Tseng and Rory both need a 24 carat golden revival
ONE thing guaranteed this week is that the story of the wonderfully gifted 24-year-old, who dominated the game for a couple of years but has presently fallen by the wayside, will get another airing. After the recent meltdown, how could it be any other way?
But enough of Yani Tseng, the former world No 1 and winner of five majors by the age of 23, who will try to end her alarming slump at the Ricoh Women’s British Open at St Andrews.
Let’s talk about fellow sufferer Rory McIlroy, who will play for the first time since his Muirfield misery at the Bridgestone Invitational, and put his feet back into the fire at Firestone.
Actually, for all those pontificating about what’s wrong with Rory, what’s wrong with Yani might be a decent reference point.
His clubs, his jet-set lifestyle, the l awsuits, his relationship with Caroline Wozniacki — all are put forward time and again.
But could it just be that this is what happens to 24-year-olds who achieve so much so quickly?
When you look around and find yourself so far ahead of the game, wouldn’t it be natural to lose focus for a while?
When Tseng, just six months older than McIlroy, won the Kia Classic in March last year it was her 15th title in as many months.
In the 15 months since, the girl from Taiwan has fallen so far she is now ranked 14th in the world.
McIlroy’s pause for breath has brought a similarly precipitous decline. In Dubai, they’re sweating and not just because the temperature gauge is showing 50 degrees Centigrade. All the billboards for the Dubai World Championship in November, the climax to the European Tour season and the event McIlroy ran away with last year, have been prepared with main man Rory centre stage.
Trouble is, right now, he’s not even in the field. He’s 84th, would you believe, in the Race to Dubai — only the top 60 qualify — and he’s only playing i n four more counting events.
So to the first of these, at Firestone. The place where it all turned round for him last year; where he finished fifth before going on to win the USPGA at a canter the following week.
His comfort zone, in other words. And now it is his final event before the defence of that major, played this year at Oak Hill in upstate New York.
McIlroy reportedly made a rare trip back to Northern Ireland at the weekend. After the high life in the high-rise penthouse flat in Monaco with Caroline, perhaps he wanted to remember the boy within.
This week, like Yani, how good it would be if he could recapture a little of the magic within.