Amy Yang elevates standing with Tour Championship win
Amy Yang – understated success as an LPGA Tour player – image Getty Images
The CME Group Tour Championship win today by 34-year-old South Korean Amy Yang, her 5th on the LPGA Tour but her first on American soil, comes nearly 18 years after her playoff victory as a 16-year-old amateur at the Australian Ladies Masters at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast.
Such was the convincing nature of her win back in 2006, that many felt Yang would advance quickly to the elite of the game after turning professional later that year as the then-youngest member of the Ladies European Tour.
It has taken time to do so but this win in such a prestigious and lucrative event and against such a strong field takes her to another level in the female game and will do wonders for her as she looks to finally win a major title in 2024 after so many near misses.
Interestingly, her win today made her the oldest player to win on the LPGA Tour this season.
Yang’s connection to Australia and more especially the Gold Coast goes further however than just her spectacular victory all those years ago. Yang moved to Australia as a 15-year-old and attended Robina State High School where she has been one of the success stories of that school’s golf programme.
Yang was coached early in her time on the Gold Coast by Lawrie Montague who guided her to her Royal Pines success and then David Nable during her latter stages as an amateur and in the early stages of her professional career.
After winning twice on the Ladies European Tour, the status for which she earned as a result of her win on the Gold Coast, Yang finally earned full LPGA Tour status for the 2009 season and has held that status ever since.
While not winning as often as many felt she might, Yang had career earnings of close to US$12 million prior to this week where she has added another US$2 million as the first-place cheque for this week’s CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.
Yang is now the second-highest career earner amongst the South Koreans on the LPGA Tour, behind only Inbee Park.
21 times she has been inside the top ten (12 of them top 5’s) in major tournaments highlighting a capacity to play the big events well but perhaps unable to finish off the events as well as she might.
Yang, perhaps attempting to right that wrong, sought out assistance from mental coach Paul Dewland as she fought to focus on the present rather than the outcome.
“Yeah, at one point I was really stressed about my golf game and really didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe it’s a good time to see a mental coach and listen to what he thinks.
“Previously I worked are other mental coaches before and they were teaching me about stay positive and all this stuff. Paul was different. Paul was different.
“He encouraged me to accept all the negative stuff and help me with what things I can control and what things I cannot control.”
Today she discussed her nerves as she battled Nasa Hataoka and Alison Lee down the stretch and while her three-shot winning margin might suggest a relative ease of victory, she was engaged in a closely fought battle until birdies at her final two holes saw her draw clear.
A hole out for eagle from the fairway at the 13th assisted her cause but her win and the lucrative US$ 2 million first prize was not only richly deserved but well received by those who see her as one of the ‘good guys’ on the LPGA Tour.
“I still can’t believe I did it,” said Yang. “So great to have, and I am feeling honoured to have my first win in the U.S., especially CME Group Tour Championship, yeah.
“You know, not until I made the birdie putt on the 17th. You know, Nasa is such a great player and showed a lot of like good performance out there and I was feeling really nervous.
“You know, really like I had no idea where this was going. All I could do was just stick to my game and trust it.”
Yang has battled confidence and injury issues in her lengthy (17-year) professional career, in fact, two years ago she was wondering if she would be able to continue after suffering tennis elbow caused by a newly found interest in rock climbing.
“Maybe almost a year,” said Yang referring to her injury and the activity. “But towards the end I got really into it. I thought it was very fun so I overdid it. My forearm started hurting and it got up to tennis elbow.
“Back then, maybe like a year or two. Like I couldn’t hit the ball through. I couldn’t hit through the ball. I lost a lot of distance and scared about going for it and it took a while. I’m fully back now.”
Minjee Lee finished as the best of the Australians when she shared 8th place and earned another US$98,000, taking her season’s earnings to US$1,650,000.
