News and Notes: Final Round Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic

Yani Tseng didn’t produce her 16th career LPGA win Sunday, but she certainly instilled the belief in herself that her game is back after a three and a half year hiatus from the winner’s circle. Her runner-up Sunday, her second runner-up finish of the year, has her feeling as if she’s found the game that left her.

“I just feel that I’m so ready to win,” Tseng said. “I’m just very happy to be back on top again and feel like I’m finally getting very comfortable on the course and enjoy the golf again and I smile, stay relaxed and I just missed that little bit, that pressure, that nerves on the last few holes or on the last group. So just very happy to be back on top again and just still have a few tournaments left so I’m just going to keep fighting.”

Although Tseng wasn’t pleased with herself that she missed two potential putts to win it, the beautiful iron shot she hit into the 18th felt like the way the old Yani used to show up when the pressure was the highest.

“I mean I just haven’t done that for a long time, but that means my game is still there, just I’ve got to get mental,” Tseng said. “I just, I mean, doesn’t matter if it’s on the last hole or first hole, every hole I just try to make birdies. You’ve got to make birdies out here. So I mean, like I said, I do my best and just very happy to be out there to be on top again and I think it’s going to happen, just with time.”

That time could be in two weeks at the Evian Championship, the season’s final major, or it could take months or even years. Either way, after this week she’s confident she’ll win again, and that putt will go in one day. And she’ll be back next year to the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic looking for redemption.

“I’m coming back next year to make that putt,” Tseng said.

If this week is any indication, she surely will.

Stacy Lewis posted her fourth consecutive top-10 at this event Sunday, backdooring the top-10 with a final-round 66. Lewis has now posted 10 top-10’s on the season and would have been in contention on Sunday if not for a disappointing even-par 72 on Sunday.

“Really played those last 18, 20 holes pretty good,” Lewis said. “A lot of frustrating golf. I didn’t take advantage of the par 5s at all, all day today really. I made too many 5s and that’s really kind of what you have to do on this golf course to do well.”

The par-5’s were particularly difficult to stomach considering some are reachable for Lewis. To win here, an even-par effort on the par-5’s on the weekend won’t cut it. On the week, Lewis played the 16 par-5’s in only 3-under par.

Sydnee Michaels fired a final round 67 for a tie for fourth at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic Sunday. This was a career-best finish for Michaels and her third finish in the top-10 since her Epson Tour days.

Michaels credits her low-scoring week at the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic to a putting change, making the switch to left hand low.

“I switched my putting to left hand low on Tuesday and that has been my problem,” Michaels said. “I know I’ve been hitting it really well, I just haven’t been able to convert anything. I just said I’m going to give it a shot. It was a huge difference.”

The change proved to be an assist for Michaels this week and she plans to keep it going forward, but it was a goal further in the future that was motivation for Michaels’ this week.

“My goal was to get into the two Asian events in the beginning of the year next year just to kind of set me up,” Michaels said. “I think this will probably put me pretty far forward for that goal.”

Thomas “Motion” Frank stood off of the 18th green, avoiding the cameras and the limelight, but his boss, Kris Tamulis, wasn’t about to let him off that easy. As Tamulis, in her winner’s speech, began to speak about what Frank’s meant to her, he covered his face and began to cry. It might have been Tamulis’ first win on the LPGA Tour, but it was Motion’s too, and it was a walk he’ll never forget.

“I felt like I was on air, you know. I mean she was chipping in and making birdies and just played solid and it was like the horse that won the Triple Crown, just let her go,” Frank said. “I didn’t get in her way and I’m so thankful.”

No one on Tour deserves to be linked up with a winner more than Motion. He’s still working on his housing situation after his house burned to the ground in April but hasn’t ever lost his amazing attitude or perspective. For everyone around him, it’s impossible to complain or have a bad day when Motion is around.

“I landed in San Fran and I got this text. It was a couple pictures of his home and then it said, you know, it’s all good though, I’ve got the best friends, I’ve got the best family and I’ve got the best boss,” Tamulis said. “I’m like, Mo, what you have going for you is your unbelievable attitude. Having what happened to him really puts everything in perspective.”

Motion used to be a memorabilia collector, a respectful homage, to all the players he’s worked with. He’s caddied for Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in exhibitions and worked for Jane Crafter and Helen Alfredsson on the LPGA Tour and has caddied on the PGA Tour too. All the memorabilia from his 20 plus years on the bag was lost, but as he talked about it, he smiled and pointed at the flag in his hands. It was the flag from the 18th hole Sunday and his boss wasn’t about to keep it despite Motion’s request that she keep it herself.

“I lost all my memorabilia and I’m a memorabilia guy, but I’ve got this now,” Motion said with a smile. “I can start a new collection, you know. That’s all material stuff. My friends are more important to me than the material stuff, my friends and the LPGA have been around helping me for years and years.“

Motion has long been a caddie that stands out more than perhaps any other on Tour. Mostly for his incredible attitude and giving nature but also his wardrobe. Every event he’s there with a tie and button down on under his caddie bib. It’s always been that way for Motion, a respectful homage to the game that he’s so grateful for, and Tamulis doesn’t see it as a coincidence that four of her seven career top-10s, including her win, all came in the last 15 months since she asked Motion to be her caddie.

“Mo is a terrific supporter of me. He keeps me going. He always has a smile on his face,” Tamulis said. “He probably has the best attitude of anyone I’ve ever met.”

1 - This is Kris Tamulis’ first career win and Thomas “Motion” Frank’s first career win as a caddie on the LPGA Tour.

4 - This was Stacy Lewis’ fourth consecutive top-10 at this event after her final-round 66 pushed her into a tie for sixth Sunday.

6 - In two seasons on Tour, Jaye Marie Green has posted two top-10 finishes - both have come in the last three events. Her tie for sixth finish Sunday is her best career finish.

65 - Tamulis’ final round 7-under-par 65 tied her previous career best round in relation to par of a 7-under-par 64 at the Marathon Classic.