China Open prides itself on being a 'cradle of champions'

In capturing the 2026 Women's China Open title this past weekend, 16-year-old amateur Liu Yujie joins an elite group of players who have won the country's national championship and used the tournament as a stepping stone to success in the wider golf world.

For Beijing native Liu, the daughter of former table tennis world champion and Olympic gold medalist Liu Guoliang, great things undoubtedly lay ahead after she made history in Shanghai as the first amateur to win the national championship.

"Winning the Women's China Open, such an important national-level tournament, means a lot to me," said Liu, 16th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

"It's a big event, and it also marks my third win on the CLPG Tour. I'm very happy to celebrate this moment with everyone."

Since its inception in 2006, when the tournament was played as the Orient China Ladies Open, the championship has become known as "the cradle of champions" — and it's easy to see why.

South Korean great Shin Ji-yai raised the trophy in that inaugural year, winning by a commanding eight strokes at Orient Xiamen. She would come back to successfully defend her title the following year, this time beating future world No 1 Tseng Ya-ni from Chinese Taipei by five strokes.

Shin would eventually take her game to the LPGA Tour where she would win two major tournaments and hold the world No 1 ranking for 25 weeks, the first Asian player to do so.

It was a pattern many Women's China Open winners would follow in the early years, as 2009 winner Ryu So-yeon would also rise to the top spot in the world rankings, winning two majors along the way.

Kim Hyo-joo, the current world No 4, first won the championship in 2012 as a teenager in Xiamen. Even while playing full-time on the LPGA Tour in later years, the Korean great would return to China, winning the national championship in 2014 and, again, in 2016 to become the only three-time winner. Fellow Korean Park Sung-hyun also won the tournament in 2015 and became the world No 1 on several occasions between 2017-2019, also winning two majors.

CLPG Tour founder TK Pen remembers those early years of the championship when South Korean players were dominating.

"The Women's China Open was founded in 2006 at a time when China's golf market was still in its early stages of development. In its first years, the event was independently funded by the organizers and co-sanctioned with the KLPGA Tour," said Pen, the CLPG Tour's chairman.

"Through that partnership, the tournament carried world ranking points from its inaugural edition and gave young players from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan the opportunity to compete alongside leading Korean professionals."

Feng Shanshan, who was the Chinese No 1 at the time and a regular on the LPGA Tour, played in those early championships, determined to win her national championship.

Facing an elite field of top Koreans each year, a runner-up finish to Kim Hye-youn in 2011 was the closest she got to achieving her goal.

Feng, who retired in 2022 after an outstanding career in which she won 25 tournaments worldwide, won the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and was ranked the world's No 1 player for six months between 2017 and 2018, said the experiences she gained playing in her national championship played a "pivotal role" in shaping the player she became.

"In the early days, competing against strong Korean players showed us just how high the standard was, and it motivated me to work harder, stay resilient and keep striving for success," said the Guangzhou native and winner of the 2012 Women's PGA Championship.

"I am proud to see Chinese golfers achieving success on the LPGA Tour, and I believe the future of women's golf in China is exceptionally bright. Today, we have a growing pool of talented amateurs excelling on the CLPG Tour and winning tournaments, which bodes well for the years ahead. I am confident the next decade will be a remarkable era for women's golf in China."

With the tournament dormant in 2017 and no longer a co-sponsored event with the KLPGA Tour, the event returned the following year as a CLPG Tour event with hopes high that it would produce its first champion from the Chinese mainland.

But it wasn't to be then, as Lee Min of Chinese Taipei became the first cross-Strait winner of the championship with her 2018 victory in Xiamen.

Much like the men's US Open, which didn't produce a homegrown winner until year 17 of the championship, it took until 2019, when Lin Xiyu finally broke through to win the Women's China Open by two strokes over Liu Yan in Xiamen. After the tournament returned to the CLPG Tour calendar in 2023 following the pandemic, Lin's victory would open the door for more Chinese winners — Ye Lei (2023), Ji Yuai (2024) and Pang Runzhi last year — to raise the trophy.

"That achievement will always hold a special place in my heart, and I am proud to have contributed to the growth of our country's golfing history," said Guangdong native Lin who won a record seven times on the CLPG Tour.

"From the time I began competing, the Women's China Open stood out as one of the most important tournaments on the calendar. It inspired me to push harder and strive for excellence. Like all great national opens, it has played a pivotal role in developing women's golf and providing a stage for Chinese players to challenge themselves."

'Tournament experience'

Wei Qingfeng, secretary-general of the China Golf Association, credited those early years of cooperating with the KLPGA Tour as a catalyst in helping to establish the "tournament experience" in the country.

"It gave Chinese golf a more direct view of the standards of the global women's game and helped accelerate progress in tournament operations, competition management and media promotion. In that sense, the Women's China Open became an important doorway through which Chinese women's golf — and Chinese golf more broadly — could begin to engage more closely with the world."

With the Women's China Open firmly established, as a national open carrying the country's name, Wei said the tournament now had a broader responsibility to strengthen its domestic identity, establish a strong position in Asia and attract more leading players from around the world.

"Achieving that goal will require continued progress in commercial value, prize money, international participation and schedule coordination, while also drawing strength from the growing depth of China's young and professional player pool," he said.

"The long-term ambition is clear: to help more Chinese players progress from this stage to the world, while continuing to elevate the Women's China Open toward the level of leading national championships internationally."

Founder Pen added that, with the emergence of a new generation of players led by Yin Ruoning, the world No 6 who won three times on the CLPG Tour as a teenager, it has further highlighted the value of high-level international competition in player development. Looking ahead, he said, international expansion remained a "key priority" for the CLPG Tour.

"Rather than focusing only on bringing top players into China, the longer-term ambition is for the CLPG Tour to expand outward, particularly into Southeast Asia, creating a more stable competitive pathway for young Asian professionals and strengthening the position of the Women's China Open within the regional and global women's golf landscape," said Pen.

For young players such as Zhou Shiyuan, a three-time winner on the CLPG Tour before turning pro in February, this is undoubtedly good news. The Chongqing teenager noted the championship also served as an important training ground for pros and amateurs alike who have ambitions to take their game to a higher level in the greater golf world.

"The Women's China Open is one of the most prestigious events for every Chinese golfer. To compete in this event is not only about honor, but also about responsibility and dreams — it truly is the highest form of recognition," said Zhou, who finished equal 24th at this year's championship.

"Winning the Women's China Open would go beyond any of my previous tournament victories."