Yani Tseng’s Road Back Earns Spot in U.S. Women’s Open

Precious few second acts have followed an intermission as long as that experienced by Yani Tseng. Nine years after last competing in the U.S. Women’s Open, 13 years past her most-recent LPGA Tour victory and 15 years removed from reaching No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, Tseng returns at Erin Hills this week in the 80th U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally. She’s no longer a teen sensation but rather a 36-year-old woman looking to rekindle the flame of success, or perhaps just once again feel the passion of competition.

Tseng’s love story with the game of golf started in Taiwan, where she was born. She now calls Orlando, Fla., home, occupying a house at Lake Nona once owned by Annika Sorenstam. Along the way Yani won championships in the United States, England, Scotland, Thailand, Korea, India, Taiwan, Canada, Australia and China. Yet her Hall of Fame-worthy credentials were consumed by a chasm of calamity as inexplicable as her rise to stardom was unbelievable.

Tseng burst on the scene when she won the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at 15. By 23, she’d won 15 times on the LPGA Tour, including five major championships. At 23, Sorenstam had yet to win a pro event but finished with 72 LPGA victories with 10 majors, including the U.S. Women’s Open three times. For Tseng, there have been no LPGA wins since 2012. That made it all the more remarkable when on May 5 she emerged from a 5-for-1 playoff in the Phoenix, Ariz., qualifier for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Tseng’s fall from the top and determined battle to regain her form faced obstacles that were both technical and mental as well as physical, requiring two surgeries on her left hip in the last four years. The road back has included a switch to putting left-handed, intensive study of video of her swing from when she was at her best and an inner journey that’s included meditation and work on her mental approach to the game.

“The passion never went away,” Tseng said Sunday at Erin Hills before a practice round with Lydia Ko. “The past few years I’ve been disappointed with my performance, but I love golf, I love competition, I love the people. I want to prove to myself that I can still be a player at this level. I want to see how far I can go.”

Tseng began putting left-handed about six months ago. Using that technique, she shot 70-71 in the 36-holer qualifier at Arizona Country Club and outlasted Ryann O'Toole, Hira Naveed, Dottie Ardina and Laetitia Beck in the playoff.

“I was struggling with my short putts right-handed,” Tseng said. “I had the yips,” she adds with refreshing honesty.

As a past champion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the AIG Women’s Open, Tseng is eligible for those major championships and plans to play them. As a past champion, she also qualified for the first LPGA major of the year, the Chevron Championship, where she missed the cut with rounds of 74-75.

For a period of time, Yani’s dominance was Annika-like. She was No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings in 2011 and 2012. In 2010 and 2011, she won four of the eight majors played and was T-10 in the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open, her best finish in 11 appearances in the championship.  As Rolex Player of the Year in 2010 and 2011 and winner of the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average in 2011, she earned three points to give her 23 of the 27 points needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

“I first met Yani in Australia when I was still an amateur,” Lydia Ko said Sunday at Erin Hills. “It was 2012 and I remember that back then every time I looked at an LPGA leaderboard her name was on it. I was so nervous I duffed the ball on the first hole. But what I remember most is how nice she was.”

Part of the road back for Tseng has been working with Kristine Reese, a coach for the Vision 54 program run by Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson. “What I need to focus is inside myself,” Tseng said. “I need to focus on what I can control, like holding my finish. I need to believe in myself. Doubt is the most scary thing. The mechanical and the mental feed off each other.”

Tseng has also found new peace through meditation, entering an intensive program. “It was 10 days of meditation, 11 hours a day, no talking, long stretches with no eating. I cried for a few days.  Now it is part of my life.”

Yani will benefit from some local knowledge this week. Her caddie is Dave Zeisse, who has looped at Erin Hills for 14 years. As for what advice she’d share with a young player today, Tseng offered a glimpse into her own inner voyage.

“Just be yourself, be who you are,” she said. “Keep looking into yourself and seeing the good things. I tried to be perfect all the time. That’s not a way to live.”

The curtain opens on Act 2 for Yani Tseng when the U.S. Women’s Open kicks off Thursday. The drama that unfolds will play a large role in determining if there will be an Act 3.  This much is certain: Just getting this far has been an award-winning performance.

Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer.