Michelle Wie
Yani Tseng says she's never been happier to finish in 11th place than she was last weekend at the Safeway Classic.
Hard to believe that the number one ranked player in the world and a three-time winner this year already would be happy with anything less than a victory. But for Tseng, it was a small victory in what has been a three month struggle to find her once dominating game.
"I've never been that happy to shoot 5-under ever in my life," said the 23-year old who had missed three of her last four cuts. "But Yani is back. I think the new Yani is coming out too."
That might not be good news to the rest of the LPGA from a player who won seven tournaments a year ago, including two majors, and became the youngest player ever, male or female, to win 5 career majors.
Throw in the fact that this is a homecoming of sorts for the Taiwanese player, who picked up her first professional tournament win at Vancouver Golf Club in 2007 while competing on the CN Canadian Women's Tour.
[In 2007] I was trying to get into the Canadian Open," she recalled. "And now I'm in the CN Canadian Open. It's just so much different."
"It feels like these six years have gone so fast. I'm now world number one, and to be here with so many different memories. I only have been here a couple of days and I'm already really enjoying it."
Tseng says winning this week would have added meaning for her after coming through the struggles of the past few months.
"I think it will be probably my best trophy ever. I have a picture in my mind of how I'm going to feel emotionally if I can win again. I know I can but it's just a matter of time."
Another player looking to use the CN Canadian Women's Open to turn around her season is Michelle Wie. Her eighth-place finish last weekend in Oregon was her first top-10 of the season.
"It's been my toughest year so far," said Wie, who also graduated from Stanford this past summer. "But I think that I've really tried to see positives through it and done a good job with that. I've enjoyed every single week. Even though I didn't play as well, I still try to take the positives out of it, because the game is tough enough without beating yourself up too much."
Wie added that she loves playing golf in Canada and her runner-up finish a year ago coupled with her 2010 victory in Winnipeg seem to back up that feeling. A noted foodie, she even managed to venture into Vancouver's Chinatown to sample some of the offerings.
"I'm loving it here. It's like Asian food heaven," said the 22 year old, who admitted to getting adventuresome when it came to some of the menu items. "We had some dim sum, and some chicken feet. I wouldn't go near the snake soup though. I cross the line there."