Shelly Shin finished best of the Aussie-based amateurs just one shot away from leading amateur China s Jing Yan, in the ISPS Handa NZ Women’s Open held at Christchurch from 31 January to 2nd February. It was a great result for the fifteen year old Concord Golf Club member who finished on T18, along with Victoria s Breanna Elliot. A stroke away were Jing Yan at T11 with six other competitors: Charley Hull (England), Kyu-Jung Baek (Korea), Jessica Speechley (WA), Stacey Lee Bregman (South Africa), Marta Silva Zamora (Spain) and Lorie Kane (Canada). For full results [Click to View]. In her first big start in a field that included World number six Lydia Ko, Shelly shot 68 in Round 2 to sit at even par through the first two days on an extremely challenging golf course. A great effort for a golfer who sat at 96 in the World Amateur Rankings (WAR) to just miss the leading amateur status to Jing Yan, ranked 14th. Shelly recently played in the Bing Lee Fujitsu General Women’s NSW Open at Oatlands Golf Club, and finished best of the NSW s amateurs at T17 (-6). WA s Minjee Lee, took the honours as leading amateur at T5 (-11); two others were vying for the title ahead of Shelly Jing Yan (-4) and Vic s Su Oh (-7). Considering Su and Minjee are both in the Top 5 World Amateur Rankings, Shelly s results are not to be underestimated. Pleased with her results after the Women’s NSW Open she said, I did quite well this week and met expectations. Shelly had already put the rounds behind her and started to focus on the NZ Open at Christchurch for her next challenge. When faced with obstacles on the course, Shelly said, I try to think about my technique. Her steely focus has shown her talents coming to the forefront with a great run of results. In 2013 she won a number of first place finishes in the JNJG Junior Masters series, as well as won the JNJG Srixon International. It was no surprise she took the title as JNJG s 2013 Junior Girl of the Year. In the same year, she set a new Bonville Course Record on day one of the Bonville Champions Trophy shooting 69, three under par, and finished the event as the Girls Champion. Shelly enjoys everything about playing golf…the challenge, the mental and physical aspects of the game. She was first introduced to golf by her father. I used to watch him play and wanted to try, describing her first encounter with golf. Her father was a social golfer who used to play in Korea, then became a member of Muirfield after moving to Australia. He is Shelly s main caddy. When he is unable to, her mother Jenny often steps in to be by her side. Her dream is to become a pro golfer in about ten year&aposs time and compete in the U.S. If she stays on course and maintains her focus, we will no doubt see her compete in Tours world-wide.
Author: Golf NSW