MIRABEL, Que. – Michelle Wie is defending champion and Lorie Kane is still this country’s best hope, but the favourite heading into the CN Canadian Women’s Open has to be LPGA Tour leader Yani Tseng.
The 22-year-old from Taiwan has dominated this year with four victories, including wins in three of the last six events.
“World No. 1 has been my goal since I was 12,” the world’s top-ranked player said Wednesday. “To become No. 1 is very exciting, and I wasn’t getting used to it after that.
“I’ve got more people who pay attention to me and more interviews and more pressure, too.”
Tseng tops the LPGA money list with US$1,799,335 and ranks first in scoring average (69.63), greens in regulation (.748), rounds under par (.681), top-10 finishes (nine in 14 tournaments), average driving distance (269.3 yards) and birdies (220).
She has 229 Rolex player-of-the-year points. Second-place Suzann Pettersen has 96.
But the Canadian Open, a $2.25-million tournament that gets underway Thursday at Hillsdale Golf Club, is a tournament she’s never won.
Tseng tied for sixth in Edmonton in 2007 and placed third after a case of nerves saw her blow the lead with a closing 77 in Ottawa in 2008. She dropped to 33rd the following year at Priddis Green in Calgary and missed the cut last year at St. Charles in Winnipeg, where Wie went wire-to-wire for a three-stroke win.
The stocky Tseng, who lives in a Florida house once owned by former great Annika Sorenstam, played on the CN Canadian women’s tour in 2007 and made her LPGA debut that year at the Canadian Open.
“I was so nervous because I didn’t know anything about the LPGA or anything about the field and playing the best players in the world,” she said. “But I learned a lot. I made double on the last hole. I lost a lot of money. That’s the first time I go ‘Wow, one shot makes a lot of difference on the LPGA Tour.'”
She put her 13th place finish last week down to jet lag after returning to North America from Taiwan.
It was thought that 21-year-old Wie would be the one dominating women’s golf by now, but the Canadian Open was only her second win in three years on tour. Tseng has already won five majors, including this year’s LPGA Championship and Women’s British Open, which she won a second time in a row.
“It is very motivating to see someone like Yani get really good over the last year and half,” said Wie, who will focus only on golf after she graduates in communications from Stanford University in March. “It’s kind of something I want to see about myself.
“I want someone to say next year how good I’ve become.”
With 19 of the world’s top 20 entered in a tournament that lost its status as a major in 2000 but still has major prize money, there are plenty of contenders.
They include Cristie Kerr, the 2006 winner in London, Ont., who is second to Tseng on the money list, and Pettersen, third in winnings and the 2009 champion Priddis Green. Pettersen is coming off a win last week at the Safeway Classic. In the last four Canadian Opens, she has finished tied for 10th, seventh, first and third.
A dark horse could be Australia’s Katherine Hull, who is 47th on the money list and has only one top-10 finish this year but has done well before in Canada. Hull was second to Meena Lee in 2005, then won the 2008 tournament. She lost the 2010 British Open by one stroke to Tseng.
And there is Kane, who closed 68-67 last year to finish tied for 11th after two rough opening rounds.
The Charlottetown native has made the cut in seven of eight tournaments this year, with her best showing a tie for 23rd, but there’s extra motivation playing in her home country.
“I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t thinking that I would very much like to win, because that’s why I’m here,” said 46-year-old Kane, the last Canadian to win an LPGA tournament, back in 2001. “To hoist the CN Canadian Women’s trophy would be fantastic.”
It has not been won by a Canadian since Jocelyne Bourassa took the inaugural tournament, then called La Canadienne, in 1973 at Montreal Municipal. Since then, the closest were third-place finishes by Dawn Coe-Jones of Lake Cowichan, B.C. in 1993 and Kane in 2001. Kane and Coe-Jones tied for fifth in 2004.
Still, Kane feels the Canadian tournament should not have lost its major status (in favour of the British) when Du Maurier was forced to pull out as sponsor in 2001.
“You’ve got the strongest field of the year on a great golf course with a big purse and a sponsor who loves women’s golf and, more importantly, a sponsor who is dedicated to leaving something behind, and that’s the Miracle Match (charity),” Kane said.
“This year we have two hospitals that are going to benefit greatly from that. So is it a major? Sure it is.”
The 6,604-yard Hillsdale course features tricky, sloping greens. Placement of the ball off the tee to set up the approach shot will be paramount.
“You need to make sure you’re on the right part of the fairway,” said Alena Sharp of Hamilton. “There’s a couple of doglegs where the trees block you.
“And the greens are very large, so hitting the green isn’t always going to guarantee you a birdie. You want to get on the right quadrant on the green.”
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