Teenage Duo Battling for High Stakes

Hainan, China: Teenagers Wang Zixuan and Pang Runzhi will be playing for high stakes when the season-ending CLPG Tour Championship tees-off at Mission Hills Resort Haikou tomorrow.

The outcome of the RMB800,000 tournament will determine who will win the points rankings crown and a full-time playing card on the Korean LPGA Tour next year.

The race to win the points rankings is down to 18-year-olds Wang and Pang. Both have won on the CLPG Tour this season with Wang currently leading the rankings with 348.025 points to Pang’s 306.267 points.

However, if Pang wins this week, regardless how Wang fares, she’ll claim the crown. Furthermore, if Pang finishes second, and Wang is lower than third place, Pang will also win the points title.

But with a lucrative playing card for the 2026 season in Korea on offer to the winner, it’s Wang who’s in control of her own destiny. She knows that simply finishing ahead of Pang this week is all that is required.

The Beijing native, who turned pro 18 months ago, started the year strongly by winning the Golfjoy Women’s Open for her maiden CLPG Tour title. After equal runner-up finishes at the Beijing Women’s Challenge in May and the Women’s China Open in October, she missed the cut at last month’s Aramco China Championship and was joint 36th at last week’s Wanning Women’s Open.

“Winning early in the season gave me a lot more confidence, but my overall performance in the second half of the year hasn’t been very good. It’s been quite up and down. To be honest, I’m not completely satisfied with my season as a whole. It may be related to changing my clubs. My form hasn’t been at its best, but I’ve constantly been making adjustments,” said Wang.

“The competition for the points ranking title is very intense and, of course, there is pressure. But nothing is certain. I just try to make sure to take care of what I can control.”

Pang is in the same position as she was last year when she battled Ji Yuai down to the wire. In the final tournament of the year, the Orient Women’s China Open, Ji emerged victorious to top the points ranking with Pang finishing equal second at the national championship.

This season, after a poor start, the Tianjin teenager has steadily improved, winning the Women’s China Open in October where she beat Ji and Wang by one shot, and posting four top-10 finishes. Last week in Wanning she was equal seventh.

“Winning the Women’s China Open was incredibly exciting, but it hasn’t made me more anxious or impatient. I’ll continue to play with a calm mindset and keep striving for higher goals. It would be wonderful if I could become the season-long points leader, but I’ll take everything as it comes,” said Pang who turns 19 later this month.

“My mindset this year feels quite different from my rookie season in 2024. Now I’m more relaxed. At the beginning, I was still very nervous and hadn’t quite adapted. But now I feel much more comfortable in this role. So far this season, I’d give myself a 90 out of 100. I feel I’ve almost made up for the disappointment of last year.”

Defending champion Li Shuying is in the United States this week competing in the final stage of the LPGA Tour qualifying school. The Shanghai native, 135th in the Rolex World Ranking, won the Happiness Open in October, becoming the first Chinese to win a regular KLPGA Tour event.

As with last year’s CLPG Tour Championship, The Vintage Course at Mission Hills Haikou will serve as the host venue. The old-style layout was designed by Brian Curley who drew his inspiration from the courses created by the turn-of-the-century American design team of Charles Blair McDonald and Seth Raynor.

In this tropical tribute, where the fairways are fairly wide open off the tee, the course gets its teeth in its strategic bunkering, natural hazards and subtle land movement. ‘The Island’ par-three 12th, with its elevated green, is the signature hole.