World No. 1 Yani Tseng heads up a foursome of LPGA Tour stars to receive nominations for ESPY Awards. Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, and So Yeon Ryu round out the marquee group on the ballot for ESPN’s annual celebration of the best in the world of sports for the past year.
Tseng makes the ballot twice — as a contender for Best Female Golfer and Best International Athlete.
“I was pretty excited,” Tseng said in a statement about learning that she was up for two ESPYs. “Last year I didn’t win the award for Best Female Golfer and it was my first time being nominated for an ESPY. So it’s pretty exciting. I’ll be watching on TV to see if I can get this award because it’s like an Oscar in sports. It would be great if I can win it this year because that’s going to make me feel that all of my hard work and success from last year has paid off and that people see it.”
Kerr, who made 22 of 24 cuts in 2011 to go with 12 top-10s that included three runner-up finishes, hoped to make it back-to-back wins in the Best Female Golfer category.
“It really shows that people are starting to pay attention to women’s golf,” said Kerr. “It’s just great to be able to be nominated after winning when I feel I didn’t have quite as good a year as I had the year before. So it’s just great to be in the mix.”
Ryu, who won the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open and leads the race for 2012 Rookie of the Year, was also going for Best Female Golfer.
“Cristie Kerr and Yani Tseng have already been World No. 1. I haven’t gotten there yet but my world ranking is coming up and someday I want to be the No. 1 player in the world so this is very exciting,” Ryu said “I think these awards are really, really great and I think lots of great sports stars are coming so it’s really an honor to me.”
Thompson’s Best Record-Breaking Performance nomination was for her 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic win as the youngest player ever to earn an LPGA trophy.
“When I think back on that win last year, all that comes to mind is walking up to the 18th green with my dad,” Thompson said. “It gave me chills. It was the best experience of my life and I will never forget it.”
Voting ends on July 9, with the awards show slated for July 11 at 8 p.m.
