An American resident since age 9 when the Fengs moved from China, her first impressions were all golf. Just off the long flight, they attended the 2005 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga., and saw Woods win his fourth – and most recent – Masters title. Then it was a trip south to their new home in Orlando where Feng was stunned by the abundance of golf.
“Florida seemed liked it was one big golf course,” Feng said. “We were driving down the road and saw this big patch of green grass, just a normal course. But it was so awesome. Golf is so rooted in America.”
The reason that Feng is becoming another new face in Chinese golf is due in large part to the Woods factor. At age 5 in 2001, she played two holes with Woods during an exhibition at Mission Hills in China, Woods’ first visit to her homeland. She kissed Tiger on the cheek after her play and walked hand in hand with him up the final fairway. Feng’s father, Delin, a former magazine editor who made it big on the stock exchange, was already a huge Woods fan. Mission Hills is also where David Leadbetter, the renowned golf instructor, met Feng a couple years later and agreed to tutor her back at his home base in Orlando. The Fengs were off to the United States.
After a few years of working with Leadbetter in the U.S., Feng is now taught by Sean Foley, Woods’ current teacher.
“My father has always been a big Tiger Woods fan,” Feng said. “Tiger is a huge reason why I play golf.
“I don’t have a fist pump or anything like him or have a clothing style. My personality is kind of to chill on the course and move along. At the same time, that can be a double-edged sword for me, as sometimes I don’t get excited enough. I’m very mellow.”
Feng has been home schooled for the last few years, speaks English with no accent and freely uses her American first name Cindy as a middle name. The Fengs still speak Chinese at home, but Cindy has taken to American music and culture and tries her best to eat healthy while on the road with the Epson Tour.
Feng’s development has ratcheted up since she dominated junior golf and played in the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open at age 13 (missing the cut). Last year, she became more of a fixture when she made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open and was the runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Amateur and Women’s North & South Amateur, which is played annually at Pinehurst (N.C.) No. 2, the site of this summer’s double-header U.S. Opens. She earned partial status for the LPGA last fall at the Qualifying Tournament, trying the process as an amateur, and immediately turned professional, thereby negating her exemption into the Women’s Open this summer.
“Since I had the opportunity to play on the Epson Tour this year, I felt like that was the priority,” Feng said. “I have known since I came from China that golf is my career path. It wasn’t to get a PHD and become a doctor, even though I’m a good student. My parents have been very supportive of that.”
Feng leads the Epson Tour with $25,984, is second in scoring (70.45 stroke average), third in Greens in Regulation (77.8 percent) and also ranks in the top 10 in eagles, birdies and rounds under par. She won the Florida Natural Charity Classic in Lakeland, Fla., earlier this year for her first professional victory and has added two ties for fifth. She tees it up again this week at the Guardian Retirement Championship at Sara Bay in Sarasota, Fla.
A spot in the top 10 at season’s end would earn an LPGA card for 2015. With that would come a possible return trip to China in late 2015 – there are two October events on the LPGA in China – marking her first visit since coming to the United States. It would also put her on the same tour as Chinese golf matriarch Shanshan Feng (no relation).
“Right now, I don’t have specific plans on when I would go home,” Feng said. “It’s such a big trip going back. There are so many things I would want to do. I’ll just keeping focusing on the Epson Tour this year, train hard in the offseason and see what happens.”
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