January 31 2013, Singapore - It was a day to remember for Singaporean golfer Christabel Goh as she secured her place in the HSBC Women's Champions 2013, after claiming victory in this year's Host Country Qualifying Tournament at the Serapong Course, Sentosa Golf Club (SGC) today, following an 18th hole play-off against Su-Ann Heng.
Both players put on an impressive showing to card a final round score of 77 having matched each other on 79 on Wednesday. Goh sealed victory with a birdie putt on the 18th hole play-off to clinch the top spot and earn her place in Asia's Major.
Going into today's play, Goh and Heng were tied in third place, two shots behind Joey Poh and Jiali Ji who carded 81 and 83 respectively.
Said an excited Goh, who now qualifies for the prestigious LPGA event for the second time, having won the qualifying tournament in 2011, "It is always a good feeling to win and I enjoyed the new course. I couldn't have asked for a better opponent in the play-off than Su-Ann, she drove me to win."
Goh hopes to be paired with the best in the world during the tournament next month so that she can learn from the experience. "Back in 2011, it was quite daunting to compete against the world's best female golfers, but now I have that experience behind me and having worked on my swing and my short game over the last year, I am hoping for a strong performance later in February," she added.
Speaking about her performance on course today, second placed Heng said, "I'm very happy with the game I played but I'm not going to lie - I'm disappointed but at the same time I'm glad I put myself in that position. I wouldn't change what I did on the 18th hole play-off and played the way I wanted to so at least I lost out to a birdie. But overall I'm happy, there's lots of good stuff going on in my game that I can take away from the last two days."
Unfortunately the last two days did not favour last year's Host Country Qualifier, Koh Sock Hwee, who finished in 7th place with a total score of 165.
Group General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Singapore, Alex Hungate said, "Congratulations to Christabel on earning her place in the HSBC Women's Champions 2013. She has overcome an increasingly strong field of Singaporean female golfers to win the Host Qualifying Tournament at the Serapong Course. At HSBC, we are firmly committed to the development of talent both here in Singapore and globally. We understand how important it is to provide a young local golfer the opportunity to compete with the best players in the world and benchmark themselves against the top league on the international stage. We are delighted to bring HSBC Women's Champions back to Singapore and look forward to an exciting tournament next month."
Commenting on the first Host Country Qualifying Tournament to be staged at Sentosa Golf Club, Senior Vice President, IMG Golf, Grant Slack said, "We've witnessed two excellent days of competition at Sentosa Golf Club. The Serapong course is in fantastic condition and undoubtedly provided these young women with an extremely good test of golf which I'm sure they will all benefit from. Christabel is a deserved winner and we look forward to seeing her line up amongst the best in the sport when they gather here in Singapore in a month's time for the HSBC Women's Champions."
The sixth edition of HSBC Women's Champions continues to attract the best in women's golf with 63 of the world's elite female golfers. Confirmed players include defending champion, Angela Stanford, World No. 1 Yani Tseng, World No. 2 Na Yeon Choi, World No. 3 Stacy Lewis, World No. 4 Inbee Park and World No. 5 Shanshan Feng, World No. 6 Suzann Pettersen, World No. 8 Jiyai Shin, World No. 9 Ai Miyazato, World No. 10 Mika Miyazato and American favourites Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer.
Previous winners of the HSBC Women's Champions Host Country Qualifying Tournament are: 2008 - Amelia Yong; 2009 and 2010 - Joey Poh; 2011 - Christabel Goh; 2012 - Sock Hwee Koh.
For more information on the HSBC Women's Champions 2013, please visit the tournament website at http://www.hsbcgolf.com/womens.
HSBC Women's Champions 2013 - Local Qualifying Tournament
Round 1 & 2 Results (par - 72):
Both players put on an impressive showing to card a final round score of 77 having matched each other on 79 on Wednesday. Goh sealed victory with a birdie putt on the 18th hole play-off to clinch the top spot and earn her place in Asia's Major.
Going into today's play, Goh and Heng were tied in third place, two shots behind Joey Poh and Jiali Ji who carded 81 and 83 respectively.
Said an excited Goh, who now qualifies for the prestigious LPGA event for the second time, having won the qualifying tournament in 2011, "It is always a good feeling to win and I enjoyed the new course. I couldn't have asked for a better opponent in the play-off than Su-Ann, she drove me to win."
Goh hopes to be paired with the best in the world during the tournament next month so that she can learn from the experience. "Back in 2011, it was quite daunting to compete against the world's best female golfers, but now I have that experience behind me and having worked on my swing and my short game over the last year, I am hoping for a strong performance later in February," she added.
Speaking about her performance on course today, second placed Heng said, "I'm very happy with the game I played but I'm not going to lie - I'm disappointed but at the same time I'm glad I put myself in that position. I wouldn't change what I did on the 18th hole play-off and played the way I wanted to so at least I lost out to a birdie. But overall I'm happy, there's lots of good stuff going on in my game that I can take away from the last two days."
Unfortunately the last two days did not favour last year's Host Country Qualifier, Koh Sock Hwee, who finished in 7th place with a total score of 165.
Group General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Singapore, Alex Hungate said, "Congratulations to Christabel on earning her place in the HSBC Women's Champions 2013. She has overcome an increasingly strong field of Singaporean female golfers to win the Host Qualifying Tournament at the Serapong Course. At HSBC, we are firmly committed to the development of talent both here in Singapore and globally. We understand how important it is to provide a young local golfer the opportunity to compete with the best players in the world and benchmark themselves against the top league on the international stage. We are delighted to bring HSBC Women's Champions back to Singapore and look forward to an exciting tournament next month."
Commenting on the first Host Country Qualifying Tournament to be staged at Sentosa Golf Club, Senior Vice President, IMG Golf, Grant Slack said, "We've witnessed two excellent days of competition at Sentosa Golf Club. The Serapong course is in fantastic condition and undoubtedly provided these young women with an extremely good test of golf which I'm sure they will all benefit from. Christabel is a deserved winner and we look forward to seeing her line up amongst the best in the sport when they gather here in Singapore in a month's time for the HSBC Women's Champions."
The sixth edition of HSBC Women's Champions continues to attract the best in women's golf with 63 of the world's elite female golfers. Confirmed players include defending champion, Angela Stanford, World No. 1 Yani Tseng, World No. 2 Na Yeon Choi, World No. 3 Stacy Lewis, World No. 4 Inbee Park and World No. 5 Shanshan Feng, World No. 6 Suzann Pettersen, World No. 8 Jiyai Shin, World No. 9 Ai Miyazato, World No. 10 Mika Miyazato and American favourites Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer.
Previous winners of the HSBC Women's Champions Host Country Qualifying Tournament are: 2008 - Amelia Yong; 2009 and 2010 - Joey Poh; 2011 - Christabel Goh; 2012 - Sock Hwee Koh.
For more information on the HSBC Women's Champions 2013, please visit the tournament website at http://www.hsbcgolf.com/womens.
HSBC Women's Champions 2013 - Local Qualifying Tournament
Round 1 & 2 Results (par - 72):
| Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Total |
| GOH, Christabel | 79 | 77 | 156 |
| HENG, Su Ann | 79 | 77 | 156 |
| POH, Joey | 77 | 81 | 158 |
| JI, Jiali | 77 | 83 | 160 |
| TAN, Amanda | 84 | 80 | 164 |
| YONG, Amelia | 89 | 75 | 164 |
| KOH, Sock Hwee | 83 | 82 | 165 |
| ANG, Jessica | 83 | 83 | 166 |
| LOW, Si Xuan | 80 | 87 | 167 |
| GOH, Jen | 86 | 84 | 170 |
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