The first women’s golf event Tseng ever watched was the 2002 U.S. Women’s Open at Prairie Dunes. She was 13, and hoped to one day get the chance to play. It’s the reason she started coming over to the U.S. from Taiwan to compete in USGA championships more than 20 years ago.
So when someone on the other end of the phone told Tseng she’d received a special exemption into this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, she started to cry.
From a dominant span as world No. 1 to lost years in utter despair, there's been so much life between then and now. That phone call represented all that she's done in the game – and what it took to get back.
“I’ve been working so hard to play alongside all the best players in the world,” she said. “I just feel like it’s my pleasure to play Riviera, close to home, to have my family and everybody come watch me. I’m still shocked, even now.”
At this time last year, 37-year-old Tseng was grinding to make her first U.S. Women’s Open appearance in nearly 10 years. The five-time major champion advanced out of a five-for-one playoff at Arizona Country Club last May, and it felt like a significant step for the once dominant player.
She’d signed up for another 36-hole qualifier on April 20, but instead gets to go out and prep for the Chevron Championship at Memorial Park in Houston, where she’ll have an invitation to the champion’s dinner.
The USGA’s special exemption list over the years is mostly made up of former U.S. Women’s Open champions, but not entirely. (Tseng’s best finish is a share of 10th in 2010.) Michelle Wie West and Juli Inkster, for example, received exemptions before winning their championships. Nancy Lopez never won the Women’s Open but received a special exemption in 2002. Rose Zhang received one in 2023 shortly after she turned professional.
While Tseng never won a U.S. Women’s Open, she is a USGA champion, having defeated Wie West in the final match of the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. She played her first USWO the next year.
Tseng’s exemption into the first U.S. Women's Open ever staged at Riviera is a celebration of both old and new. She spent 109 consecutive weeks as No. 1 in the world from 2011 to 2013. A 15-time winner on the LPGA, she became the youngest player – male or female – to win five majors.
That was the old – before she fell into the abyss.
For the better part of a decade, Tseng has been trying to find the strong mind, body and technique that once made her among the best to ever play.
Her 2025 resurgence was made possible by an unusual move: She started putting left-handed.
It was the only thing Tseng found that could cure the yips, and it propelled her to victory on the Ladies European Tour last October at the weather-shortened Wistron Ladies Open, her first time in the winner’s circle since 2014.
Making the moment that much sweeter was the fact that she did it on home soil in Taiwan at Sunrise Golf and Country Club, a course she's played since she was a teenager.
If you watched Yani Tseng dominate the women’s game more than a decade ago, winning five majors along the way, the sight of her putting left-handed is nothing short of stunning! She had the yips, and the change is giving her hope. pic.twitter.com/hHhcGEklnW
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) April 25, 2025
“Yani Tseng’s career is defined by one of the most dominant stretches in the women’s game, and it has been inspirational to see her return and have success at a high level,” USGA Chief Championships Officer John Bodenhamer said in a release. “We are proud to welcome Yani back once again to the U.S. Women’s Open and add such an accomplished player to this year’s field.”
Tseng reports that she's feeling comfortable over the ball and that her confidence is rising. At last year’s AIG Women’s British Open, she made her first cut in an LPGA event since 2018. So far this season, she has made two cuts in three starts.
The USGA’s phone call came the day before she played Riviera for the first time alongside two-time Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso. She believes the historic course suits her game, though it’s all still settling in.
“I haven’t booked anything yet,” she said, with a laugh. “Is this real? I feel amazing.”