No, I'm not surprised.  As commenter Fanslaststand said, "Yani's home soil is anywhere grass grows".  Yani Tseng's seventh LPGA victory of the year was her sixth win in her last twelve starts.  Having clinched the Player of the Year award prior to this event, she now has 19 Hall of Fame points with another one via the Vare Trophy all but in her pocket.

Tseng started the final round with a two-shot lead over Anna Nordqvist.  After both players birdied 2, Nordqvist birdied 4 to get within one.  It didn't stay tight for long - Yani ran off three straight birdies at 6, 7 and 8 to go up by three.  Anna hung on with a birdie of her own at 8 and another at 9 to make the turn down by two, but bogeys at 10 and 11 killed her chances.  Azahara Munoz went out in 32 to get within three shots but she stalled out on the back.  With no late pressure from the competition, Tseng cruised along with pars until she iced the cake with birdies at 16 and 18 to win by five shots.

Munoz is certainly enjoying her Asian experience.  She followed up last week's solo third with a tie for second, the first back-to-back Top 5s of her career.  Aza has definitely broken out of her sophomore slump (only one Top 10 in her first 18 events this year) in a big way.  Amy Yang shot a final-round 67 to grab a share of second place, her second runner-up this season (solo second at Arkansas).

Limited field events often make it tougher to pick out a Big Surprise.  Since both players collected only their second Top 10 of the year, I'm going to split the award between Katie Futcher (sixth) and Hee-Won Han (tenth).  I'd also like to give a Shout-Out to Wendy Ward, who barely missed her second Top 10 of the year.  The Big Disappointment is Brittany Lang, who finished +9 T54 after coming in at #4 on this week's Hot 20 list. 

Lorena Ochoa's popularity back home was such that by 2008 there were three LPGA events in Mexico.  I think it's safe to say that similar circumstances have given birth to this event in Taiwan, just as Yani Tseng has secured her position as Most Dominant Player on Tour.  It's no exhibition either - the purse of $2 million is second only to Evian as the largest among limited fields this year.

Given that sizeable purse, the field strength is disappointing.  Four of my Top 10 players (Lincicome, Webb, Creamer and Stanford) waved it off and the Field Score is the third-lowest of the season behind the Founders Cup (61) and Navistar (74).  To be fair to those missing Top 10ers, this is the first missed event of the year for three of them and only the second for Webb.  Here's a stat that really shows you how sparse the LPGA schedule has been in 2011 - through last week's event in Malaysia, 21 players had teed it up in all 19 scheduled events.

One missing player really caught my eye - Shanshan Feng.  Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but does anybody else think it's strange that the Tour's only player from mainland China isn't participating in the inaugural Taiwan event?  She's played well the last two weeks (T13 and T9) so I doubt it's a physical problem.

Returning to the Ochoa-Tseng parallel - my first inclination is against expecting Yani to win this week.  The many distractions that the local superstar has to face (especially in her first home start) are sure to take something away from her usual preparations.  Then I looked back at Lorena's record - three times she won in her home country, starting with the 2006 Corona Championship (all three of her wins in Mexico were Coronas) in just her third homeland start.  So I'll try not to be surprised if Tseng collects her seventh win of 2011 on Sunday.

Four of this week's Hot 20 are missing, and three of them are Top 10 players to boot.

Na Yeon Choi was #6 in my rankings coming into this weekend despite not having registered a single victory in 2011.  For the second straight week, she had to battle the hottest player in the world for the victory but this time Na Yeon came out on top.  It was her fifth career victory, all of which have come over the last 25 months.

Choi began the final round with a one-shot lead over Brittany Lang, two shots over Azahara Munoz, and four shots over Yani Tseng, Se Ri Pak and Stacy Lewis.  A double-bogey at 2 was a most auspicious beginning for NYC, dropping her to -10 and behind Lang.  Brittany birdied 3 to take a two-shot lead.  Choi cut the lead in half with a birdie at 6, and then another at 8 tied them at -12.  Meanwhile, Tseng had birdied 6 and 7 to reach -11.  Remaining the same through the turn, Yani birdied 11 to create a three-way tie at -12.  Lang birdied 11 to retake the solo lead.  Choi responded with birdie at 12 to get tied at -13.  Brittany suddenly collapsed - bogeys at 13 and 14, birdie at 15 but a double at 16 and a final bogey at 18 relegated her to -9 and a tie for fifth.  As Lang fell out, Munoz climbed back in - birdies at 13 and 14 brought Aza to within one of the lead.  Tseng birdied 15 to tie Choi at -13.  Na Yeon birdied 15 as well to go back in front.  Yani birdied 16 to tie them again at -14.  Munoz also birdied 16 to momentarily hang with them but she wound up bogeying 18 and finished in solo third.  After Tseng only parred 17, Choi birdied it to take the lead again.  Yani also parred 18, leaving NYC to need only a par for the win.  Which she did.

I didn't see the coverage (9:30-11:30 on a Sunday night?  Puh-lease!) but it must have been painful to watch Brittany Lang's final six holes.  This was her best chance to win in at least two years (her runner-up at this year's British was four shots behind Tseng) and we continue to wait for her first LPGA victory.  I still think she's gonna get one sometime.

Good to see last year's Rookie of the Year have a good finish.  Munoz had only registered one Top 10 and one other Top 20 this year before yesterday's third-place finish.  It was the best showing of her LPGA career, beating out a T4 at last year's Bell Micro Classic.  It's always good to see Se Ri Pak finish in the Top 5 - the solo fourth was her second such finish of the season (T5 at State Farm).

The Big Surprise Award gets split two ways this week.  Christel Boeljon finished T9, the rookie's first career Top 10.  Amanda Blumenherst also finished T9, her first Top 10 since last year Sybase Match Play Championship and her first Top 10 in a stroke-play event since last year's Tres Marias Championship.

There isn't a clear-cut choice for Big Disappointment so I'm going to pass on designating one.  But I am very disappointed in the performance of Tiffany Joh.  With a great opportunity to gain some ROY points on Hee Kyung Seo, Tiffany shot 80 on Thursday and finished tied for last (T71 +25).  With only four events left to play, Seo has a stranglehold on the rookie trophy. 

The Tour's second trip to Malaysia is Stop #2 on this fall's Asian Swing.  Jimin Kang permanently removed her name from Fluke consideration with her second career victory in last year's inaugural, besting Juli Inkster by one shot.  This year's tournament expands to 72 holes, joining next week's Taiwan event in breaking the Asian Swing model of only 54-hole tournaments.

While last week's field was plenty strong, this week's is slightly better as all of my Top 10 players and 18 of my Top 20 will tee it up.  Also, recent up-and-comers Tiffany Joh and Caroline Hedwall made the limited field.  With ROY front-runner Hee Kyung Seo not playing, this is a great opportunity for Joh to narrow the 282-point gap in that race.  With a win, Joh would chop 150 points off of that lead.

I could point out that there is no cut in this four-day event or that the late-evening Golf Channel coverage means that they will be airing taped action at the same time live action is taking place, but I would be duplicating information already provided by Tony Jesselli at Mostly Harmless.  The previews at MH by Tony and The Constructivist have been putting mine to shame recently so be sure to check them out every week.

The only two of this week's 20 not in the field are non-members of the LPGA.

In my tournament preview, I wondered how anybody - even Yani Tseng - could be favored to win over Na Yeon Choi given Choi's record on the course and her recent play.  Serves me right for doubting the Terror of Taiwan.  The countdown continues - Yani's sixth LPGA victory of 2011 is the eleventh of her career and gives her 17 Hall of Fame points.  Nobody is going to steal Player of the Year away from her and she now has a 0.94 lead in the low-scoring race for the Vare Trophy.

Tseng started the final round tied with Choi for second place, one shot behind KLPGA player Soo-Jin Yang.  NYC birdied the first hole to tie for the lead but gave it right back with a bogey at 2.  Yang slipped into a three-way tie when she bogeyed 3 and another bogey at 4 dropped her one back of her playing partners.  One group ahead, Jimin Kang had birdied three of the first five holes to reach -10 and take the lead.  Tseng birdied 5 to tie Kang at -10 as Yang rebounded with birdie to move into a tie for third.  Kang bogeyed 6 to give Tseng the solo lead.  Choi bogeyed 6 to fall two back and got the shot back at 7 but Yani birdied it too to open up a two-shot lead.  Kang bogeyed 8 to fall three back - though she rallied on the back, she never did get any closer.  Another birdie at 8 gave Tseng a three-shot lead heading to the back nine.  Na Yeon birdied 10 and 11 to charge within one while Yang birdied 11 to get within two.  All three players parred 12 and 14 and birdied the par-5 13^th, leaving Tseng at -13, Choi at -12 and Yang at -11.  At 15, Yang bogeyed to fall out of contention while Tseng birdied to go back up by two.  Yani parred out while Choi was only able to birdie 18, making the final margin one stroke.

If not for those two front nine bogeys, Jimin Kang would have stayed in contention for her second Asian swing victory in twelve months.  Oddly enough, the T3 finish was Jimin's first Top 10 of the year and her first since a T8 at Mizuno last November.  Since I don't have a good gauge on whether the KLPGA's Yang (T3) or Yeon-Ju Jung (T7) are more deserving, Kang gets this week's Big Surprise Award.

After being shown by the oddsmakers as the second-best favorite behind Tseng, Suzann Pettersen (+8 T63) was better than only five players in the field.  For that, she collects this week's Big Disappointment Award. 

The LPGA starts its autumn Asian swing with its tenth annual trip to Korea for the Hana Bank Championship.  The Tour will spend the next four weeks playing limited field events in the Far East, from here traveling to Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan.

Na Yeon Choi is the two-time defending champion.  That's such a rare distinction these days that I just had to point it out (Yani Tseng will be a two-time defender at least twice next year).  It's especially notable when Choi's career win total is only four.  Most other two-timers you can find in LPGA history had a lot more than four victories.  Since those wins came on this same course, shouldn't that make Choi more of a favorite?  Her odds are running 2.5-3 times longer than Tseng's, who did finish T2 in 2009 - her only previous appearance here.  But Choi's also being shown behind Suzann Pettersen.  It's debatable but I don't see how anybody could pick against NYC this weekend.

These events often suffer from absences from a handful of top players.  The highest Field Score for a fall Asian event over the last three years was 78 at last year's Hana Bank.  As you can see from the Tournament Box, this year's 88 is substantially higher.  Ai Miyazato is my only Top 10er not here and Mika Miyazato is the only other missing Top 20 player.  The field is bolstered by the sponsor's exemption which was given to U.S. Open champion So Yeon Ryu as well as the return of Jiyai Shin and the appearance of Cristie Kerr (I thought her tendonitis might have prevented her from playing so soon post-Solheim).

I mentioned them in my Hot 20 post but wanted to clarify something a little further.  Because they finished in the Top 10 at Navistar, Tiffany Joh, Jenny Shin and Jennifer Johnson would all have been automatically in this field if it were not a limited-field tournament.  The "Top 10 in previous event" rule only applies toward full-field events.  I don't believe that they would be guaranteed a place in the next full-field tournament (which won't be until next season) by virtue of the Top 10 finish but since they are all in the Top 60 on the money list, this becomes a moot point.  So why did I bring it up in the first place?  Just call me the King of Trivial FYIs...