Tseng in golf league of her own
23-year-old wins three of five in ’12
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Will anyone beat Yani Tseng? Ranked No. 1 in the world, she has won 10 LPGA tour events the last two years, including three of the five this year, heading into today’s start of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the season. Tseng, who won the event in 2010 and finished second last year, will try to win her sixth major and third in the last four. “Right now she’s beating us pretty badly,” 2007 Kraft champion Morgan Pressel said. “We need to step up our games.”
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Fear the pink shirt.
Just as Tiger Woods made a red shirt an intimidating sight on Sundays during his dominating days, Yani Tseng has taken to wearing pink for her final rounds — and it is having the same effect.
Since the beginning of last year, Tseng has lifted a championship trophy 15 times while wearing a pink shirt, 10 of those coming on the LPGA tour, including two of her five major championships. Heading into today’s start of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major championship of the season, her lead in the Rolex world golf rankings is Tiger-esque, and she’s won three of the five tour events this year, including the last two in the last weeks. She’s dominating in ways mindful of the best Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa threw at their LPGA tour colleagues. And she’s 23. “I think it’s hard for anybody in golf not to watch her performance and think about how impressive it is and how golf just seems easier for her than for everybody else,” said Morgan Pressel, the champion here in 2007. “Anytime you have a player like that, whether it’s an Annika or a Lorena or a Yani, it raises the bar for everyone else.
“We need to step up our games.”
That might not be enough. Tseng is far from complacent and remains extremely motivated. After she lost last year’s Kraft in a final-round duel with Stacy Lewis, Tseng put an Angry Birds doll in her 2010 Kraft trophy to remind her how she came up short in 2011. She won seven tour events in 2011 and thinks there’s no reason she can’t win eight or more this year. And she continues to work hard on her craft, focusing on her fitness and mental approach and adding new shots to her repertoire.
“Only Yani can beat Yani,” said her swing coach, Gary Gilchrist. “When you’ve become No. 1 in the world, your expectations can become unrealistic, in hitting the golf ball and holing more putts, and you can start losing patience. For me, I have to talk to her and tell her that what she has is good enough.” Not for her, anyway. When Tseng’s name hits the leaderboard, it means trouble for her colleagues. But despite Tseng’s dominance — add to her list of achievements her winning four of the last eight majors — not all the players are waving white flags or melting at the sight of the pink shirt.
“Everybody is beatable,” Lewis said. “Yani does have an off day. Still, even if she has a bad day, you know she’s coming back. You know she is going to be there at the end.
“If you are going to win, you are going to have to beat her.”