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Where EAST meets the Northwest
PLAYERS TO WATCH. Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng (top photo) became only the fourth rookie to win her first LPGA event at a major tournament, and the first since Se Ri Pak won the championship in 1998. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #27 (July 8, 2008), page 8.
Big victories for Asian golfers not named Tiger Woods
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
Last month it was hard for any golf news to outshine Tiger Woods’ phenomenal victory at the U.S. Open, battling Rocco Mediate through 19 extra holes while hobbling around on a broken leg and blown-out knee. And though Tiger Woods has Thai and Chinese roots, I’m not going to talk about him because there were two other big Asian golf stories that might have gotten lost in his immense shadow. At the LPGA Championship, an Asian rookie unseated this year’s most dominant female golfer, while Jeev Milkha Singh continued to resurrect his career on the European Tour.
This year’s female version of Tiger Woods has been Lorena Ochoa, who has won six of 11 LPGA tournaments in 2008 and finished in the top 12 of the other five. Atop the money list, Ochoa is also ranked first in seven different scoring categories, including driving distance, birdies, scoring average, and rounds under par. Entering the LPGA Championship on June 5, everyone assumed Ochoa would win easily, perhaps with a challenge from the legendary Annika Sorenstam, playing in her final season on the tour.
Though it seemed to follow this plot at first, the storyline turned out to be much different, one peppered with the names of female Asian golfers. Ochoa led the field after the first two rounds, with Sorenstam four strokes behind and six golfers in between them, including South Koreans Ji Young Oh and Jin Joo Hong. But on the third day, Ochoa could only manage an even par, slipping into a tie for third with Sorenstam. In the lead was yet another South Korean, Jee Young Lee, just a stroke ahead of Sweden’s Maria Hjorth.
But it was the golfer right behind Ochoa who would make the biggest splash on the final day. After improving her score in each of the first three rounds, Taiwanese rookie Yani Tseng was paired with Ochoa in the fourth round. The gallery was focused on her Mexican partner, cheering "Lorena, Lorena!" But that chant would change as Tseng shot a 68, vaulting her over Ochoa, Sorenstam, Lee, and the entire field, except for Hjorth.
Tied after regulation, Hjorth and Tseng went into a sudden-death playoff, and Tseng emerged triumphant after four holes. The 19-year-old Taiwanese golfer becomes only the fourth rookie to win her first LPGA event at a major tournament, and the first since Se Ri Pak won the championship in 1998. Tseng’s finish also places her atop the Rookie of the Year race, shooting past South Korea’s Na-Yeon Choi. Tseng also qualified herself for this year’s ADT Championship and the 20-player Samsung World Championship, while reminding the world that the future of women’s golf is solidly in Asia.
Asian men’s golf has a promising future, too. One of three Asian golfers given a special invitation to this year’s Masters (detailed in a previous story, "Asian tour standouts invited to 2008 Masters," AR, February 12, 2008,) Jeev Milkha Singh improved on his 2007 Masters’ 37th place performance by tying for 25th this year. But Singh would save his best golf for the Austrian Open, where he coasted to an easy victory, vaulting him into ninth place on the European Tour. The victory was his first on the European Tour since 2006, when he won two tournaments, indicating Singh may be poised to take another giant step forward in his career.
Six players were tied at the top after the first round of the Austrian Open, but Singh was the only one to improve his score in the next round, putting him squarely in first. With a four-stroke cushion, Singh played conservative golf in the third and final round, shooting 18 straight pars. Playing scratch golf usually isn’t enough to win a tournament, but Singh maintained his lead as other players pressed to overtake him under threatening weather conditions. Only Simon Wakefield managed to get within a stroke of him, but Singh sealed the deal on the 18th hole with one final just-enough effort. "I think the golfing gods were looking out for me," Singh said. "I didn’t hit my last putt hard enough, but it caught the edge of the hole and went in."
Singh’s ninth place in the European Tour is his highest ranking ever, and this victory was particularly sweet after two near-misses earlier this season. At the Indonesian Open in Jakarta, Singh missed first place by only a stroke, while the Ballantine’s Championship on Jeju Island in South Korea required three playoff holes before Graeme MacDonald of Northern Ireland snatched the win from Singh. Singh continues to prove himself after losing six years of his career to a 2000 injury, but he should enjoy even more success in the future.