Just what Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, and the rest of the LPGA Tour players tuning up for this week’s start to the women’s golf season wanted to hear: No. 1 Yani Tseng is expending less energy to swing her clubs and hitting the ball farther.
"I have been working real hard in the offseason to change my swing a bit, to make it more consistent," Tseng told reporters Tuesday, prior to the tour’s inaugural 2012 tourney, the Women’s Australian Open. "I feel I am swinging easier and striking the ball better."
The longest driver on tour last year, at an average of just over 269 yards off the tee, the 2011 Player of the Year (no matter what Golf Magazine may pronounce) served noticed that she expected to retain both honors by the end of this season. But why would the top-ranked player want to tinker with a motion that brought her 12 worldwide wins in 2011, including two majors and the world record as the youngest golfer of either gender to win five major titles?
Tseng didn’t say so, but perhaps she heard footsteps down the fairway in the form of big-hitting Lexi Thompson, who’ll tee it up as a full-fledged tour member starting Thursday. After all, Thompson outdrove Tseng by almost three yards during the teenager's first tour win, last year’s Navistar LPGA Classic.
What Tseng did say was that she was getting stronger and able to get more distance with less effort.
"When I take it back I always lean back a little bit. So I have tried to change my back swing. I have tried to get physically stronger, so my swing can match my physique," Tseng said. "It is stronger. I have more power. I don't swing as hard as before. I feel I am swinging easier and striking the ball better."
Batting the ball with an easier swing has worked well in practice for the 23-year-old.
"Now I feel that if I swing 70-80 percent, the ball is still flying better than before," said Tseng. "I always tried to swing really hard. Now I don't swing so hard but the ball still goes that far. I am very happy about that...I can still rip it. "
Oh, and if No. 2 Pettersen, fourth-ranked Kerr, and their colleagues wondered if they might have an advantage because Tseng was uptight about holding on to her top spot, they had better find another weakness to exploit. The woman who’s a rock star in her native Taiwan said she was under no pressure to stay atop the Rolex Rankings.
"I feel very relaxed. It has been a year. I think this week is my one year anniversary of being No. 1. It is great," Tseng said. "In the first couple of months I felt a lot more pressure. But I enjoy it. It was one of my goals last year and I reached it. I feel very happy. I'll still keep working hard because there so many great players here."
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