The goal of the AJGA’s ACE Grant program is to give top-flight golf opportunities to young golfers regardless of financial resources.

        “We are excited to partner with Yani Tseng and the Swinging Skirts for this tournament,” said AJGA Executive Director Stephen Hamblin. “Yani is a great role model for young golfers and more tournament opportunities for girls at the highest level are invaluable.”

Woods and EA Sports Part Ways

          Tiger Woods' long-running golf simulation video game series with EA Sports is coming to an end. The series has carried Woods' name for the past 14 years and EA has been one of the American's biggest and longest-standing sponsors, with the games raking in as much £479m for the US-based publisher over their long history. It's estimated that Woods' share of those profits was around £10m each year. "EA Sports and Tiger Woods have also made a mutual decision to end our partnership, which includes Tiger's named PGA Tour golf game," said Daryl Holt, EA Sports' VP and GM of golf. "We've always been big fans of Tiger and we wish him continued success in all his future endeavours." It's not clear why the partnership has ended. The series remained the best-selling golf video game for EA even during Woods' highly publicised marital troubles and his barren streak on the course.

Poulter Ready to do Battle

           Ian Poulter admits that successfully defending his WGC-HSBC Champions trophy in Shanghai this week will be a tough ask. The Englishman is up against a star-studded field bursting at the seams with international golfing talent.

          Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jason Dufner, Henrik Stenson, Brandt Snedeker, Luke Donald and many more will all be vying for the lucrative first prize. On Tuesday, Poulter, Dufner, Mickelson, Rose and McIlroy were joined by a group of Chinese Opera performers at a ceremony overlooking Shanghai's famous riverfront. The golfers swapped their clubs for traditional swords, spears and halbreds while draped in colourful, flowing cloaks. "HSBC always do something fun for us in the city where we are.

         It's nice to see a bit of the culture of the city we are in. It shows the players commitment to doing different things and enjoy the local culture," said Poulter. "It is going to be a tall order to defend my title this year against such a strong field. Justin, Phil and Jason won the three most recent majors and are obviously the in-form guys at the moment." "I love playing in China and really feed off the enthusiasm and encouragement I get from the fans here, so whatever happens, I know it will be a great week." Rose added: "It's always nice when you come to a country with such a different culture like there is in China to get a feel for it, with the local dance and dress. That is something that you take away with you and it makes the trip really special."

Stenson Back to his Best

             Henrik Stenson is confident of performing at his best at this week's WGC-HSBC Champions after a disappointing BMW Masters. The world number four suffered from a wrist injury during the first event of the European Tour's four-part Final Series and finished in a tie for 33rd.

          The Race to Dubai leader responded well from a third round 79 by closing with a superb 65 at the Lake Malaren Golf Club and he is confident of taking his new-found momentum into the tournament in China. Stenson is currently €443,725 in front of Graeme McDowell in the Race to Dubai standings, but is confident of doing well at the Sheshan International Golf Club this week. "This is obviously a big event on our schedule and one which we always look forward to," Stenson told the European Tour's official website. "It is one of the strongest fields of the season and I have played quite well at Sheshan before, so I'm hoping for a good week. "You are going to have to play some good golf to be up there, we know that much.

           With the preparations leading into last week I wasn't in the shape I wanted to be, but I finished with a good score on Sunday so I feel pretty good about my game. "I would be hoping to be in contention one of these last three weeks. I can't walk around waiting for the right things to play out. I need to have some good results if I am going to finish on top and win The Race to Dubai. I imagine it will still be quite open when we get to Dubai, so if I can have a good result this week it will really help me. If not, I will keep working away. "It certainly helps that I've done quite well around here before and I think it is good golf course. It has a good mix of risk and reward holes. There are a couple of easy holes and a few tougher holes.

             You need to hit the ball pretty well from tee to green to give yourself the chances. It is a course that suits me pretty well. It suits good ball strikers, but there are a few of those here this week!" Stenson won the Accenture Match Play Championship in 2007 and is looking to win his second WGC this week at an even he hasn't qualified for since finishing in a tie for 13th place in 2013. "I've missed this event the last couple of years so it is great to be back in the field," he added. "That was one of my big goals when I started to climb back up the rankings - to get back in the big events, and this is certainly one of those. They put on a great venue for us, a great golf course, and a great tournament, so it should be a fantastic week."

Recent Form Excites McIlroy

              After winning his first tournament of the year, albeit in an 18-hole exhibition event, Rory McIlroy is confident that he is nearing his best form again. The former world number one beat Tiger Woods for the second successive year in their money-spinning event at Mission Hills, carding a 67 to edge out the world's best player by one stroke.

         

             The Ulsterman hasn't won any full tournaments this year after claiming five titles in 2012, which included a second major victory, at the US PGA Championship. McIlroy has shown glimpses of his old self as the year progressed and finished second at the Korea Open a fortnight ago. "It's much better," said the two-time major champion after switching to a new ball and driver. I've seen a lot of promising signs over the past few weeks in practice and also in competitive play. I still have four tournaments left until the end of the season and I would love to finish 2013 strongly and get a little bit of momentum going into next season. "I think as I showed out there, I'm hitting the ball well.

          Tee to green, the game was very solid, and if I can just get the putter going a little bit more and get a few more putts to drop, then in these last four tournaments I can hope to contend and maybe pick up a win or two." He will play in this week's WGC-HSBC Champions before competing in the Turkish Airlines Open in a hope to move up from 62nd on the Race to Dubai rankings to 60th in order to qualify for the DP World Tour Championship next month.

Interview-Golf-Improving McIlroy will Win by End of Year - Woods

            Oct 29 (Reuters) - Tiger Woods believes Rory McIlroy is slowly getting his golf game back on track and predicted on Tuesday that the former world number one would claim a breakthrough first victory of the year by the end of December. McIlroy was on top of the world at the end of 2012, having won the orders of merit on both sides of the Atlantic, but he has had a turbulent season this year on and off the course.

          The Northern Irishman changed his clubs in January, a switch that was criticised by several pundits. He is also in the middle of a bitter court dispute with his former management team and, according to media reports, has split from girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki. "He is playing better and swinging a lot better," 14-times major champion Woods told Reuters in an interview. "You can see that some of the stuff he and his coach are working on are starting to come together. "He's starting to put together a few good rounds, now he just has to make a few more putts. I can definitely see him winning sometime this year because his game has come around." World number one Woods had a close-up view of McIlroy when he lost to the twice major winner in a lucrative head-to-head exhibition match on China's Hainan Island on Monday.

         The two golfers are both based in Florida and the 37-year-old American said he and world number six McIlroy had formed an excellent relationship. "Rory has become a good friend of mine over probably the past year, year and a half," explained Woods. "It seems like every tournament we're paired together, we're also playing practice rounds together and we have really hit it off. "He plays on both tours, U.S. and European, so we see each other at big events and when we do we try and play practice rounds whenever we can." RECORD CHASER Woods has taken full advantage of the 24-year-old McIlroy's form slump, returning to the top of the world rankings with five victories this season. None of his 2013 wins have come in the big four championships but he left little room for doubt that he still yearns to break the 18-major record of compatriot Jack Nicklaus. "It took him until he got to 46 to do it and this year I'll be 38 so there's plenty of time," said Woods. "A lot of guys have won a lot of majors post 40. "The great thing about staying fit is we're able to play at a high level for a long period of time so hopefully I can compete at this level for a very long period of time." Woods said his game was still improving and he could now plot his way around courses better than before. "I don't necessarily have the same whooping power I used to ... but my understanding of how to play, how to manage my game around the golf course has got infinitely better," he added. "I'm still hitting the ball plenty far but there's a next generation of kids out there that are taller, bigger, more athletic who absolutely annihilate it.

        The game has changed, a lot of guys are 6-foot-3 and above and hit the ball for miles. "It's not too often you see shorter, smaller players who don't have power doing well. You've got to have power in our game now," said Woods. The American is to miss the final World Golf Championship (WGC) event of the season in Shanghai this week but will compete in next week's Turkish Open. (Writing by Tony Jimenez in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Whatever They're Paying These Guys, It's Not Enough

             We love the Asian swing of the golf season. Not necessarily because of the golf and definitely not because of the time difference. But oh, those elaborate pre-tournament promotional photo shoots. They are unintentional comedy at its finest. The Grind: What you need to know and see from the week in golf Last week, Rory McIlroy played Chinese drums and this week, he played dress up with several of the world's top players in advance of the WGC-HSBC World Champions in Shanghai. These guys must be getting a lot of money to play along. Here's a group shot of them posing for what could pass as a scene from a movie that's a cross between "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings":

                

       As usual, Jason Dufner steals the show. He's that guy on the left who looks about as thrilled as a kid sitting through an agronomy lecture. In fact, let's focus a little more on the PGA champ. Here, Dufner has his game face on as he takes direction from someone while Phil Mickelson kneels (Side note: Mickelson looks very convincing as a sorcerer with that all-black outfit):

Then there's Dufner offering a little smirk (Side note: McIlroy looks evil):

Dufner and the gang surround defending champion Ian Poulter, as if they are fanning the reigning WGC-HSBC king or about to attack him for his throne:

Then Dufner ATTACKS! Well, sort of:

And finally, Dufner flashes his trademark ear-to-ear smile:

            The PGA Tour heads back to the boring United States for the McGladrey Classic next week, but some of the big names, including Tiger Woods, will head to Turkey for the Turkish Open. Let's hope the cameras are rolling.