Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng has vaulted to second place in the Rolex world rankings after finishing second in the LPGA Tour Mizuno Classic women’s golf tournament in Japan on Sunday.
According to the latest world rankings released on Monday, Tseng moved up four spots from the previous week to match the highest ranking of her career, achieved on numerous occasions.
Tseng’s weighted average points per event — based on a complicated formula covering golfers’ performances in tournaments over the previous two years — rose from 10.14 to 10.69 after securing second place in Japan.
Photo: EPA
However, despite her surge, Tseng actually lost ground in her pursuit of the world No. 1 ranking.
Shin Ji-yai of South Korea, who had been ranked higher than Tseng entering the tournament, topped Tseng by two shots to win the Mizuno Classic and improve her weighted average to 11.62 from 10.86 a week earlier.
Tseng’s second-place finish was good enough, however, to help consolidate her chances of winning the LPGA Player of the Year award, boosting her point total in that race to 188.
That gives her a comfortable lead over her closest pursuer, Ai Miyazato of Japan, who has 174 points after finishing far down the leaderboard in Japan.
With only two LPGA events left before the end of the year, Tseng stands a good chance of winning the Player of the Year award for the first time in her career.
The 21-year-old said during a return home in September that winning a career Grand Slam is her next goal. Of her five LPGA titles, three have been majors.
She won two majors earlier this year — the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April and the RICOH Women’s British Open in August — and captured the LPGA Championship in 2008, which leaves the US Women’s Open as the only major she has yet to win.
According to the LPGA Web site, only seven players have ever completed career Grand Slams.
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