Angel Yin can now sleep as an LPGA champion
In her 149th LPGA start, the notorious snoozer finds her edge in time
Angel Yin once said she can sleep for 17 hours straight. Her LPGA bio includes “hibernating” as a hobby. At the 2019 Solheim Cup, she got out of bed past 10:30 a.m. to win a pivotal match.
So while most of America slumbered early Sunday morning, Yin’s game woke up in time to put her seven-season LPGA winless streak to rest. In her 159th tour start, playing 15 hours ahead of her native Los Angeles, Yin held off Lilia Vu in a playoff to capture the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
To force a rematch of the Chevron Championship playoff in April, when Vu captured her first major title, Yin needed to save par from a deep bunker on the 18th fairway. She blasted a short iron out of the trap to the middle of the green, and then two-putted to stay at 14-under par.
“I said to my caddie, this is a great lie,” Yin said of the bunker shot. “If I can't hit it, I just suck. … I told him, everything is set up for me to do it. If I can't, then that's just on me.”
In the playoff, Vu and Yin each ripped woods down the 18th fairway and found the green on their approach. When Vu missed her 20-foot birdie, Yin had a 10-footer for victory.
The 25-year-old who turned professional at age 17 and finished her high school diploma online, pumped her fist as the ball found the cup. She gave a faint smile of relief to the crowd at Qizhong Garden Golf Club, in her parents’ native country.
“It's special,” Yin said. “Honestly, I'm still living in the moment so much that I haven't been able to draw on the past to think about the journey and where I am right now. I'm still so much in the present, and I think sometimes in golf you have to be like that. That's where I am right now.”
It’s been a long wait for a golfer who, at age 18 in 2017, made her Solheim Cup debut. Shortly after turning 19, she captured her only previous victory in an LET event, the Dubai Ladies Classic, and vaulted into a top-50 world ranking.
Back then, Yin had bravado uncommon to professional golf. A blissful ignorance to what was in store for her career. Her game, as she put it, was “long and far.” When No Laying Up asked who the longest-hitting LPGA player was, Yin responded, “Me, of course. It’s not even a question.”
But over the years, as near misses stacked up and her ranking neared triple digits, that brash nature gave way to more introspection. She battled shoulder injuries, was passed over for the 2021 Solheim Cup, and fell to 172nd in the world entering this year’s Chevron Championship.
“Last year was one of my worst seasons on tour,” Yin told Matt Adams in January. “What I’m really grateful for is I didn’t lose my (LPGA) card. I didn’t hit rock bottom, but I went pretty low.”
At the Chevron Championship, Yin shot a third-round 67 to tie for the lead. A reporter asked whether Yin would jump off the dock and into the lake should she win the major. “Anything,” Yin replied. “Just let me win and I’ll do anything. Do I sound desperate with that? That’s all I want! I’ve been telling everyone. Because if I tell the universe enough, I’m going to manifest it true.”
Needing a birdie on the par-5 18th hole at the Chevron Championship to force a playoff, Yin ripped a 6-iron over the flagstick, and two-putted for birdie. However, in the playoff against Vu, her 5-iron approach shot duck-hooked into the lake. She later said she should have hit 4-iron.
But Yin had found something. She finished top 30 in all five majors, including a tie for sixth at the British Open that improved her ranking to 32nd in the world, its highest in four years. She made her third Solheim Cup, and sank a long putt to defeat Celine Boutier in Sunday singles.
In Shanghai this week, Yin shot a third-round 65 to tie Maja Stark for the lead at 12-under par.
Yin was still at 12-under after a bogey on the sixth hole Sunday, Then, the notorious heavy sleeper did something she typically hates. She woke up.
“Nothing was happening,” said Yin, who had spent Saturday evening at the Shanghai Masters tennis tournament, paying close attention to how the players expressed themselves on the court. “I was like, you know what, I think I'm going to draw on my emotions.”
Yin birdied No. 9, then parred the next seven holes. With a bunched leaderboard, Vu birdied No. 17 for a one-stroke lead over Yin and others. After ripping her driver on the par-5 17th hole, Yin snatched her tee and shouted, “Yeah! Let’s go!” before the perfect drive had reached its apex.
Yin also credits former Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster with helping regain her edge.
“I don't really feel much emotions on the golf course,” Yin said. “(Inkster) was like, no, that's not good. I want you to get mad again. … That helped me a lot, to be able to be expressive and not just flat-lining on the golf course. Growing up everyone taught me to be stone faced, no emotions, poker face. I don't think that fits me.
“What’s fitting me right now, is I'm going to express myself.”
Really good article about adversity