Taiwan’s Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) swept to the No. 1 world ranking after a brilliant four-shot victory in the A$500,000 (US$500,000) Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines yesterday.
The 22-year-old will officially overtake South Korea’s Shin Ji-yai this week after completing the second leg of an Australian double following her seven-stroke win in the Australian Open in Melbourne last weekend.
“I never expected this to come true,” Tseng said. “Everything is feeling so good, winning, being world No. 1.”
Photo: EPA
The Taiwanese star carded a final-round, four-under-par 68 to finish the tournament at 24-under 264.
A three-time major winner and 2008 LPGA Rookie of the Year, Tseng will be feted as a hero when she returns to Taiwan, which has not had a world-class performer in the sport since T.C Chen in the 1980s.
“Hopefully, the first page of the newspaper,” she said, when asked how her rise to the top ranking would be received back home. “I think it is going to be huge.”
Eight months Shin’s junior, Tseng is the youngest No. 1 since the official world rankings were introduced in 2006 when Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam ruled women’s golf.
“I don’t want to be No. 1 for one week or two weeks, I want to still be there at the end of the year,” said Tseng, who had 26 birdies and an eagle in her 72 holes at the Australian Masters.
Her win dominated leading news bulletins nationwide, where her performance takes on a special significance as the nation is short of world-class athletes.
“You won the title at the Australian Ladies Masters and have become the world’s No. 1 women golfer. You have become the pride of Taiwan and deserve special praise,” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told her in a congratulatory message.
Tseng was four shots clear of Australian Nikki Campbell and American Stacy Lewis, both on 20-under 268. American Ryann O’Toole was outright fourth on 270.
Tseng was tentative early in the final round as many of her rivals found birdies easy to come by on a day of low scoring.
At one stage, Tseng’s lead was reduced to just two by Lewis and Campbell after her bogey at the par-four 334m seventh.
However, after she birdied the par-five ninth and grabbed another at the long 501m par-five 12th, the contest was as good as over.
Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) also sent congratulatory messages to Tseng yesterday.
Golf will be included in the 2016 Olympic Games. The Sports Affairs Council has put forward plans to develop the potential of athletes in tennis, golf and other professional sports in an effort to cultivate more “small Tsengs,” the council said.
Additional reporting by CNA
EFFICIENCY: The rules for Philippine arrivals were revised after 17.6% of arrivals with symptoms tested positive, compared with 0.7% of those with no symptoms Starting today, Chinese spouses who hold a reunion permit can apply to enter Taiwan and travelers without symptoms from the Philippines do not need to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, but are to be tested after a 14-day quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that from today, Chinese who are married to a Taiwanese citizen and hold a reunion permit can apply to the National Immigration Agency for entry into Taiwan. Chinese who are married to a foreign national and hold an accompanied reunion permit
PENGHU INSPECTION: Taiwan cannot let its enemies strut around in its airspace, Tsai said, one day after a Chinese spokesman denied a median line exists in the Taiwan Strait Following China’s assertion on Monday that there is no “median line” in the Taiwan Strait, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pledged to defend the nation’s airspace during a visit to an air force base in Penghu, saying that Taiwan cannot allow others to flex their military muscle in its territorial airspace. Tsai praised the “heroic performance” of the pilots of the Indigenous Defense Fighters who have been intercepting Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force planes in recent days. “I have a lot of confidence in you. As soldiers of the Republic of China [ROC], how could we let enemies strut
CONSOLIDATION? Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive-general Doong Sy-chi said Beijing’s intimidation tactics are further alienating those who identify as Chinese Only 2 percent of respondents to a poll on constitutional amendments and national identity identified as Chinese, while 62.6 percent identified as Taiwanese, the Taiwan Thinktank said yesterday. Legislators have proposed amendments to the Additional Articles of the Constitution (憲法增修條文), which would change the definition of the nation’s territory, remove the Taiwan Provincial Government as an entity, prioritize the use of “Taiwan” for national groups at international events, and remove restrictions on defining the national emblem, national flag and national anthem. The poll showed that 80.5 percent of respondents agreed that the nation should participate as “Taiwan” at events organized by world
MISTAKE: The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is not a UN body, and the government is committed to protecting the nation’s name, Joseph Wu said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy for listing Taiwanese cities as belonging to China on its Web site, and asked that it correct the error. The organization was inaugurated in Brussels in 2016 as a global coalition of mayors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Six Taiwanese cities at the time joined the coalition as cities in “Taiwan,” the ministry said. However, officials from the Kaohsiung City Government — one of the organization’s members — last week noticed that the city was now listed on the organization’s Web site as a
RSS