SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Turning into the second lady from China to win a serious championship left Ruoning Yin in awe, even an hour after being handed the Girls’s PGA Championship trophy at Baltusrol.
“After I was strolling to this tent, I simply mentioned: ‘Oh, wow, main winner!’ It is superb. It is simply unreal,” Yin mentioned Sunday.
Yin made a birdie putt from about 10 ft on the ultimate gap to beat Yuka Saso by one stroke. The 20-year-old closed with a 4-under 67 to complete at 8-under 276 and take a spot in Chinese language sports activities historical past subsequent to Shanshan Feng.
“I might say she’s undoubtedly the objective that I am chasing,” Yin mentioned. “However I feel she is the one who impressed me probably the most.”
Feng, now nationwide golf coach in China, gained 23 occasions worldwide, together with 10 on the LPGA Tour.
Yin wasn’t even taking part in golf when Feng gained this occasion — then often called the LPGA Championship — in 2012. She was 9 years previous and did not take up the sport for an additional 18 months. Her fundamental sport was basketball and he or she idolized Stephen Curry, however her shorter stature led her to show to golf.
Yin has actually turned it on the previous two years. She picked up her first LPGA Tour win earlier this 12 months in Los Angeles and now could be the third participant to win twice this season, becoming a member of Lilia Vu and world No. 1 Jin Younger Ko. This got here with a $1.5 million paycheck.
Yin earned it along with her fourth birdie on a bogey-free day.
After Saso made birdie forward of her on the par-5 18th gap to maneuver right into a tie for the lead, Yin discovered the tough along with her tee shot, then hit her third shot into an excellent spot and curled within the right-to-left breaking putt, pumping her fist after it dropped.
“I really form of felt that I used to be going to make it, and I made it,” mentioned Yin, who hit a tournament-best 66 greens in regulation and 48 of 56 fairways. “It is a very bizarre feeling.”
Rose Zhang, who gained in her skilled debut three weeks in the past, additionally in New Jersey, made a cost with a final-round 67 and completed in a tie for eighth, three photographs again.
Saso, the U.S. Girls’s Open champion in 2021, shot 66. The championship had a mid-round delay of practically two hours due to extreme climate, and Yin made three of her birdies after the re-start.
Saso, from Japan, thought she had blown her likelihood to win when she missed a 10-foot birdie try and tie the lead at No. 17. She obtained up-and-down from a greenside bunker to birdie the ultimate gap.
“After lacking the birdie on 17, I simply wished that I would not hit my drive within the water on 18,” she mentioned. “However glad I did not. Hit a great shot, and second shot hit it within the left bunker. It was not a straightforward bunker shot, however it was manageable, and I used to be capable of handle it fairly good.”
Xiyu Lin, who both led or shared the lead throughout most of her again 9, discovered the water along with her drive on the 18th and made bogey to shoot 67 and end two photographs again alongside Carlota Ciganda (64), Anna Nordqvist (65), Megan Khang (67) and Stephanie Meadow (70).
“Sadly I did not hit a great tee shot on the final gap,” mentioned the 27-year-old Lin, who’s winless on the LPGA Tour however got here in ranked No. 14 on this planet. “However it might have occurred another gap. I feel total I gave myself good probabilities. It is nonetheless a extremely good Sunday to have loads to remove from.”
Lin, additionally from China, rents a home in Florida to Yin and has joked that she goes to boost the lease.
Yin was requested about it after successful.
“Oh, wow. Really I am desirous about purchase her home proper now,” she mentioned, drawing laughs. “Yeah, simply give it some thought.”
Leona Maguire, who gained final week and led after the second and third rounds, shot 74, ending a run of eight straight rounds within the 60s. In search of to develop into the primary lady from Eire to win a serious, she completed 4 photographs again. Maguire didn’t communicate to the media.
Jenny Shin, who began the ultimate spherical a shot behind Maguire, had a 72 and completed at 5 underneath together with Zhang and Ayaka Furue.
Baltusrol yielded solely 16 rounds underneath par on Thursday, however with the course softened by rain, 35 gamers broke par within the remaining spherical, together with tournament-low rounds of 64 from Ciganda and Perrine Delacour. Nobody had shot higher than 66 earlier than Sunday.
Zhang, who turned professional after successful her second straight NCAA particular person title, began the spherical at 1 underneath and obtained to six underneath at No. 11 along with her fifth birdie of the spherical. She by no means obtained nearer, sandwiching bogeys at Nos. 13 and 16 with a birdie at 14. She hit her tee shot into the water on the final gap and salvaged par.
“It is actually cool to see that my recreation is there, and I simply need to work just a little additional more durable to play higher,” the 20-year-old mentioned.
The subsequent occasion on the LPGA Tour is one other main, the U.S. Girls’s Open at Pebble Seaside from July 6-9.
