At 22, he becomes the youngest golfer – male or female – to win five majors.
Se Ri Pak was one of the most important pioneers of Asian golf. With her victory in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, she inspired the wave of women from the Far East, mostly South Koreans, like herself, who have all but taken over the dominant positions on the American Women’s Tour, the LPGA Tour.
Pak remains the role model. In fact, when she qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame, at just 29 years old and with a record of 24 LPGA Tour victories, including five majors, she became the youngest person to be elected to that honor (junior Tom Morris, who died at the age of 24, was elected to the Hall of Fame after his death in 1975).
One of the Asian players who has taken over from Pak is Yani Tseng, who has just made history at the Nabisco Women’s British Open, played at the Scottish course of Carnoustie. The 22-year-old Taiwanese player is also a fervent admirer of the former world number one Annika Sorenstam, whom, by the way, she has dispossessed of a record.
Tseng, by winning the British Open for the second consecutive year, defeating Brittany Lang by four strokes, became the youngest player -both male and female- to win her fifth major.
Sweden’s Sorenstam was 32 when, in 2003, she won the LPGA Championship, her fifth major, and Tiger Woods was 24 when he took fifth at the 2000 PGA Championship.
“It was great to make history on this golf course and I feel wonderful now,” said Tseng, who is ranked No. 1 in the world and had won the LP-GA Championship a month before Carnoustie. “I hope to keep winning,” she declared, “next year there are another four majors and I will try to get organized and keep working hard.” Tseng became only the third player in history to win the Women’s British Open in a row, joining Sherri Steinhaurer (1998, 1999) and Debbie Massey (1980, 1981).
More records
But Tseng not only achieved the record of becoming the youngest golfer to win five majors, but she has also set another record for the most consecutive weeks (26) at the top of the women’s world ranking among active players. At the beginning of August, after her victory at the British Open, the Taiwanese champion maintained her first position one week longer than her predecessor at the top of the world ranking, South Korea’s Jiyai Shin. Tseng’s points average has dropped slightly from 16.20 to 16.04, followed by American Cristie Kerr, who trails at 11.65, according to the rankings.
At 22 years of age, her next target will be the 60-week record set by her idol and mentor, Annika Sorenstam, who retired in 2008. The record holder for consecutive tenure as all-time world number one is Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, who led the ranking for 158 weeks until she retired from the competition, also in 2008.
“Of course I hope I can stay in the top position for as long as possible,” Tseng said.
Brilliant amateur
The Taiwanese player already showed signs of her golfing wisdom since she began to handle the clubs assiduously in her childhood. As a teenager, she was already ranked number one in her country from 2004 to 2006. The greatest success of her amateur career was her victory at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, when she defeated Michelle Wie in the final by 1 up.
Age of majority
Tseng turned professional in January 2007, the same month she came of age. That same year she competed on the Asian Women’s Tour and won the Indian Open. She also competed on the Canadian Women’s Tour, where she won the CN Canadian Women’s Tour at Vancouver Golf Club. By finishing sixth in the final of the LPGA Tour qualifying tournaments in 2007, she earned the card to play the American Women’s Tour in 2008. In June of that same year, she scored her first victory on that Tour and, by winning the LPGA Championship, became the first player from Taiwan to win an LPGA Tour major. At 19, she also became the youngest player to win the LPGA Championship and the second youngest to win a major on the American Women’s Tour.
With that dazzling athletic background, Tseng was named LP-GA Rookie of the Year in 2008.
On March 29, 2009, Tseng became the fastest player in LPGA history to reach the $2 million mark in career earnings. She reached this mark in 32 tournaments, in a period spanning one year, one month and thirteen days. The previous record was held by American Paula Creamer, who reached the mark in one year, four months and fifteen days in 2006.
On April 4, 2010 Tseng won the LPGA Tour’s first major of the season, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, by one stroke.
Yani scored her second major of the year, the Women’s British Open, by one stroke on August 1 and became the youngest woman in the modern era to win three majors. LPGA founder Patty Berg was younger than Tseng when she won the 1939 Titleholders Championship. However, that was before the LPGA Tour was created, in 195.0 and the official designation of the LP- GA majors.
In September 2010, a Chinese company offered Tseng a five-year sponsorship deal worth $25 million with the right to use a luxury villa and private jets. Tseng rejected the offer because one of the requirements of the deal was that he had to change his citizenship from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China.
In January 2011, Tseng successfully defended her title at the Taifong Ladies Open on the Taiwan Tour. Three weeks later she won the Australian Open and a week later she won the ANZ RACV Ladies Masters, both tournaments co-sponsored by the ALPG Tour and the La- dies European Tour. Her victories catapulted her
to No. 1 in the women’s world rankings. She won again the following week, at the LPGA Tour’s first tournament of the season, the Honda LPGA Thailand.
In June 2011, she scored another victory at the LPGA State Farm Classic, three strokes ahead of Cristie Kerr. Two weeks later, she won the LPGA Championship. This made her the youngest player to win four LPGA Tour tournaments. The following month she defended her title at the British Open and once again rewrote golf history, becoming the first to win the tournament twice in a row since it became official as a major, and the youngest golfer -both male and female- to win five majors.
At 22, Tseng still has a great sporting history ahead of her. Her idolized Sorenstam won 10 majors and 72 titles in her 15-year career. Yani still has a professional decade ahead of her.
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