Tseng joins the greats with her LPGA triumph
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Shanghai Daily, June 28, 2011
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Tseng Yani of Chinese Taipei holds the LPGA Championship trophy after becoming the youngest golfer to amass four major professional titles. |
Tseng Yani followed in the regal line of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa as the class of the LPGA Tour after her dominant victory at the LPGA Championship on Sunday.
Tseng overpowered the Locust Hill course in Pittsford, New York, and overwhelmed the 150-player field, using her booming tee shots and pinpoint irons to claim a 10-shot victory with a 19-under-par total that matched the best score in relation to par in a women's major.
The 22-year-old from Chinese Taipei became the youngest golfer to win four professional majors, and her victory gave her wins in three of the last six majors.
"She's the new face of the LPGA," 10-time major winner Sorenstam told the Golf Channel.
Tseng, who bought Sorenstam's house near Orlando, Florida, two years ago and lives a wedge shot away from the Swede, said she received a text message from her on Sunday morning.
"She said, 'bring the trophy home'," Tseng said after her magnificent win. "I just really appreciate that."
Tseng showed her resilience as well as her prodigious talents in her romp to victory.
The long-hitting Taiwanese had marvelled at the eight-stroke, runaway win achieved at last week's US Open by fellow 22-year-old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, and said she would like to emulate it.
Tseng did just that and, like McIlroy, won in emphatic fashion to dispel the disappointment from the previous major - in her case April's Kraft Nabisco where she squandered a two-stroke lead.
Doubts
At Locust Hill, Tseng overcame all doubts.
After Friday's second round, she led by one stroke but was discouraged by two missed putts inside three feet.
She spent an hour on the practice green afterwards, but rather than work on her stroke she got a pep talk from coach Gary Gilchrist.
"I told her what you can learn from it," Gilchrist told reporters as they strolled along with him, watching Tseng tear up the course in the final round.
"You know, your name is still on top of the scoreboard. You have to let it go. I told her the main reason you missed is because you're thinking too much.
"I said tomorrow's game plan, there will be no practice strokes on the green. Focus on a tree before you putt. And if you miss, put it in your pocket and keep your mind quiet.
"We can focus on the two you missed, or the 11 you made. She said, 'Yeah. You're right'."
On Saturday, Tseng rebounded from her lone bogey by hitting it close for birdie in a 67 that lifted her to a five-shot lead.
On Sunday, distracted by the click of a camera shutter, she bogeyed the first hole after pulling her drive but bounced right back with three birdies in a row.
Tseng first gained notice in the United States at age 15 when she birdied the last hole to beat 14-year-old Michelle Wie and win the 2004 US Women's Amateur Public Links championship. In 2008, she claimed her first LPGA Tour title - the LPGA Championship - to become the first player from Chinese Taipei to win an LPGA major.
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