Shin turning heads with hair and play at LPGA Founders

• By Randall Mell
• Mar 15, 2013 1:29 PM ET

PHOENIX – Jiyai Shin is making players do double takes as she makes her way across JW Marriott’s Wildfire Golf Club during this week’s RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup.

Her hair looks like some sort of wild fire.

Shin, the former Rolex world No. 1 who won the season-opening ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, changed her hair color to bright orange this week.

Shin, who opened the Founders Cup with a 67, has been dying her black hair exotic colors for a couple years now. She wore it wheat blond in this event last year.

“Last year, I did a lot of colors,” Shin said. “Everybody has been asking me, `What’s your next color going to be?’ So, I changed it . . . Maybe next year, I’ll make it red.”

Shin has been hitting red numbers a lot lately. After winning eight LPGA events between 2008 and ’10, she was winless in ’11 and most of ’12 as she struggled with a hand injury. After undergoing surgery last June to have a piece of bone removed from the bottom of the palm of her left hand, she took two months off. Upon her return, Shin won the Kingsmill Championship and Ricoh Women’s British Open in back-to-back weeks in September.

“After taking off for two months, I was really hungry to play,” Shin said. “When I did get back, I was really happy to be back.”

Shin, though, said she lost strength recuperating during her layoff. She has since gained it back in a regular fitness program.