Taiwan’s Yani Tseng has catapulted to the top of the US LPGA Tour’s official money list after capturing the Kraft Nabisco Championship on Sunday.
Tseng earned US$300,000 for winning the first major tournament of the year in women’s golf, boosting her total prize money in the LPGA Tour’s first four events of the year to US$460,932.
That does not include the prize money Tseng won for capturing the Australian Women’s Open earlier this year because that event is sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour.
Japanese golfer Ai Miyazato, who won the LPGA Tour’s first two events of the year in Thailand and Singapore but missed the cut this past weekend, is second with US$398,284 and Kraft Nabisco runner-up Suzann Pettersen of Norway is third with US$380,203.
The 21-year-old Tseng shot a final round 68 on Sunday for a total of 275 at Mission Hills Country Club to hold off the Norwegian by one shot.
It was the second major title of her career, after winning the McDonalds LPGA Championship in 2008 as a rookie. This one, she said, had a different feel to the win two years ago.
“Last time I won a major, I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel like I could win a tournament,” she said.
“But this week I knew I had a chance to win, so I called my coach, my short game coach, my long game coach, my psychologist to see what I should think about today, because I was really nervous and playing ahead,” Tseng said.
She also credited one of the LPGA Tour’s greatest players ever for helping her with the mental aspect of the game.
“I really want to thank Annika Sorenstam because she came to my house and we sat down and talked about two hours. She helped me a lot on my game, about the mental side,” Tseng said.
“[She said] everything outside the ropes you need to just get rid of. When you get inside the ropes, you just want to have fun and play golf, and you don’t want to think about too much.”
Her latest win is expected to propel Tseng into the top five in the Rolex World Rankings after starting last week ranked at sixth. She also moves into the top spot in the standings for the highly coveted LPGA Player of the Year award, ahead of Miyazato and Pettersen.
Tseng also became the birdie leader on the LPGA Tour with 64, or an average of four per round, for the first four tournaments of the year.
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