Tiger Woods predicts women’s world number one Yani Tseng will snap out of her current slump and return to the form that has brought her five major titles.
Woods, a 14-time major champion who ended his own extended US tour title drought this year, played with Taiwan’s Tseng this week at his university buddy Notah Begay’s charity tournament and said he was glad to have a chance to meet her at last.
“I had never met her, so it was nice to see her swing, see her play and get to talk to her a little bit,” Woods said, adding that his only advice to the Taiwanese star would be to stay patient.
Tseng won three of the first five events on the 2012 LPGA tour schedule but missed the cut in three of five events heading into last week’s Canadian Women’s Open.
In Vancouver she put herself atop the leaderboard, but couldn’t maintain her momentum over the weekend in the tournament won by another rising young star — 15-year-old amateur Lydia Ko.
Tseng, who dominated women’s golf in 2011 with seven LPGA titles that included two majors, has admitted battling a loss of confidence.
But Woods said the player whose Women’s British Open crown last year made her the youngest golfer to capture five majors, would find her form again.
“We’re all going to go through those lulls,” Woods said as he prepared for the US PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship. “You play this game long enough, it’s going to happen.