12 wins in ’11 gives Tseng a tough encore
‘It’s hard to do again … wow,’ said 23-year-old from Taiwan
ORLANDO, Fla. – Yani Tseng has a tradition on Chinese New Year to give her house a thorough cleaning. She decided to start with the trophy cabinet, which was no small project.
A photo she posted on Facebook shows a cabinet crowded with crystal. The 23-year-old from Taiwan has won five majors, the most of any golfer that age.
She is coming off a blockbuster season in which she won 12 times around the world, including the first four tournaments she played. She earned nearly $3 million on the LPGA Tour last year, more than the next two players combined. And she is No. 1 in the world by a large margin that only Tiger Woods could appreciate.
Tseng left her home at Lake Nona on Friday for what figures to be a tough encore.
“If I do the things I’m doing now, I think I will get better,” Tseng said. “I’ve been working on my swing, the physical side, I work on my English, everything. I think it’s going to help a lot. I need to do the mental and prepare, and not put too much pressure on myself. It’s hard to do again. Twelve wins. Wow.”
Wow, indeed. Tseng will be defending her title when the LPGA Tour season gets under way next week with the Women’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
Only two other women have won more in one season – Annika Sorenstam, who won 11 times on the LPGA Tour and twice in Europe in 2002; and Mickey Wright, who won 13 LPGA events in 1963.
The only thing she lacks is attention.
In voting by sports editors for the Associated Press female athlete of the year, Tseng finished a distant fourth.
Golf magazine made U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy its player of the year, prompting LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan to write the magazine a mild rebuke, pointing out Tseng’s accomplishments in 2011 and suggesting that if her record had belonged to a male golfer, it would have been an easy choice.
“I like Rory. He’s a fun kid to watch,” Whan said. “He’s like a young Tiger. He collapsed at the Masters, he had an unbelievable U.S. Open. I got that. But are we that much in a hurry to anoint the next one? She would never ask me to do that. I don’t think she cares. She just smiles and hits it 285.”