KATHIE SHEARER: Well Yani, number 1 in the world. Do you see yourself winning around here this week? YANI TSENG: I think yes because I feel pretty good. This is my first tournament of the year and I m very excited and I love Australia. I came here every year to play and to have a holiday, so I m very familiar for Australia and playing at Royal Canberra, this is a great golf course. It’s true, I don&apost know if it s my game but I think after those few rounds, practice rounds, I think my game is pretty good and my hitting – you just need to get on the fairway for this course is the main key for me this week. I m very looking forward to it and very enjoy it. KATHIE SHEARER: Karrie said in an earlier interview that she thought that the course would change if it s dry, you ll get plenty of run on the fairways. YANI TSENG: Yeah, I don&apost know if I ve got it wrong because lots of dog leg left, dog left right, because I don t think, even running too far, you kind of run through the fairway. If you can take it rest, do a little draw, that way you can leave a little more round, but if you re hitting like straight and high, you don t want an extra around and then overshoot the fairways. Q. Yani, what s been happening with your golf over the last 12 months, because you had that rough patch? You still won three tournaments. Karrie was saying that you were complaining about your year last year but she would have been happy with your year. YANI TSENG: Yeah, when I look back I am very happy about it. I know it s been a tough year for me but when I look back, I have three wins, I have 12 top 10s, so that s still pretty good, because all the people are putting high expectation on me, even myself too. I ve been putting so much pressure on myself and then it s like I practice so hard. It’s almost overdoing it, because I never practice so much like last year and then all the expectation was way high and then I don t feel I don t like myself to have a missed shot or playing the best shots. But I mean, after that I ve been learning a lot. I think last year was very challenging for me and I m growing a lot from last year. So I think now maybe last year was my best year to my career and my game to mature. I think I really learnt a lot and been more able to appreciate everything. I know winning is not easy and I feel I am very lucky right now. I m very appreciative of what I m doing and I feel I m luckier than lots of people already. So I should be more appreciative and now I just want to focus on enjoying this week, enjoying my travelling, even enjoy the best shots and all the shots and just always keep smiling. Q. Have you had to have help with that or is that a conclusion you have reached yourself? Have you talked to a lot of people about coming to that conclusion that you need to appreciate what you ve got more? YANI TSENG: Yeah, I think when I talk to my coach and my coach kind of give me those because he feel I lose something peaceful in my mind. I was thinking about my score, I was thinking about world number 1 and I was afraid I m not number 1 or anything. I was over thinking a lot about my result instead of doing the pressures. So my coach keep telling me that you should – one is my coach and one is another people, my friends in Taiwan, he tell me that you should be more appreciate what you re doing right now and he asked me a question: Have you say thank you to your club and I start crying because I feel like I never did that to my club. I never saying thank you to my club. My club is my best friend. I do my job and my club doing his job, so I know my club helping me to win in a tournament too. Q. Your golf club? YANI TSENG: My golf club. So I would just start crying. I know it s so funny, but I was like, yeah, I never feel like – I always thank my caddie, thank my team – I never think about my club and then I started feeling I m very appreciative about everything. I have a good team, I have a good friend, everybody cares about me. they don t care if I m world number 1. They hug me and comfort me. They just care if I m happy every day or not because last year I look at lots of press, I look at lots of news on the – it drive me crazy. It was like if I finish out of top 10 and people are like, what s wrong with Yani? But I was finishing 12 or 13 but people were just starting asking me what s wrong with you. I m like, it s just one tournament but after I look more at it, it gave me myself too. I feel it hurts a lot when I see those things on the news and see what those fans are talking about me, say Yani is struggling, Yani couldn’t play golf anymore or something like that. I feel really bad. But now I kind of think through already, now I feel like I won t thank those people that are saying bad things about me and that way I can keep growing up. Q. You have been listed in the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. How do you deal with that? This year is Chinese New Year of the Water Snake, it means wisdom. Do you have any plans for the new year? YANI TSENG: Yes, the first question, it s my big honour to be top 100 for the Times. I was there for the ceremony. So it s a huge honour for me. It means a lot for me that I know I m doing the right things. I just wish I can help more people using the golf as my job, when I m helping more people, it makes me very happy too. The second question, I was in Taiwan for Chinese New Year last week for a couple of days and I got some red envelopes for my families. My Mum told me last year was a bad year for Dragon, and I was Dragon. So my Mum say, it s okay, your year is over, your bad year is over. your good year is coming this year, the Snake. I go, okay that s good; so I m very excited for this year. Q. Yani, how long since you played a tournament, it must be quite a while and what have you been doing? Did you put the clubs away? YANI TSENG: I put the clubs away for six weeks. I was very happy. I was happy as ever because I always play golf as my first priority but now after last year I was really struggling but after that I had six weeks off and I m so excited to get back to practice. Then I went to Taiwan and went sightseeing around. Last month I was in Orlando. So I m really enjoying my practice and enjoying working with my coach and my caddie and my trainers.
Author: Golf Australia