SINGAPORE (AP)—Yani Tseng of Taiwan, the No. 1 player in the world, will seek
to win one of the few big tournaments she hasn’t yet conquered in her young
career when she tees off at this week’s $1.4 million HSBC Women’s Champions.

The 23-year-old Tseng dominated women’s golf last year and is off to a hot
start in 2012 with her victory at last week’s LPGA Thailand.

But a win in Singapore has eluded her since the tournament began in 2008,
and she faces a field of 63 golfers featuring 18 of the 20 top-ranked when play
starts Thursday at the par-72 Tanah Merah Country Club.

“Every year I have come closer and closer to winning this tournament,”
Tseng said Wednesday. “All the best players are playing here this week and the
golf course is really challenging so I can’t wait to go out there.”

Tseng solidified her hold at No. 1 with seven 2011 LPGA Tour victories last
year, including major victories in the LPGA Championship and Women’s British
Open. She had 12 worldwide victories last season and the five-time major
champion has 33 career worldwide professional wins.

“Winning five majors at the age of 23 is very impressive,” world No. 3
Suzann Pettersen said. “She makes us even work harder.”

Australia’s Karrie Webb, who won last year’s tournament, compared Tseng to
some of the greatest players in women’s golf history.

“I’ve played my career with Annika (Sorenstam), Se Ri Pak and Lorena
(Ochoa) and now Yani,” said the 37-year-old Webb, who has 38 career LPGA Tour
victories. “I’ve played with the best.”

American star Michelle Wie, ranked 18th in the world, said after she
graduates from Stanford University next month she should have more time to focus
on golf.

“I’m on track to graduate this March, so it’s going to be interesting,”
Wie said. “It’s going to be the first time in my golfing career that I won’t
have school, or school work to do.”

MARANA, Ariz. (AP)—George Coetzee of South Africa, the last one into the
64-man field at the Match Play Championship, is making his American debut at
Dove Mountain—at least as a professional.

The last time Coetzee competed in the United States was in 2005, when he
played for the University of San Diego under head coach Tim Mickelson, the
brother of four-time major champion Phil Mickelson. He only stayed four months.

“And there’s a good reason why it only lasted four months,” he said.

Coetzee said he got off to a good start, making the traveling squad for the
Toreros, but his game started to slip.

“San Diego is a pretty nice place to be,” he said. “The weather is pretty
good, and there’s a lot of other good things you can do other than play golf.
There was no one else to blame but myself. After four months, I couldn’t break
80. And I think it took me another three months to break par.”

He returned home and played in the South African Open. Because he had won
the South African Amateur the year before, he was put in the same group with
Retief Goosen and Tim Clark.

“I shot 88 … and I putted like a champion,” Coetzee said. “So I had to
kind of make a decision—either play golf or go back and take my studies pretty
seriously. It’s kind of a no-brainer for me. I love my sport way too much.”

Coetzee had to go through Q-school twice on the European Tour. He made a
small breakthrough last year when he tied for 26th on the money list, mainly
from his runner-up finish in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

He was two shots out of the lead going into the weekend at the British Open
and tied for 15th.

His opponent in the first round will be Rory McIlroy, the second-ranked
player in the world. Even though Coetzee was the last player to get a spot—
after Paul Casey withdrew with a shoulder injury—the seeds were based on the
ranking that came out a week after the cutoff, and he moved one spot past Ernie
Els.

If not for the Match Play, Coetzee would be in South Africa defending his
title in the Telkom PGA Championship in South Africa. He’s not complaining.

———

KEEGAN’S EXPECTORATIONS: Keegan Bradley watched a replay of the Northern
Trust Open, where he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole to get into a
playoff with Phil Mickelson and Bill Haas, who eventually won on the second
extra hole.

It wasn’t the clutch putt that stood out. It was the spitting.

It’s a nervous habit Bradley didn’t realize he had, expectorating before
just about every shot, sometimes more than once. It turned into quite a spat on
Twitter, particularly from Europeans, and Bradley later tweeted an apology when
he saw all the comments.

“I was very surprised to see the replay of the telecast to see how much I
was spitting. To be honest with you, I really had no idea I was doing it. And I
feel bad,” Bradley said. “It’s something that I’m going to work on and I just
ask everybody to just kind of bear with me as I go through this, because it’s
something I’ve done without even knowing it.

“In a way, I’m glad it happened,” he said. “But it’s something that I’m
going to try very hard to stop.”

———

UP FOR GRABS: Martin Kaymer went to No. 1 in the world last year by reaching
the final of the Match Play Championship. This year, two players have a chance
to take over No. 1.

Luke Donald has to reach the quarterfinals to assure staying at the top for
the ninth month.

Rory McIlroy is at No. 2. The only way for him to get to No. 1 for the first
time in his career is to win the Match Play, provided that Donald does not make
it beyond the second round.

Lee Westwood is at No. 3, and his odds are slightly better than McIlroy
because he has played fewer tournaments. For Westwood to return to No. 1—his
position a year ago—he would have to win and make sure Donald doesn’t reach
the quarterfinals.

———

LPGA IN SINGAPORE: It’s a play on words at the HSBC Women’s Champions event
this week at Singapore, where organizers have referred to the winner as the
“Champion of Champions.”

So far, it has lived up to its name.

In its four-year history, the winners have been Lorena Ochoa, Jiyai Shin and
Ai Miyazato, all of whom had been No. 1 in the women’s world ranking. The
exception is the defending champion, Karrie Webb, who dominated more than any of
the other three before the ranking began. Webb is the only player to win the
LPGA’s “Super Slam” of five majors.

The only players who have been at No. 1 and have not won the HSBC Women’s
Champions are Yani Tseng and Cristie Kerr.

———

PRO-AM PREFERENCE: Tiger Woods will play his first pro-am of the year on the
PGA Tour next week in the Honda Classic. And even though he finished 128th on
the money list a year ago, he can count on an early tee time.

The tour used to rely on the money list to decide who gets the first choice
of tee times. As was the case a year ago when he was 68th on the previous year’s
money list, Woods got into some pro-ams as a sponsor’s pick.

In a change this year, the pick of tee times first goes to anyone who is in
the “Life Member” category or in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Life members
must have played 15 years and won at least 20 times. Woods completed his 15th
year in 2011 and has 71 wins.

Others who fall into that category are Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III and
Vijay Singh.

———

DIVOTS: The average score at Riviera was 72.6 for the week, not only the
highest on the PGA Tour this year, but the only tournament that the score was
over par. … For the first time in more than two years, Luke Donald made the
cut in a tournament but failed to earn any world ranking points because he
finished too low. … The LPGA Tour made it official last week by saying the
Lotte Championship in Hawaii will be played at Ko Olina Golf Club on April
18-21. The LPGA previously had a tournament at the resort on the west end of
Oahu. … Lee Westwood wanted to lose weight in the offseason, and he found the
easiest way was to cut out alcohol. He’s done well, except when he went to
Buckingham Palace to receive his Order of the British Empire. “You have to have
a couple of glasses of champagne at lunch afterward and the night before,” he
said. “But apart from that, I’m sort of back on being off of it.”

———

STAT OF THE WEEK: The last nine players to be No. 1 in the world are playing
PGA Tour events this week—five in the Match Play Championship (Luke Donald,
Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els) and four in the Mayakoba
Golf Classic in Mexico (David Duval, Greg Norman, Tom Lehman, Nick Price).

———

FINAL WORD: “For a short hole, when you get out of position, the hardest
shot is just to get back into position.”—Harrison Frazar on the 10th hole at
Riviera.

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

MARANA, Arizona, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Charl Schwartzel
has never had the feeling before or since but somehow he just
knew he was going to win last year’s Masters before teeing off
in the final round.

The slender South African was four strokes off the pace
after 54 holes at Augusta National and went on to clinch his
first major victory by two shots with a scintillating
birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie finish.

“I woke up that morning and I felt like I was going to win,”
Schwartzel told reporters at Dove Mountain’s Ritz-Carlton Golf
Club on Tuesday while preparing for this week’s WGC-Accenture
Match Play Championship.

“I honestly did. I had this complete calmness about it, too.
That was the best part about it. It’s all good to say I’m going
to win today, but if you are all nervous inside then you
actually have doubts.

“I felt so calm and I was so convinced that I could do it.
Obviously I couldn’t have asked for a much better start. That
put me right in there.”

Schwartzel launched his final round with a birdie-par-eagle
run on the way to a six-under-par 66, the lowest score of the
day, as he became the third South African to win the Masters.

“At Augusta, I was playing so consistently but (before the
final round) I never got on a birdie run where you make two or
three birdies in a row to move your score up the board,” said
the 27-year-old, a seven-times champion on the European Tour.

“I felt like I was playing so well and I was in control of
it. You don’t get that feeling very often. I might have had
glimpses of it before but never as much as I had that specific
week.”

Asked whether his status as a major champion could help him
intimidate opponents at this week’s Accenture Match Play
Championship, Schwartzel replied with a smile: “I hope so. Any
intimidation I can put onto my playing partner is good.

“Anyone in this field wants to win those tournaments
(majors) and if a guy achieves that, it puts him in almost a
different category and guys look at him differently. I do think
it plays a bit of a role.”

Schwartzel has been drawn to play big-hitting American Gary
Woodland in Wednesday’s opening round at Dove Mountain but feels
that good putting rather than power driving will be a more
significant factor this week.

“It’s always great to have length especially in this golf
course,” the South African said of the 7,791-yard layout. “It’s
pretty wide open and if you can hit it a long way down, you have
got advantage.

“But these greens are this golf course’s defense. If you hit
in the wrong places, you are going to lose the hole. So I think
there’s a lot more to hitting it far on this golf course.”

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue; To
query or comment on this story email
sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)