Kris Tamulis, Yani Tseng, Jaye Marie Green, Austin Ernst: Turnaround Story Lines in Alabama

By Elizabeth Bethel | Aug 30, 2015

The Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic is in the books and the Tour is taking a week’s break before hopping the pond for The Evian Championship and the Solheim Cup, but four turnarounds that unfolded down in Alabama are well worth noting.

First, 125th ranked veteran player Kris Tamulis has notched her first Tour win and will cash a check that exceeds her 2014 winnings! Tamulis finished a tournament that stopped and started several times over 72 holes, dodging some nasty weather, to finish at 17-under par and one shot ahead of Yani Tseng and Austin Ernst.

It was Tamulis’s 186th LPGA start and it wasn’t something she was expecting, or even thinking about. Her goal was to finish high enough to get into the Tour’s fall limited field Asia swing. She did that, and then some.

Tamulis is clearly enjoying her first winner’s selfie!

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Second, Yani Tseng played four splendid rounds of golf, and there was pleasure and delight written all over her face. Oddly, the former world’s number one player backed off on that Mighty Girl drive of hers for the final round. She may have been hoping that shortening her tee shots would get her more accuracy but that didn’t happen. She needs to follow Babe Zaharias’s advice and just step up to the tee and let it rip!

When I look at Tseng’s numbers, she wasn’t any more accurate on Sunday than she was on Friday, which was her best round in Alabama.

Tseng carded a bogey-free 64 on Friday that included an eagle on the par 5 8th, but only managed a 67 on Sunday in a round that included 2 bogeys. And she was averaging more than 50 yards more off the tee on Friday than on Sunday. Tseng could make good use of that powerful drive of hers when she tees it up at Evian-les-Bains in two weeks’ time.

Still, Tseng recognizes the turnaround in her game and she’s delighted.

"“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. ”"

And then, third, there was Austin Ernst, who also turned lo0se this week in Alabama. Like Tseng, Ernst just needed one more birdie to force a playoff and, like Tseng, she just couldn’t sink that needed birdie putt on Sunday. Still, Ernst played with grit and determination and, at times, with brilliance through a monster marathon round on Sunday.

I keep thinking that Austin Ernst just missed being tapped by Juli Inkster as a captain’s pick for the 2015 Solheim Cup Team USA and as I watched her battle through Sunday in Alabama I wondered if perhaps Team USA will rue the loss of Ernst’s fierce, dogged determination when they face off against the Europeans.

Finally, fourth, comes Jaye Marie Green’s 12-under par T6 finish, alongside Stacy Lewis, is also noteworthy. It’s her second top-10 finish in her last three starts. Green hasn’t missed a cut since her life turned around with her big break start at the US Women’s Open. Let’s see what she can do with her rookie appearance on the Alpine track at The Evian Championship.

Next: Juli Inkster Winds Legend Championship

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