How about 49 days quick? Because that’s how long it took Tseng, an LPGA rookie, to elevate herself to the level of a major winner. At the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, Tseng beat Maria Hjorth with a birdie on the fourth extra hole to win.

Maybe it was not a "Hello, World" moment, but the victory certainly increased Tseng’s presence on a weekly basis, and made her a topic of conversation heading into this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen Country Club.

"I am not really surprised to have won on tour, but I was surprised to win a major," said Tseng of Chinese Taipei. "You just don’t expect to come out and win that. But it was nice and I will keep it."

With that Tseng broke into a wide smile and giggled ever so slightly. These are heady times. Just days after her win, she was inside the ropes for the marquee first-round U.S. Open pairing of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott.

As much as Tseng was impressed with Woods, Scott left her speechless when they were introduced to each other afterward by NBC analyst Dottie Pepper.

"He was a great looking guy," she said. "And when I saw him, I almost passed out. I was so nervous to talking to him. It was like, ‘Hello, I'm. I can't … I can't …,’ I couldn't speak. So it was really fun."

Chalk the Scott encounter up to youthful exuberance. Yet when she talks of her own game, there is a air of maturity beyond her teens.

While length is part of her arsenal (she ranks ninth on the LPGA in driving distance at 263.8), she understands that 3- and 4-woods will serve her just fine around the 6,789-yard, par-73 course.

"I don’t worry about that," she said when asked of her tour driving accuracy of 107^th, hitting roughly two out of every three fairways. "If I hit a 3-wood on a lot of holes, I have a good chance to hit a lot of fairways."

Even more, she understands that a major brings a different mindset, that patience can be rewarded with par, some times even bogey.

"On the LPGA you can just watch someone and tell they’re playing well, and that’s when you worry about your score," said Tseng, who is only making her fourth major championship appearance. "In majors, you can make bogeys on first five holes and still know that you’re not that bad. Even with a bad score you can move up. So you have patience."

To listen to her speak, behind that girlish twinkle and excitement is a player groomed for this stage. Her progression has seemingly been too natural.

She took the game up at age 6 and grew into the top-ranked amateur in Taipei from 2004-06. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links over Michelle Wie in 2004 and was a semifinalist in 2005, a year in which she defeated Morgan Pressel in the North & South Women’s Amateur final.

Tseng turned professional to start 2007 and won once on the Asian Golf Tour and the CN Canadian Women’s Tour before finishing sixth at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn her card.

Even this rookie season has appeared so simplistic. Twelve starts, four top-10 finishes, has finished no worse than 28^th and has yet to miss a cut. Oh, and a major to boot. She is fourth on the LPGA money list with $861,498 and ranks behind Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam, and just ahead of Suzann Pettersen and Paula Creamer in scoring average (70.23). Being named Rookie of the Year, a goal Tseng set for this season, appears to be a formality. Ochoa obviously sensed a budding star on that April Sunday, offering Tseng words of wisdom afterward.

"I told her that I'm going to see her many Sundays, so it should be something nice," Ochoa said.

That day may come sooner than many think — like this week.

Stuart Hall is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.uswomensopen.com.