Tokyo: LPGA Rookie of the Year Shin Ji-Yai launches her bid this week to win back-to-back titles at the $1.4m Mizuno Classic women’s golf tournament in Japan.

The South Korean is aiming to join a small group of players—Betsy King, Annika Sorenstam and Ko Woo-Soon—as the only players who have managed consecutive wins in the history of the competition, first staged in 1973.

World number two Shin, who defeated Japan’s Mayu Hattori by six strokes here last year, added the British Open and season-ending ADT Championship to become the first player to win three times as a non-LPGA Tour member last season.

The 21-year-old, top of this year’s money list, is targeting her fourth victory of the season on the 2009 LPGA Tour.

She will enter the tournament, which runs from Friday to Sunday, in confident mood, having won last month’s Masters GC Ladies on the LPGA of Japan.

Her main rivals at the Kintetsu Kashikojima Country Club include Mexico’s world number one Lorena Ochoa, Tseng Yani of Taiwan, fellow Koreans Kim In-Kyung and Choi Na-Yeon, Karrie Webb of Australia and Japan’s Ai Miyazato. AFP