The PGA Tour is now two weeks into its Fed Ex Cup playoffs. This year”s version of this concocted event hasn”t exactly played out the way tour officials in Florida, and, for that matter, golf fans in general, had hoped.
The game”s most noted linkster, Tiger Woods, failed to even qualify for the first round of the playoffs, meaning he automatically received a four-week vacation from competitive golf. Ernie Els had to birdie the final hole at the TPC Boston on Monday just to get to the next stage. Phil Mickelson will safely be able to play at all four venues, yet it doesn”t look like his ?A” game is anywhere to be seen, belly putter notwithstanding.
In the midst of all this playoff talk, the PGA Tour has scheduled an off week. There is no golf this weekend, with the playoffs resuming on Thursday in Chicago at Cog Hill and then concluding the final week at Atlanta”s East Lake. It probably makes sense to take a week off since a number of golfers would have competed seven weeks in a row with the World Golf Championship at Akron, the PGA Championship, and Greensboro preceding the four-tourney playoff run. Of course, weeks off are nothing new to the LPGA Tour and Senior Tour as their 2011 schedule is littered with one- and two-week dead zones.
I”m not feeling much playoff fever in golf this time around. It”s hard to get fired up when the top two ranked golfers in the world, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, are without a major title, and the golfer most fans want to see other than Tiger Woods, namely Rory McIlroy, is playing in Europe. It is the year of the journeyman and for all we know, someone like Chez Revie, the 204th-leading money winner in 2010, could be the next Fed Ex Cup champ. Mediocrity prevails, just like in the NFL.
On the LPGA side of the ledger, I am disappointed that some version of the Longs Drugs or the CVS Golf Classic won”t be contested this autumn in Northern California. During the past five years or so, I”ve journeyed to either The Ridge in Auburn or to Blackhawk in Danville to watch the greats of the women”s game. The advantage to attending LPGA events is crowds are so much smaller, making it easier to follow that tour”s top stars. During the years, I”ve stood no more than an arms-length away from Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer and Juli Inkster, something I”ve never been able to do as a galleryite for Tiger or Phil.
Sad to say, the LPGA plays half of its events beyond the confines of American soil. The women”s version of the game is gaining popularity in the Asian markets. Instead of returning to Blackhawk this October, the LPGA will spend the month of October in South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. Unlike today”s PGA Tour, the LPGA has had the luck of dominant players during the past two decades, starting with Annika Sorenstam, then Lorena Ochoha, and now Yani Tseng of Taiwan.
In fact, Yani Tseng is the new poster girl for all things in women”s golf. Born in January of 1989, Tseng was a child prodigy who excelled at the game at an early age. She dominated the amateur circuit on her home island. As a 13-year-old, she came to American and won her age division at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championship held at San Diego”s famed Torrey Pines Golf Course.
In 2004 as a 15-year-old, Tseng returned to America to compete in the Women”s Amateur Public Links Championship, a national tourney hosted by the United States Golf Association. Tseng worked her way through match play where she encountered Michelle Wie in the finals. The WAPL was Tseng”s breakthrough moment in the world of golf as she upset the heavily favored Wie by a 1-up margin at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club of Virginia.
Tseng continued to compete internationally and even played in four LPGA events, making two cuts. In early 2007 as an 18-year-old, Yani turned professional and focused upon playing on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour. Two months into her career as a pro, Tseng won the DLF Women”s Indian Open in a playoff. Later that summer, while the Ladies Asian Tour was on hiatus, Tseng ventured overseas and won the Canadian Women”s Tour event at Vancouver Golf Club. That December, she entered the LPGA Tour”s Qualifying School, came in sixth, and received full-time playing privileges for the 2008 season.
From the moment she got her LPGA card, Yani has been an impact player on the women”s world golf scene. She won her first title that June and it was a big first win. She won the LPGA Championship, defeating Maria Hjorth in a playoff. As a 19-year-old, she was the youngest winner of the LPGA Championship and the second youngest to ever win a major title. She was also the first golfer from Taiwan to win a grand slam event. She was the LPGA rookie of the year for 2008.
Since that first major win at the LPGA, Tseng has won 16 more times during the past three years, including the Kraft Nabisco (Dinah Shore) and the Women”s British Open in 2010 as well as the LPGA Championship and the Women”s British Open this past summer. She is the youngest professional golfer to have won five major titles.
To her eternal credit, Yani Tseng also seems to be well grounded beyond the fairway ropes. In late 2010, she was offered a five-year, $25-million sponsorship deal from a Chinese corporation. The only real contingency part of the deal was for Tseng to renounce her Taiwanese citizenship and become a citizen of the People”s Republic of China (Mainland China). Tseng declined. Also to her credit, Tseng has learned to speak proficient English, making her a good interview at the conclusion of one of her victories.
It”s mid-September and the golf season on the professional levels will soon be coming to an end. The PGA Tour is in a state of flux as far as its star system is concerned while the LPGA Tour has its stars that no one is able to see up close and personal.
