The 2025 edition of the Women’s China Open, the flagship tournament on the CLPG Tour, will be staged for the first time in Shanghai, at the famed Enhance Anting Golf Club from October 17-19, as part of a strategic move to elevate the CNY 1 million national championship domestically and grow it into a premier international sporting spectacle.
The tournament’s new and exciting chapter is further marked by the China Golf Association and CLPG Tour appointing global sports marketing agency SPORTFIVE as the exclusive commercial partner of the Women’s China Open.
With over 30 years of managing golf’s biggest events and elite athletes, SPORTFIVE will drive the event’s growth, spotlight Chinese women’s golf and help to develop career pathways for rising stars from the country and across the Asian region. The company will also manage the sale of sponsorship and media rights for the event.
SPORTFIVE will team up with Venue Asia, a full-service commercial management company to further develop the Women’s China Open next month.
The Women’s China Open has proven to be the sporting epicentre for China’s leading women golfers to gain international renown over the years.
Title holder Ji Yuai, who won in Xiamen last December, will seek to become only the third player to successfully defend her title at Enhance Anting since the event’s inauguration. Currently ranked No. 4 on the CLPG Tour points list, the 20-year-old Dalian native with four career victories, will be fired up for her defence after winning by a tournament record nine-stroke margin last season.
Ji, the 2024 Women’s China Open Champion and Money Leader of 2024 CLPG Tour said: “Winning the Women’s China Open last season was the biggest achievement yet in my career and it was the thrill of a lifetime. The victory was especially memorable as it helped me secure the CLPG Tour Order of Merit crown, and I cannot wait to defend my title on a challenging golf course and against a very strong field.”
Feng Shanshan, arguably the most successful female golfer in China, competed in the national championship on multiple occasions before becoming a superstar by winning 10 times on the LPGA Tour, including a major championship in 2012 and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.
After finishing tied fourth in the 2018 Women’s China Open, Yin Ruoning has since emerged as the highest ranked Chinese player in the world, at No. 5, with five LPGA Tour victories including the 2023 Women’s PGA Championship.
The 2019 Women’s China Open champion, Lin Xiyu, is another top name in women’s golf as she emulated Feng’s Olympic Games achievement by securing the bronze medal in Paris last year Thailand’s Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong, the CLPG Tour No. 1 in 2023 and currently ranked second on the points list, Kan Bunnabodee, also from Thailand, Malaysia’s Ng Jing Xuen and Aretha Pan, Amanda Tan of Singapore and Indonesian Patricia Sinolungan are all tipped to challenge for Ji’s crown next month as they regularly compete in China.
The Women’s China Open will boast a field of 108 players in the three-day stroke-play competition where the top-60 players and ties will advance into the final round after the cut is set through 36 holes.
The tournament will be played in Shanghai for the first time in the event’s history, with Enhance Anting becoming the host venue and presenting sponsor. As the site of the DP World Tour’s men’s China Open in April, which was won by China’s Wu Ashun, Enhance Anting will become the first golf club in the country to host both the men’s and women’s China Open in the same year.
