Yani Tseng's Long Road Back

No one has been more humbled by the game of golf than Yani Tseng. Fifteen years ago, she was the dominant force in all of golf. She was 22 and had just become the youngest person ever to win five major championships. The game's highest honors and successes came fast to Tseng. She was the heir apparent to Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb and was in the opening chapters of what everyone believed would be a long and storied career.

And then the humbling began. The dominance disappeared. The doubt crept in. The injury bug got her good. If that wasn't enough, she was then greeted by the putting yips. Her ego took hit after hit. Any sane person would've quietly faded away. Yani Tseng is not sane.

With a smile on her face and a severe case of stubbornness, Tseng kept showing up. She made the most desperate move a golfer can make and started putting left-handed. Confidence slowly crept back in where the doubt had taken hold. Signs of the old Yani emerged. She qualified for the 2025 U.S. Women's Open where she spoke openly about the lows of the past decade. She would narrowly miss the cut there, but later this summer at the AIG Women's Open, she had her breakthrough. She made the cut for the first time on Tour since 2018.

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Fast forward to this week at Sunrise Golf and Country Club in Tseng's home country of Taiwan. Rain threatened to cancel the tournament, but organizers decided to shorten it to 36 holes. In front of her parents and friends, Yani shot 63-67 to exorcise the hordes of demons she's lived with for far too long and win the Wistron Ladies Open by four. In a wonderful bit of irony after so many missed cuts over the years, a no-cut event is where the journey ends.

Tseng spoke afterwards about the enormity of the victory. She mentioned never giving up on your dreams. It's the cliche of all cliches. But when someone believes in it, truly believes in never throwing in the towel, no matter how bad things get, it's a superpower. After everything else left her, it was that belief that got her back to the winner's circle. The page has finally turned. It’s time for Yani Tseng’s next chapter.