Five-time major champion Yani Tseng will make her first U.S. Women’s Open appearance since 2016. The former No. 1 advanced out of a five-for-one playoff at Arizona Country Club on May 5 along with former Wildcat golfer Yusang Hou, who took medalist honors at 4-under 140.
Tseng, who recently switched to putting left-handed to combat the yips, shot 70-71 in the 36-hole qualifier to finish at 3 under along with Ryann O’Toole, Hira Naveed, Dottie Ardina and Laetitia Beck.
Currently ranked 979th in the world, Tseng spent 109 weeks as the No. 1 player at the height of her career. Now in the midst of trying to make a comeback on the LPGA, Tseng missed the cut at the Chevron Championship in her first LPGA start of 2025. She also missed the weekend at the Black Desert Championship in Utah.
Tseng began putting left-handed five months ago and when asked why after the first round of the Chevron, she didn’t sugarcoat.
“Long story short, I’ve just been really having trouble with my right-handed short putts,” Tseng told Golfweek. “To be honest, I had the yips. I just couldn’t make the short putts.”
The 2010 Kraft Nabisco champion tried everything, switching hands, moving her legs around, and using a long putter. Actually, the long putter didn’t make it into competition because she couldn’t keep her hands from shaking. Tseng, 36, said she has struggled off and on with the yips for five years and hoped that hip surgery might fix it. It’s not brain surgery, good friend Suzann Pettersen quipped.
Tseng’s new instructor, Brady Riggs, was the one who first suggested she try putting left-handed. After she hit the ball well at the AIG Women’s British Open last summer but missed the cut, Tseng came to the conclusion that she’d never win another golf tournament putting right-handed.
The 2025 U.S. Women’s Open will be contested at Erin Hills Golf Course for the first time May 28-June 1 in Wisconsin. As a past champion of the KPMG Women’s PGA and British Open, Tseng is eligible for those major championship fields as well.
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