China's former golf world number one Feng Shanshan retires

HONG KONG: China's former world number one and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Feng Shanshan announced her retirement from professional golf and the LPGA Tour on Tuesday (Aug 2).

"Now it is time for me to try something different," said Feng, who will turn 33 on Friday, in a statement posted on her official Instagram page.

The announcement comes a year after her last competitive appearance, at the Tokyo Olympics, where Feng had strongly hinted she was about to retire.

"In recent years, the global pandemic has changed a lot of things, and has me reflecting," she said.

"It is time to slow down a little, focus more on my personal growth, and spend some time with my family."

Feng told AFP in Tokyo it had been an honour to represent her country, for potentially the last time.

"We're representing our own countries and we're not playing for prize money, we're playing for honour," she said at Kasumigaseki Country Club, where she could not repeat her medal heroics of five years earlier, finishing eighth.

"Out of all my achievements, I would say a medal at the Olympics is very special," said Feng, whose only major win came at the 2012 US PGA Championship.

"Even though I've been a major winner, think about it, we have five majors every year, in four years we have 20 chances to win a major.

"So I would say it's harder, much harder, to get a medal at the Olympics. It was the most memorable moment of my career."

Brought up in China's southern Guangdong province, neighbouring Hong Kong, an 18-year-old Feng became the first Chinese player to earn an LPGA tour card in 2007.

The easy-going Feng went on to be the first Chinese player, man or woman, to win a major and lifted 10 LPGA titles during her 14 active years on the tour.

In 2017, Feng became the