Charging Tseng falls one short of Choi in LPGA Malaysia event
by Emily Kay on Oct 16, 2011 9:51 AM EDT
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Na Yeon Choi earned her first win of the 2011 season when she held off a hard-charging Yani Tseng Sunday at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.
For the second week in a row, world No. 1 Tseng and fourth-ranked Choi were the story down the stretch. This time, however, Tseng fell one shot short and was unable to nail down her seventh LPGA Tour victory of the season. The 22-year-old who will play a hometown event next week in Taiwan began the day four back of the eventual winner and put on a birdie barrage to tie the contest at 14-under with two holes to play.
Choi sealed the deal with a five-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th after Tseng, playing in front of Choi’s final group, missed her birdie attempt on the same hole. Choi went on to par the par-4 18th and finish at 15-under for the week.
"I wasn’t nervous when I started today but starting getting nervous on 15 when I hear that Yani got birdie, birdie," Choi told reporters following her win at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. "So I was nervous, like from 15, 16, 17, 18 I was so nervous, but I had a great result. So it feels amazing."
2010 scoring leader Na Yeon Choi (r.) defeats world No. 1 and last year's Player of the Year Yani Tseng by one shot in Malaysia (Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Tseng’s dominant season is well-documented, while Choi has quietly put up 10 top-10s this year, including two runner-up finishes. Choi’s fifth career tour win was the 100th by a player of Korean descent, though the first by a Korean tour member this year.
Tseng, for her part, notched her 12th top-10 of the 2011 season. With nine worldwide wins this year, the youngest golfer ever to capture five career majors achieved her objective for the day but said she had work to do to win her 10th competition.
"Today before I'm going to play, I [tell] myself, just shoot 6-under and finish 14‑under....I achieved my goal and didn't win," she said. "Na Yeon played great and she made a couple birdies on the back nine. You know, it's fun and I enjoy it, and I finished second this week, that means I still have space to improve next week."
The best golfer in the world said she looked forward to teeing it up next week in Taiwan’s first-ever tour event.
"I think after these last two weeks I'm ready for next week," she said. "I'm excited for it and looking forward to do my best. Looking forward to try to win next week."
Expect Tseng to come out firing when the LPGA Taiwan Championship begins on Thursday. Because if there were one thing she could have changed this week, Tseng said she would have played with more urgency.
"I would say probably the first three days...I should have played aggressive, shooting every day like the last day instead of, oh, today is the first day," said Tseng, who fired a final-round 6-under 66 to Choi’s 68 . "I will know next time."
Tseng, who is nearing the end of an epic year, also gave notice that she expected to cadge one or two more wins before the season ended.
"I wasn’t thinking how many tournaments I’m going to win," she said about her aim for the rest of the 2011 campaign, "but after this I play good and I feel good right now and we still have three or four tournaments left. I think that hopefully I can win a couple more."
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Congrats to NYC for grinding out a tough win. I definitely had my doubts after she had the double bogey on the second hole. Cut Yani’s deficit in half. NYC and Yani both played well coming down the stretch as did Brittany until she faded. NYC stepped up by when she birdied the 17th. Those two ladies have been going at it back and forth the last two weeks. Great drama. Yani still increases her lead in the Player of the Year, money list, and Vare troph. Se Ri Pak has a 4th place finish. Five Americans in the top-10. Players got to play on a lovely course in an exotic locale. Overall it was a good week for the LPGA tour with the exception of the nineteen hour broadcast delay. Next week in Taiwan should be very interesting.
I wonder what % of people watching tonight will know the outcome. Probably a tough call for the TV people to decide between a delayed Sunday finish or a live Saturday finish.
Certainly a big consideration when the mens tour starts talking about having a 5th major in Asia (which was the topic of the week).
by fanslaststand on Oct 16, 2011 6:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Hard to imagine anybody not already knowing the final outcome unless they went to great pains to avoid hearing.
What amazes me is that xxx Golf Channel didn’t even attempt to keep current. They are pretty much 12 hours ahead of the east coast time zone, so the leaders were going off between 10:30 and 11 pm here. Instead, they air the broadcast 24 hours after they were finished.
If at first you don't secede, try try again
I would think it’s easy for the avg golf channel viewer to go 24 hours without hearing who won an LPGA event in malaysia. I was thinking 80-90% of viewers wouldn’t know the outcome. I could be way off tho, I’m sure one of us is:)
by fanslaststand on Oct 16, 2011 11:47 PM EDT via iPhone app up reply actions
Why can't the GC show the event live ?
There will always be someone in the world who would have to watch the golf into the early hours. Does the GC only cater for an American audience ?
lol – “live” with an hour delay. Did they show the golf played under the lights ?
I’m sure it came down to money. Whoever had the broadcast rights probably wanted too much money from xxx Golf Channel to show it live or “mostly live”.
If at first you don't secede, try try again
It finished just after 3 as is normal in this part of the world. With a rather large chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon at this time of the year, they try to get it done early, just in case of weather delays.
by chip n'putt on Oct 17, 2011 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions
those looked like some really fun thunderstorms rolling in on Sunday. Glad they got it done in time.
You get the same general Golf Channel programming we get halfway around the world ? But you had the LPGA Tournament “almost” live while we waited to watch an extra 24 hours. Has to have something to do with international transmission over here. Are you stuck with the usual cast of characters for Golf Central – Scott Walker, Tilghman, etc ?
If at first you don't secede, try try again
We get the feed
but most of the time, we get either local commentary or Euro commentary. Sometimes, we get the “usual cast of characters”, but not often. The US events, it’s US callers, but most of the time, not the one’s you get. I’ve no idea how that works!
The Singapore Open is
in a couple of weeks and has never got through without weather delays.
It’s a bad time of the year to be playing golf in SE Asia. The inter monsoon is with us and you can almost guarantee major lightning every day, especially in the afternoons.
any lights on the course like the Malaysian course had ?
If at first you don't secede, try try again
Nope
There are three that are floodlit for night golf, but Sentosa is not one of them.
Night golf is brilliant fun!
I’ve only played on a par 3 course with lights – lots of fun. Have you played night golf with the lighted balls ?
If at first you don't secede, try try again
Would be interesting to see the 100 list....
Think the list would be more impressive if it was 100 Koreans instead of the Korean decent. How many can that be? Two wins each for Michelle Wie and Christina Kim. I thought maybe Angela Park, but she doesn’t have any LPGA wins. Don’t know who else is left. The level of play by the Korean golfers is impressive enough without having to pad the stat. The stat had to come from either a politician or a journalist who couldn’t wait to use it before it became a real benchmark.
P.S. Thanks Emily for putting this up on a Sunday.
It’s good seeing an entire field of the top players teeing it up this time of year. Really enjoyed seeing these two going head-to-head these last two weeks. Will be interesting to see how Yani handles the obligations and expectations of an event in her home country. It will be a pretty demanding test.
by sports medic on Oct 17, 2011 8:39 AM EDT up reply actions
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