LITTLE ROCK — Even the best player in women’s golf can have a crisis of confidence.
Yani Tseng is the best player on the LPGA Tour, but she hasn’t played like it recently. Tseng, 23, has won 15 tournaments and more than $8.5 million in her career, including the past two NW Arkansas Championship titles, but she has struggled since blazing through the tournament schedule in February and March.
Tseng was at Pinnacle Country Club on Tuesday to preview this year’s NW Arkansas Championship, which begins June 29. Among Tseng’s 15 tour victories are the past two NW Arkansas Championship titles.
Tseng won three out of five tournaments to begin the year and finished third and fifth in the two tournaments she didn’t win, but she hit a rough spell — for her — after that, finishing in a tie for 10th, a tie for ninth and a tie for 12th.
Her relatively brutal stretch hit its low point this past weekend when she shot 13 over par to finish in a tie for 59th at the LPGA Championship.
“That was the worst score I’ve never done before, especially four days in a row,” said Tseng, of Taiwan. “I heard Stacy [Lewis] say, ‘I never seen Yani play that bad for two days in a row.’ I don’t know why. I didn’t give up any shots.
“It’s a confidence thing. I hit so many good shots, but when I hit one bad shot, it got into my mind. I needed to get rid of that.”
Tseng has had tendonitis in her right elbow for five years and her wrist has been sore this year, but neither nagging injury is the cause for her recent middling play, which just about any other professional golfer would be happy with. Tseng is the tour’s leading money winner this year with a little more than $1 million, ahead of former Arkansas Razorbacks standout Lewis, the world’s No. 2 golfer who has earned a little more than $850,000.
Tseng said her solution to turning around her year is simple.
She is going to put on a happy face.
“I’m too hard on myself because everyone expects you to win every week,” Tseng said. “It’s really hard to win every week. So now I want to smile more on the golf course, enjoy more on a golf course.”
Tseng became the No. 1-ranked golfer last year and said she didn’t grow comfortable in that role for a couple of months. Her goal this year is to hold on to that ranking, and while she is still No. 1, it hasn’t been quite as easy.
“One of my goals this year is to smile all the time and try to enjoy every tournament,” Tseng said. “It doesn’t matter how I play, but I want to enjoy every week. It’s really hard. Last week I try to smile, but it’s hard when you make double [bogey].”
The NW Arkansas Championship may be just the tonic Tseng needs. The 6,274-yard, par-71 Pinnacle Country Club course isn’t long but it is tight, requiring accuracy off the tee and a solid short game.
The tournament moved to late June this year, making it the final tournament before the U.S. Open. Tournament officials expect a top field, not just because the tournament has a $2 million purse but because it’s the lead-in to the Open.
Tseng said playing the week before the U.S. Open won’t change her preparation. Tseng and Pinnacle are obviously a good coupling, and playing well could help put a big smile on her face before heading off to a major.
“It’s so much fun to play here,” Tseng said. “The golf course suits my game. There is a lot holes that are dogleg left and right, and you need to shape the ball very well, playing your ‘A’ game here to win the tournament.
Yani Tseng glance
AGE 23 WORLD RANK 1st 2012 EARNING $1,005,527 NOTEWORTHY Has won 15 tournaments, including four majors, and more than $8.5 million since turning professional in 2008. ... Has won three tournaments and more than $1 million in 2012. ... Youngest player, at 22, in tour history to win four majors. ... 2008 LPGA Rookie of the Year ... Won the past two Northwest Arkansas Championship titles, defeating Amy Yang on the first hole of a playoff in 2011. ... Originally from Taiwan but lives in Florida.
Sports, Pages 19 on 06/13/2012