LPGA veteran Amy Yang overcomes self-doubt with self-talk to win 1st major title

She has been on the LPGA Tour since 2008 but Amy Yang, the 34-year-old South Korean veteran, still battles nerves before rounds.

On Sunday in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, Yang was about to play the biggest round of her career. She held a two-stroke lead entering the final round at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the third major tournament of the season. She was looking for her first major title in her 75th attempt.

Butterflies were all over inside Yang’s stomach, and the player calmed them down with self-talk throughout the round. It helped her shoot a solid round of even-par 72 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington, enough for a three-shot victory for her maiden major victory.

“I was so nervous beginning of the day, even night before, and I told Jan (Meierling, her caddie) on the 18th fairway, ‘This has been the longest 18 holes I ever played in my career,’” Yang said. “I was that much stressed and felt pressure out there. But I think I managed to stay positive.”

Yang, whose Korean given name is Hee-young, also sensed some self-doubt creeping in. With each passing major without a win, Yang said she began to wonder whether she would ever win a major before she retired.

A little pep talk to herself paid off Sunday.

“I told myself maybe more than thousand times out there, ‘Just do what I prepared and what I’ve been doing at the practice days.’ It was good,” Yang said. “I’ve learned so many times it’s just focus on what I can control on the golf course out there and keep doing what I’ve been doing.”

Yang enjoyed a seven-stroke lead at one point on the back nine, though a late bogey and a double bogey made the final margin of her victory smaller than it could have been. Yang said she did her best to stay in the moment.

She added that tough playing conditions at Sahalee, which yielded just one round below 70 on Sunday, ended up helping her.

“The course was playing really tight and tough, and my back was bothering me a little bit,” she said. “That also made me very, very focused and committed to the shots I needed to play.”

Yang, who earned US$1.56 million with this win, had previously said her pursuit of a major title was one of the reasons she wanted to keep playing well into her 30s.

Now that she has done it, Yang said she won’t stop.

“I thought about this out on the golf course today that golf is really just like a fight against myself. I think I proved to myself that I can compete and I can do this,” she said. “And I’ll continue to work hard and go for the next one.”

Yang is the first South Korean to win on the LPGA Tour this year. She had also been the last South Korean winner, as the champion of the CME Group Tour Championship in November 2023.

That was her fifth career win, coming more than four years after her win No. 4. She had also missed time earlier in 2023 with an elbow injury, caused by her overzealous pursuit in rock climbing.

Yang said her time away from the field made her appreciate golf that much more when she returned.

“I couldn’t play for few months out here and I realized how much I love playing, being out here,” she said. “I remember I told (Jan) I lose motivation here and there but that’s a lie. I still do enjoy playing a lot.”