Tseng dominates LPGA as Woods did the PGA Four years ago, Yani Tseng was an unknown 19-year-old rookie from Taiwan when she won her first professional tournament in America. In capturing the LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock, Tseng became the second-youngest major champion in women’s golf history.
How did Tseng take advantage of her sudden fame?
Four days later Tseng was inside the ropes at Torrey Pines, walking all 18 holes with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, taking in the first round of the U.S. Open.
Less than four years later, Tseng has captured four more majors and has become the Tiger Woods of women’s golf. When Tseng tees off in the season’s first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, on Thursday, she is an overwhelming favorite, just as the resurgent Woods will be next week at the Masters.
So what did Tseng learn from Woods that day at Torrey Pines?
“He really just played in his zone,” Tseng told reporters Tuesday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “He [doesn’t] really care what other players are doing. That’s how much he focused on it.”
The zone Tseng finds herself in is Tiger-like. She has won 15 tournaments worldwide in the last 14 months, including three of this year’s five events on the LPGA Tour. In the other two, Tseng finished one and two strokes behind the winner.
“Golf just seems easier for her than for everybody else,” said Morgan Pressel, the only player younger than Tseng to capture a major. “Any time you have a player like that, whether it’s an Annika [Sorenstam] or a Lorena [Ochoa] or a Yani, it raises the bar for everyone else. Right now Yani doesn’t have as much competition as maybe she even wants.”
No woman has had as much success as early in her career as Tseng, who turned 23 in January. Sorren?stam was 24 when she won the first of her 10 majors. Ochoa captured her first major at age 25 — on her 24th try.
For Tseng, the modern standard is the player she was awed by at Torrey Pines. When he was Tseng’s age, Woods had won one major. But it was late in his 24th year that Woods began an unprecedented major run, winning seven of 11.
Where her legacy is concerned, Tseng feels angst over what happened last year at the Kraft Nabisco. She blew a final-round lead, shooting a 74, and was overtaken by American Stacy Lewis. As a reminder, Tseng attached an Angry Bird to her Kraft Nabisco trophy from 2010.
“It means I didn’t win last year,” Tseng said.
With several reachable par-5s, Mission Hills is a big course that suits Tseng’s power game. Accommodating Tseng further is the shorter-than-usual rough, which will encourage her to blast away. Befitting her star status, the LPGA has paired Tseng up in the first two rounds with glamorous Paula Creamer. All the elements are aligned for Tseng to win her sixth major and erase last year’s disappointment.
“I was crying after the round, even after a couple days when I think about it,” Tseng said. “Even I didn’t win, but I learned something from it.”
