Swinging Skirts LPGA Championship to tee off in New Taipei

2017/10/17

Swinging Skirts LPGA Championship will tee off Oct. 19 at Miramar Golf Country Club in New Taipei City, with more than 80 female golfers from around the world set to battle it out for US$2.2 million in prize money during the four-day event.
 
 Co-organized by Taipei City-headquartered Swinging Skirts Foundation, the championship is returning to Taiwan after three successful editions at Lake Merced Golf Club in northern California. It is widely considered the country’s most prestigious golfing tournament.
 
 This year’s international lineup includes world No. 1 Ryu So-yeon and Park Sung-hyun from South Korea, two-time winner Lydia Ko from New Zealand, Brooke Henderson from Canada and Cristie Kerr from the U.S.  They are joined by 19 local talents, including Cheng Ssu-chia, Hsu Wei-ling, Candie Kung, Tsai Pei-ying, Yani Tseng and 13-year-old phenom Wu Chia-yen.
 
 The inaugural championship took place in 2011 as Swinging Skirts Taiwan LPGA Invitational. It proved such a success that the 2012 edition—renamed World Swinging Skirts Ladies Masters—recorded a 66 percent increase in attendance and was featured in a National Geographic Channel special aired in more than 40 countries and territories.
 
 According to the foundation, the 2014 championship was the first LPGA competition hosted by a foreign group on U.S. soil. LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan described it at the time as a “perfect example of borderless golf.”
 
The foundation was established in 2010 by a small group of male and female golfers eager to promote the game in Taiwan. They decided to honor the Scottish roots of the sport by donning kilts and accordingly settled on the name Swinging Skirts.
 
 Efforts by SSF Chairman Johnson Wang in boosting Taiwan’s global image through sports diplomacy were recognized in March 2016 with his awarding of a Friend of Foreign Service Medal by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=10&post=123212)