YANG MEI, TAIWAN | Yani Tseng captured her
seventh LPGA Tour victory of the season – and
her first LPGA title in her homeland – rolling to
a five-stroke victory at the Sunrise LPGA
Taiwan Championship at Sunrise Golf & Coun-
try Club in Yang Mei, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Tseng, the world’s No. 1 female profession-
al, shot a final-round, 6-under-par 66 to finish
at 16-under-par 272. Azahara Munoz and Amy
Yang finished a distant second at 11-under 277.
Tseng, 22, earned $300,000 for the victory
to push her season earnings to more than
$2.8 million. Following play, she an-
nounced she would donate
$100,000 to Taiwan
golf, specifi-
cally to the
Golf Associa-
tion Republic
of China.
“It’s incred-
ible,” said Tseng,
who pushed her
career victory total to 12,
including five majors, in
just three years. “I wish
this year would never
end. I wish I could win
more tournaments. I
have two tournaments
left, and then I will
do my best, and I’m
really happy what I
did this year, and so
keep learning and get
some more experience
and try to make more
With her victory, Tseng joins an illustrious
list that includes Babe Zaharias, Kathy Whit-
worth, Beth Daniel and Lorena Ochoa who have
all captured seven LPGA Tour victories in the
same season.
Going into Sunday’s final round Tseng held
a two-stroke lead over Swede Anna Nordqvist.
The duo exchanged birdies on the second but
Tseng’s dominant play, which included six bird-
ies and no bogeys, prevailed.
Last year’s Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the
Year Munoz posted her second consecutive top-
three performance. The Spaniard found herself
near the top of the leaderboard at last week’s Sime
Darby LPGA Malaysia and finished in solo third.
The runner-up finish marks Yang’s second of
the season and the third of her career. She pre-
viously lost in a playoff to Tseng at this year’s
Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
Tseng ranked her victory on home soil ahead
of her five major championships.
“I think it’s the biggest, yeah,” she said. “I
always try to do my best to win this tournament
because it is the one I really, really want. It’s
the first time in Taiwan and I finally I did it.”
Among Tseng’s gallery was her grand-
mother, which caused some trepidation on the
player’s part.
“Yesterday my mom told me grandma is
going to go see you tomorrow. I was like no,
no, no, there’s too many people. If you want
to come, just stay on the 18th hole. I was very
happy to see her because she never take
airplane, never in her life. She always watch in
front of TV and now she can see real me play on
the 18th hole. So I was really, really emotional
and very happy.”
Tseng-Sational
Achievement
Congratulations to Yani Tseng
for becoming the youngest
player ever to win consecutive
Rolex Player of the Year honors.
