{"id":44440,"date":"2026-07-30T14:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/44440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:59:07","slug":"gratitude-buoys-tseng-as-she-eyes-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/44440\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude buoys Tseng as she eyes the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"Yani Tseng, 37, says she is in awe of some younger competitors on the LPGA Tour. Darren Carroll, PGA of America via Getty Images<\/p>\n

GAILES, SCOTLAND | Yani Tseng, the 37-year-old Taiwanese golfer who won what was a record five majors by the time she was 22, was sitting on her own in the dining room at last week\u2019s Women\u2019s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links.<\/p>\n

Do people recognise her after her long spell out of the limelight?<\/p>\n

Older folk do, and there are plenty of them around at Royal Lytham & St. Annes for this week\u2019s AIG Women\u2019s Open as they remember the girl who won the 2010 edition of this major by a shot from Australia\u2019s Katherine Hull at nearby Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n

As for the younger tour players, most of them don\u2019t remember her. \u201cToday, it\u2019s me that\u2019s in awe of them,\u201d said a smiling Tseng. \u201cThey\u2019re such good competitors. \u2026 When I\u2019m playing with them, they make me feel young.\u201d Some of those in their teens and 20s might ask about her background and say a wide-eyed \u201cCor!\u201d or its equivalent, but that\u2019s about as far as it goes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tseng had plenty of friends on tour all those years ago but, after winning what was her fifth and final major, the 2011 Women\u2019s British Open at Carnoustie, things were on the verge of going wrong. And that\u2019s precisely what happened after she had made off with three of the first five LPGA events in 2012.<\/p>\n

Just like that, the magic disappeared. At that stage, Yani had no idea why. Today, though, she knows precisely what went amiss and how, for the sake of others, she has her post-golf future mapped out. It\u2019s about creating a sounder relationship between schooling and sport in her homeland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf, like me, you were good at golf,\u201d she said, \u201cyou only had to go to school in the mornings. It was as if it was just golf, golf, golf.\u201d Also, there would be weeks when she was dispatched to junior events in and beyond Taiwan. As often as not, she would come back with a trophy, only to find herself falling further and further behind at school.<\/p>\n

In other words, her Plan B \u2013 she had thoughts of working as a kindergarten teacher one day \u2013 was no longer on the cards because of her lack of appropriate qualifications. Hardly surprisingly, she has always admired such as Michelle Wie and Rose Zhang for completing their degrees at Stanford University while pursuing their playing careers.<\/p>\n

\n

She will tell you that she is grateful for everything she has done in golf and still intends to do, and she\u2019s grateful for being in a position where she will be able to fulfil the schooling and sport project she has in mind.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yani\u2019s Plan A eventually stopped working. The better she played, the more she struggled to keep going. \u201cI was trying too hard and I wasn\u2019t allowing myself to make mistakes,\u201d she explained. \u201cMy thinking was that if I was the No. 1 in the world, I had to play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mental side of things coincided with injury problems. First, it was her hips, with spur problems so painful that they called for surgery. Her left hip recovered, but not so the right. The surgeon said he was sorry, but she would never be able to compete again. A tearful Yani begged him for a second operation and she had her way.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tseng has endured years of surgeries and recuperation. David Cannon, Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2025, after six years of surgeries and recuperation, there was a flicker of life when she survived a five-for-one playoff in a final qualifier for the U.S. Women\u2019s Open at Erin Hills. And when, in the championship itself, she was only a shot away from making the cut, she told herself, \u201cI\u2019m right there.\u201d All of which was entirely plausible when, with her new brand of left-handed putting helping keep the yips at bay, she went on to win the Taiwan LPGA\u2019s Wistron Ladies Open last October.<\/p>\n

In nine LPGA starts this season, Tseng has made the cut in only two, and she opened the AIG Women\u2019s Open with a 6-over-par 77 at Lytham on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year,\u201d she said, in assessing her \u201926 season thus far, \u201cI\u2019m only missing cuts by a little rather than a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one who is endeavouring to look at the bright side, she is happy with that.<\/p>\n

On the grounds that she believes that most of her problems, including those to do with her hips, have been more mental than anything else, she now arrives at the end of each day asking herself, \u201cWhat have I done well today. What should I be feeling grateful for?\u201d<\/p>\n

She will tell you that she is grateful for everything she has done in golf and still intends to do, and she\u2019s grateful for being in a position where she will be able to fulfil the schooling and sport project she has in mind.<\/p>\n

With a little bit of encouragement from old friends and followers, she should find something to be grateful for this week.<\/p>\n

TEE TIMES<\/a> | LEADERBOARD<\/a><\/p>\n

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