SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Ruoning Yin used to tell her mom that if she’d been 10 centimeters taller, she would’ve played basketball rather than golf. She has been a Steph Curry fan for nine years, which is a long time for someone who’s only 20 years old. Yin’s stature in the sports world back home in China surely rocketed overnight as she joined Shanshan Feng as the only Chinese players to win a major championship.
Shanghai’s Yin, a chronic leaderboard watcher, knew standing on the 18th tee at the KPMG Women’s PGA that she held a one-shot lead, and after she watched Yuka Saso birdie the final hole in front of her, Yin knew she needed a birdie of her own to win the title.
“I actually kind of felt that I was going to make it,” said Yin, “and I made it. It’s a very weird feeling.”
Yin, who shot 67 in the final round at Baltusrol’s Lower Course, wasn’t even playing golf when Feng became the first Chinese player to win a major at the 2012 Wegmans Championship, now known as the KPMG Women’s PGA. The player known on tour as “Ronnie” was 10 ½ when she first picked up a club, the same year her good friend and landlord, Xiyu Lin, joined the LPGA. Lin had a good chance of her own to win this week and finished with a flood of emotion after a closing bogey left her two shots short.
Lin was standing at the mic talking to the media when Yin drained the winning putt.
“It’s amazing,” said Lin. “She’s young, and she’s so talented. She’s definitely really good at dealing with pressure.”
Yin rents Lin’s second home in Orlando, Florida. Lin joked earlier in the week that she thought about raising the rent after Yin won on the LPGA earlier this season. When Yin was asked after her victory if she thought rent might go up after that $1.5 million winner’s paycheck, Yin said: “Actually, I’m thinking about buying her house right now.”
The interview room erupted in laughter.
While Yin was the one lifting the trophy by day’s end, another 20-year-old in the field, Rose Zhang, certainly generated great buzz on Sunday. The former Stanford star, who won in her professional debut on the LPGA earlier this month, trailed by one stroke on the back nine but ultimately finished three shots back in a share of eighth.
“It was definitely very tense,” said Zhang. “I felt a lot of energy from the crowds.”
Yin turned professional in 2020 and set a record when she won her first three consecutive tournaments on the China LPGA…
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