Success, majors, tears, injuries, yips, left-handed putting. Yani Tseng has done it all, except quit on herself

ERIN, Wis. — Yani Tseng walked into her press conference Wednesday at the U.S. Women’s Open, her 12th appearance in the biggest championship in women’s golf but first since 2016, with a never-ending smile. She followed a couple of teenage amateurs who had just held court with the media.

“How old are they?” asked the 36-year-old from Taiwan. “Do they even know me?”

They sure do. Asterisk Talley, 16, said Tseng was the GOAT and a legend, and Jude Lee, 17, said she was incredible. That warmed Tseng’s heart.

“I actually heard that last week, too, from one of the players. I feel like it's a very big honor to hear from them, especially how young they are, and I was surprised they still know me,” Tseng said. “To be standing up here, I want to give them hope, too. The old ladies still can do it. I didn't give up, even after nine years. They can do the same thing as me. Enjoy it out here, enjoy the tour and do the best they can, and they're going to find out a lot of beautiful things will come.”

There is beauty in Tseng’s inexplicable story. Beauty because she was once like them—an immensely talented golfer with a bright future ahead. It started in 2004 when Tseng came to the U.S. at 15 and upset defending champion Michelle Wie in the final of the now defunct U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

After turning pro in 2007, Tseng quickly found success on the LPGA. She was rookie of the year in 2008, player of the year in 2010 and 2011. She won 15 times, including five majors from 2008-2012. She was No. 1 in world for 109 straight weeks from 2011-2013, the second longest streak of all time.

But then, inexplicably, the bottom fell out of her game, seemingly overnight. After five straight seasons earning more than $1 million, she struggled. It was mental. It was physical. She had the yips. Doubt. Tears. Hip surgeries. She switched to become a left-handed putter. And then, beauty again.

Since 2019, Tseng has made just 24 starts on the LPGA, using her tournament winners status to get into events. She didn’t play at all in 2024, but came back again this season. She could’ve quit, maybe should have, but she didn’t.

“I asked myself a lot of times, too, because I think it's very easy to quit,” Tseng said. “I think every time I practice, every little step, there’s a little progress that gave me hope. I think that hope is kind of what carries me to be where I am now. I fell down so many times. I stood back up and I kept moving forward.

“I know I'm not like 20s, but I know Juli Inkster won her first U.S. Open when she was 39, so I'm not far away. I wanted to give myself this opportunity, an opportunity to win a spot back here. To give the professional or amateurs this opportunity to play the USGA tournament, that's always been my dream when I was 13, and to come back here is so different than playing my first U.S. Open and the last U.S. Open and now. I feel like this is the happiest ever.”

Tseng has played three times in 2025, and hasn’t yet made a cut. But progress came last month at U.S. Women’s Open qualifying, where she made it through a five-for-one playoff for the final spot out of the Phoenix qualifier, earning her way back into one of the two majors she hadn’t won before.

Not only is she back, her putting stroke is, too, just in time for Erin Hills. Six months ago, Tseng became a left-handed putter. Her coach, Brady Burke, suggested it. At first, she blew it off.

“I've been fighting with the yips actually for three or four years, and I changed so many little things and just never happened,” Tseng said. “Since then, I had two hip surgeries, and I thought after hip surgery it might be gone, but I didn't do the brain surgery, so the yips were not gone.”

Tseng didn’t lose her sense of humor, clearly. She’s remarkably vulnerable about her struggles and where her game was at. When asked to detail her lowest point and describe it, she didn’t hesitate to share. There was a lot crying, she said.

As for her putting, the crazy idea worked.

“I found a new coach. The coach is like, ‘why don't you switch to lefty.? So I'm like, ‘no, that's too risky, I don't know what's going to happen.’ But after a couple months, I played really good golf but I still putt shit, and I'm like, ‘I'm done with this.’ I told my coach, I need to give myself a chance to come back out here again. So I changed right away. And I was nervous. I don't know what's going to happen at the first tournament. I don't know if I'm still going to feel the fear or anything. Once I played my first tournament, my first hole was like a three-footer, I'm like, ‘OK, this is a challenge now. But I'm still up there. Wow, this feels good.’ My brain is actually not that smart. Once I changed to lefty, everything changed.”

Case in point: the five-footer she rolled in during the playoff to grab her spot in Erin Hills.

“Now I stand over the ball and I'm not afraid of any short putts,” Tseng said. “The first tournament I switched to lefty, I didn't miss anything inside five feet, which is very good. I know the speed was a little bit harder but I just need to keep practicing with the speed. But the short putt, I'm not afraid anymore. I can see my line, I can putt well, and I feel like this really gives me hope to playing good golf again.”

She played a practice round of nine holes with her friend Lydia Ko on Sunday. She really doesn’t know many players out here anymore. Amateurs are some 20 years younger. If Ko can’t win, she would love to see Tseng do it.

“She was obviously hitting it really good, and she's obviously worked so hard,” Ko said. “I believe that we will all have ups and downs, but what she did during that extremely scary period of her career, like no one can take away that from her.

“I think that's just in her golfing DNA. It's hard … it seems like she has a great team around her, and she was playing great, and I think she has a local caddie this week, so she's obviously going to get a lot of good local knowledge. She's such a sweet player that it's just really hard to not root for somebody like her. As much as I want to win, I am like, if I see Yani win, too, I'll be super pumped.”

Tseng is marveling at the hospitality, the food, the gym and all the perks that come with being a professional golfer now. As for her expectations this week, there aren’t any that have to do with numbers and victories. Tseng hasn’t won an LPGA Tour event since the Kia Classic in 2012. She hasn’t had a top-five finish in a major since finishing third at the Chevron Championship in 2012. Hasn’t made a cut in a major since 2017 But all that could change, and if it doesn’t, Tseng is OK.

“It's crazy. Just incredible. I feel grateful to be back,” Tseng said. “It's so different. And nine years ago I came back here, I feel like I'm like a little kid. To see all the great hospitality, the friends, it's just a lot of things that's not familiar anymore.

“Nine years can change a lot, and I just feel very grateful to play the course like this and to see all new presses, too, it's crazy.”