Yani Tseng defends her Women’s Australian Open title successfully
World number five, Yani Tseng played an astounding game of golf and refused to budge from the top spot on the leaderboard, as she captured the title for the second straight year at the 2011 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open on
Sunday. The Australian Open defending champion, once again showed her determination that would someday (soon) see her scale right to the top of the world rankings.
In one of the most consistent performances that we have seen in a long time, the 22-year-old champion played round upon round of untouchable golf for four straight days at the Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne. She won the tournament
by seven shots and by doing so she set another record - winning by the greatest margin in the history of the tournament. By winning consecutive titles at the event, she is the second woman to share the feat with Karrie Webb and that is not all folks. Besides
Karrie Webb and Laura Davies, Tseng is now a multiple-title winner at the event.
The Taiwanese player proved her mettle despite the blustery winds that translated the course into a much tougher one than the first three days of the tournament. Tseng made it all seem like child’s play as she carded a two-under-par
71 in the final round of the event which was completely bogey-free.
After entering the final round with a three-shot lead, it seemed almost impossible for the rest of her competitors to play a game of catch-up successfully. By the time she reached the 18th hole, everyone, including the
player herself, knew that she had the title in the bag. The player admitted to having known that she would win at that point and gushed in front of the reporters later about how she never had that feeling before and how amazing it had felt.
The only lapse in her performance came on the par-five 13th hole in the form of a three-putt from medium range. The golfer ended up chasing her eagle putt way past the hole. This provided South Korea’s Jiyai Shin with
the perfect opportunity to cut the lead to four shots, as she scored a birdie.
''My caddie said, 'Let's make the first eagle of this week,' and I said, 'OK that sounds good,''' Tseng said. ''I hit it too hard. It didn't work out well.''
The 14th hole, however, saw Tseng making up for her mistake as she shot from 125 meters to make an easy birdie while Shin bogied. It was really “Game Over” when Shin three-putted the same green. Tseng continued to play
in emphatic fashion and by the 18th hole she was leading by seven shots.
Statistically, Tseng achieved an amazing 90 per cent success rate on the greens by having missed just seven of them through the week.
Tseng had a good shot at the title since the beginning as the length of her tee gives her an edge over the other players. “They hit it very straight with their woods, but if I have four iron, I know Jiyai's going to hit a three
wood,” she said.
To add to that advantage was the fact that Shin, the current world number one, seemed very much off her game during the entire affair. “It's not her today,” Tseng said. “I feel like she can play much, much better. I never saw her
hit out of the fairway.”
Last season, despite her two title wins, Tseng could not grab the ever elusive number one spot.
With the kind of focus and determination that she displayed during the course of the tournament, it would be safe to assume that Tseng will be making her dream a reality very soon. She intends to return to the Open again next year
and possibly make it a three-consecutive-wins affair. For now, she is looking forward to carry on with her winning streak at the Ladies Masters on the Gold Coast later this week.
Tags: