|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 25, 2013Yani TsengSOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK CHRISTINA LANCE: This is the 68th U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton, New York. We're very pleased to have Yani Tseng with us here. Yani is competing in her 8th Women's Open. Her best finish being 10th in 2010. Yani, we were just saying that you had the chance to play the course, tell us what you think about it. YANI TSENG: I came here a couple weeks earlier to play two practice rounds here, and I think I love this golf course. As soon as I got here, I saw the beautiful view and everything here, I feel very relaxed here. And the golf course is very tough, the greens are very tricky. I don't know. I always love to play on kind of like links golf course, and I think this course just makes you think more and it can be a very, very good challenge. You might hit a good shot and end in a bad place or you might hit a bad shot in a good place. You never know. It's the U.S. Open, you need to be very patient on this golf course. I'm very excited and looking forward to Thursday. CHRISTINA LANCE: We were talking about how warm it is. How do you fare when it's so warm outside? YANI TSENG: I don't expect this in Long Island. But I think in my mind, it's just very fresh. Even when the weather was warm, my mind is just so excited for this week. So I think it doesn't matter how the weather is going to be. I'm going to feel excited, and I'm going to feel I'm ready for this week. Q. I was watching a lot of players are spending a lot of time chipping, recovery, short game. When you're looking at this golf course, are you looking at places where you want to hit the ball, where you don't want to hit it? A lot of these greens you're playing maybe defensively. Could you talk about how you approach these particular sets of greens? YANI TSENG: Yeah, I think this course, I think par is your friend. Par would be very good on a U.S. Open golf course like this. I'm looking at the ball where I want to finish. So I mean, there is some place that you really don't want to go, but there are some places that you really need to play smart. Just hit the middle of the green every time and make par, make a two‑putt. Don't be too aggressive on this golf course. There are some holes that you can really go out there and try to make birdie, but there are some holes that you really need to play safe and play smart. I think some of the greens are really, really crazy. You hit it the left edge of the green and you might finish on the right edge of the green, so you never know. But you need to kind of picture your shot and imagine your shot on this golf course, and I think it's very important. Q. Could you talk a little bit about it stands out that you haven't won a U.S. Open yet. You've won so many others. What is it about the Open that's kept it from you? Stacy Lewis was in here a few minutes ago saying it's been her nemesis because she's played very well, obviously, and hasn't broken through? YANI TSENG: I think it's about time for me to win this tournament. Like I said, this is my 8th U.S. Open, and I always feel really good here. I feel very comfortable and confident in my game, and I love this golf course. I think this golf course suits a long hitter, and then my ball can spin on this golf course. I think it depends on how soft or how firm they put on this course and how they set up. But I think I have a good advantage on this golf course. Winning a U.S. Open has always been my dream. Honestly, playing in the U.S. Open was my dream when I was an amateur. Now I can not just play, but I can think about winning this tournament. It's huge for me. It's big step for me moving forward, and I really appreciate it and I'm very, very happy to be here just playing this tournament. The score is always very important and everybody's here to try to win this tournament. But for me, I want to be here enjoying every moment of the U.S. Open, and enjoy every shot I can and do the best I can do and just have fun this week. My whole family, my brother, my manager, my mom, they're here, so I'm just very happy. I think they're very happy to be here and to spend time with my family and show them my best performance. Q. You know what it's like to be the dominant player in the game. When you look at Inbee Park right now, what do you see, what do the other players see? How conscious are you of what she's doing week to week? YANI TSENG: I know. She's been playing so consistently and she's a very nice person. I've played with her many times when we were amateurs, and she was always that good, especially her putting. I remember one time we were playing the Public Links, and I beat her in a match. But after that, her coach told me, Yani, you need to work on your putting. You can be a great player. I said, okay, I'll do that. I've known her a long time, and I'm very happy to see her dominate. But I just feel like every time after the tournament me and my caddie are talking, oh, Inbee won again. Oh, Inbee's on top of the leaderboard again. I think that's how I feel when I play my best that people are talking that way about me too. So it's kind of very funny. I think it's good that‑‑ I don't know, I'm not World No. 1, but it's always good that you have people in front of you that you can chase and you can achieve it. So I feel very relaxed now. I mean, being World No. 1 is always good, but my goal is winning a tournament. Doesn't matter how big or how small the tournament is. I just want to go out there and find my confidence and win a tournament. Q. If I could follow up on that, could you tell us maybe a little bit more about Inbee, the person, maybe that you've gotten to know? We sort of see how steady she is out there, but what is maybe more of her personality that you've seen or a side of her that maybe we don't see? YANI TSENG: Yeah, I think she's a very, very nice person. When you see her on the golf course, she makes putts, she misses putts, she doesn't really get very emotional. She's always staying very quiet at the same time. Like after 18 holes, you don't know if she shot 10‑under or 10‑over. She's the same always. I think she's the kind of player like that, like very relaxed on the course. If she wins, she's happy. If she doesn't, she goes to the next week. She doesn't really‑‑ like she cares about the result, but she really doesn't show how much she cares about the result. I think so many players want to try to be like that and to learn that because you want to enjoy the golf course and smile on the golf course. Doesn't matter how you play, you want to get excited, you want to get mad, but she's always the same. Outside the golf course, she's just such a nice person. I really get along with her because most of the time we talk on the golf course and she seems very nice at helping other people. Q. With regard to Inbee, you were on top for a good while there. Did you feel a lot of pressure to stay there and to sustain? How much pressure do you think is ratcheted up on Inbee now winning the first two majors of the year? YANI TSENG: Yeah, when I was on top, it really gave me a lot of pressure. So now it's good that someone can experience that a little bit too because everybody wants to be in your shoes, but nobody knows how tough it is to be on top, especially when no one is in front of you. After I had a great year in 2011, I was thinking what is my goal next year? It's so hard to find your goal if no one is in front of you. I think everybody is different. I talked to Annika, I talked to some people, and then me and Annika are totally different personalities. She told me, you need to find a way to stay on top. Maybe her way doesn't suit me, maybe my way doesn't suit Inbee because everybody's a different personality. So like Tiger, he's in a different way than Rory McIlroy. So you really need to find your way and find your balance to stay on top, to keep improving your swing, keep improving your status and do the best you can do and try not to think about anything. It's hard not putting the pressure because people are going to put pressure on you. When you play good like Inbee, people are going to think she's winning every week. I think she will think that too. When I play my best, I thinking I'm here, I can win every week. It's a really tough game. In golf, if you don't finish on the last putt, you really don't know who is going to win the tournament. Q. This is kind of a follow‑up to that. Back in, say, 2011, when you were winning every tournament or almost all of them or a lot of them, what was that like? Did you feel like I'm definitely going to win, I can't miss? Or did you feel I can't believe I'm playing this well? It's going to break at some point. How did it feel? YANI TSENG: I don't think too much, actually. I went out on the course and I was just very happy. I was having fun. Even if I missed a shot, I was smiling because I was just really happy to be on the golf course. I didn't put any pressure. I wasn't thinking winning too. I was just playing my game. Even if I had a missed shot, I felt like it's going to get a lucky bounce. That's how positive you are thinking when you're playing your best. But, after that, if I hit a bad shot I feel like, oh, I'm going to have a bad bounce or I hit a good shot, and it's hard to recover. I think the positive thinking and negative thinking and your confidence on the golf course changes so much on your mind. But I think when I'm playing my best‑‑ I mean, everything is confidence. Doesn't matter how people talk bad things about you or good things about you, you always turn out the positive things. So you really need to find that way in playing golf and to play the best you can. I think now I feel very confident now. I feel very comfortable, and I can really ignore how people talk about me. I just want to really be happy as a person that I can be on the course and be myself. Q. This is a writers question, but I'm curious the relationship between technical performance and emotional well‑being. Does your sense of satisfaction derive from hitting great shots or are you able to hit shots well because you feel good about things and good about yourself? Relationship and emotion or is technique number one? YANI TSENG: I think mental is the most important thing in the game, because even when I'm not playing good or even if I don't feel this is my A‑game. But your mental is tough enough, you can still win in a tournament. You don't have to play perfect to win in a tournament, because everybody's going to miss, everybody‑‑ if you have confidence, if you stand there even if you have a terrible swing, you can still hit it to the pin. That is how important mental is. But if you have your A‑game and your mental is not right there, it doesn't matter how good of skill you have. If you think you can stand there and you think you're going to hit on the fairway, you're not going to hit it on the fairway. So when I played my best, I mean, everything was thinking perfect. I'd hit on the fairway. I'd picture my shot going into the hole on the second shot. And if I miss, it's not going to miss that much. But my mental is not ready yet. It's really tough. Because if your mental is not ready yet, but your skill is ready, you just need to find that balance and find your way. It doesn't matter how your skill is. You want to keep building your confidence. Q. You always seem to have so much fun whether you're No. 1 or not No. 1. But what is more fun for you? Being No. 1 or hunting down the No. 1? YANI TSENG: I mean, being No. 1, I think is fun, of course. But now I've been so many places, so now I don't know. I'm fifth or sixth on the top, but that's a position before the No. 1. So now I'm back in the position I have. So now I can achieve my No. 1 again. Not many people can be World No. 1, so I'm very happy and very appreciative that I have this opportunity and I played well, and to be on World No. 1. Then I know I feel I'm still young and I still have a long career to go. I'm not retired yet. So I want to keep improving my game, and I want to be World No. 1 again. Q. Most of the players have been talking about this as a second‑shot golf course. You mentioned how the ball can roll to the wrong spot. How much pressure will be on those second shots to hit that small area near the pin? YANI TSENG: I think‑‑ I know it's a second‑shot golf course. But for me, I'm very confident on my irons. I think at first you have to hit it on the fairway to be able to hit it on the green on this golf course. I think everybody's going to make bogey. So, you know, if you make bogey, it's okay. You move on. It's a tough golf course because you might hit a good shot in a bad place, and maybe you have like 40 feet, 50 feet to make two putts. But you hit a good shot. You really never know. You just need to be patient, do the best you can on every shot. Even if it didn't come out where you wanted it to, you always want to move on. I think for the U.S. Open, it's just not about a course, I think it's the pressure. Even if we play on a very easy golf course, I think this pressure, the major pressure, the U.S. Open pressure is still going to make courses harder. So I think this week you really need to stay patient. I think the weather here, you never know. You maybe get a strong wind in the morning and very quiet in the afternoon. I think it's not going to be fair, but the only thing you can do is do your best and have fun on this golf course. Because after I hit a shot, I hit a good shot but I finished in a really bad place, and I tell myself, wow, this is a very fun golf course. This is really challenging. You don't want to think negative things. You need to think this is a great golf course for me. Q. You mentioned earlier that you have to find your way to stay on the top. And I'm just wondering when was the moment you realized this is your way to be on the top? YANI TSENG: Yeah, I don't know. I just feel great about this course, I feel good about this tournament, and I think I've been struggling a little bit for a while. This couple months I started playing pretty good. I started to feel like my game is back. I just feel like it's about time for me to win in a tournament again. I feel really appreciative because I know struggling‑‑ it's not fun to be struggling. But I'm learning so much from the mistakes and learning so much from what I have struggled with the last couple of years. I really appreciate all the fans that kept supporting me. Doesn't matter how I play, my team is there for me a hundred percent. I know they're looking forward to seeing me back on top again. I don't like to disappoint people, and I think this gives me a lot of motivation to keep going and to win a tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|