5-time major champ using ‘last resort’ putting tactic. But why? 

You would not know about Yani Tseng’s putting struggles were it not for Haeran Ryu. Ryu shot the round of the day at the first LPGA major of the season, the Chevron Championship, and whenever that happens, the cameras turn your way, the TV broadcast tunes in, and everyone in the group gets pulled under the magnifying glass a bit, regardless of how their rounds are going.

As a result, we got to see three shots from Tseng on the Thursday broadcast, a fine bunker shot and two lag putts … both of which ended up at least three feet short. But something about those putts caught our eye.

Tseng is 36 years old and a 5-time major champion. She’s experienced the highest highs in this mind-bending sport and also the lowest of lows, as evidenced by her recent putting struggles. It’s gotten so bad with the flat stick that, as a right-handed player, she’s flipped over to the other side of the ball on the greens. From tee-to-green she plays righty. On the putting surface, she’s a lefty. 

“How about this,” Terry Gannon said on the broadcast Thursday morning. “This is Tani Tseng, putting left-handed for birdie. Yani, the winner of this championship 15 years ago. Morgan, what’s that all about?”

That’s Morgan Pressel he’s tossing to, also 36 years old, also a winner of the Chevron, whose playing days are behind her.  

“Yes, I actually sat with her at the past champions dinner the other night,” Pressel said. “We were talking about this. She was talking about putting left-handed, she just feels like her stroke is more fluid from that side. Doesn’t have a little bit of hitch in the stroke like she sometimes has with the right-handed putting stroke.”

For those who haven’t closely tracked Tseng’s career, here’s a refresh: 

Shortly after arriving on the scene in the late 2000s, Tseng became the greatest golfer in the world. In a four-year span she won rookie of the year, two player of the year awards and five majors. She won three times in the spring of 2012 and then … she hasn’t won since. 

It was a slow decline — it wasn’t sudden. She finished in the top 5 a number of times that year. She made 17 of 23 cuts the following season and 18 of 24 in 2014. Her good was still good, but she could never quite summon the great. Like a balloon, the air slowly leaked out of her game. In 2016, there was a stretch of nine-straight missed cuts. In 2017 it was a run of 11 missed cuts in 13 tries. She dropped out of the top 100 in the world. 

Ironically, the putting didn’t seem to be the issue then. 

“I was playing really good during practice rounds,” she told GolfWeek in 2021, “but once it got to the tournament like my mind, I was losing control of my mind, my swing, my body. I don’t trust as much.”

The pressure of trying to be perfect, of thinking that’s what the world wanted, got to her. Tseng stepped away from the sport for nearly two full years in 2019, partly due to back injury and then due to the COVID pandemic. She grinded to bring her long game back to elite form, and according to her coach at the time, she succeeded … with everything but the putter. 

She told Golfweek that she felt her ball-striking in the late 2010s was even better than her peak, world-beating years, but that it felt as though she needed to hole her approach shots to make up any ground on the competition. She took a 10-day meditation trip that forced her to sit still and leave her phone at home. She came out of it determined to play for herself and not be so burdened by the expectations of others. Unfortunately for her, the results did not follow.

Tseng failed to make the cut in all nine LPGA Tour events in 2021. She did not compete on the LPGA Tour in 2022 or 2023, and again failed to make any cuts in 11 starts last season. At the end of 2024, she returned to her native Taiwan and notched a couple top 20s on the Taiwanese LPGA Tour. And this week, she’s making her first LPGA start of 2025. 

Which brings her to our attention and the first round of the Chevron. Playing alongside the round of the day, and also with Jeeno Thitikul, the No. 2 player in the world. Tseng went about her business in a mostly solid way, turning to the back nine in one over. After seven more pars and a bogey, the broadcast caught her standing over another 30-footer, which she left short of the hole, but cleaned up for par. 

“For a player to do something this drastic, you really have to be fighting some demons,” Pressel said. It’s unclear how long Tseng has been gaming the putter left-handed, but her stroke looked fluid.

“This is when you’ve tried everything else,” Pressel continued. “When you’ve exhausted all other options. Whether it’s the long putter, the arm-lock, or a claw grip, left-hand low — there are so many different ways to putt right-handed, or in your natural hand. To flip to the other side of the golf ball is definitely, probably last resort.”