Over the next several weeks LPGA.com will take a look back at Epson Tour players landing inside the top-10. This edition of the 'Meet the Epson Tour Grads" features Cindy Feng. She had six top finishes including a first place finish at the Florida's Natural Charity Classic. She finished ranked No. 7 in the Volvik Race for the Card and earned LPGA membership for the 2015 season.
Cindy Feng was the youngest player on the Epson Tour in 2014, but you certainly couldn’t tell if you were a regular on site. Her golf game, and her mental makeup for that matter, is mature beyond her years in part because golf has always been a part of life. Feng, who grew up in Chang De, China and moved to Orlando to pursue a professional career when she was nine (and the family hired world renowned teacher David Leadbetter), picked up golf at the age of four.
Early in 2014, she established herself as a player to watch. She finished in a tie for second at the second event of the year and then won the third event, the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic.
She didn’t stop.
Feng placed in a tie for fifth at the fourth event, solo second at the fifth event and a tie for third at the sixth event.
Yes, she posted five consecutive top 5 finishes early in the year to basically supplant her spot in the top 10 on the Volvik Race for the Card money list.
We first realized she was human when she finished T22 at the seventh event of the year.
In June, Feng qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and made a statement when she finished in a tie for 13th and pocketed $77,640. On a tough scoring golf course, she finished ahead of Chella Choi, Juli Inkster, Lydia Ko, Brittany Lincicome and Paula Creamer to name a few longtime LPGA stars.
Not surprisingly, Feng didn’t play regularly on the Epson Tour after that finish. She wound up making four additional starts on the LPGA Tour and played in 12 of 20 Epson Tour events.
Her rookie success and quick rise to the LPGA Tour shouldn’t be a huge surprise. In 2013, she advanced to the finals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship where she lost 2 and 1 to Emma Talley.
Feng has always been the youngest and ahead of her peers. In 2009, at the age of 13, she qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open and was the youngest player in the field (156 people).
You can trace her love for golf back to 2001, when Tiger Woods made a trip to China and five-year-old Cindy Feng got a chance to meet Tiger and play two holes with one of the greatest of all-time.
Just google Cindy Feng and Tiger Woods and you’ll quickly find out how much of an influence Tiger Woods was on her.
Nothing will really change for Feng next year on the LPGA. She’ll again be one of the youngest, but she still may turn out to be one of the best.
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