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 Ladies’s PGA Championship trophy at Baltusrol.
“After I was strolling to this tent, I simply stated: ‘Oh, wow, main winner!’ It is wonderful. It is simply unreal,” Yin stated Sunday.
Yin made a birdie putt from about 10 toes 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 aim that I am chasing,” Yin stated. “However I feel she is the one that impressed me essentially the most.”
Feng, now nationwide golf coach in China, received 23 occasions worldwide, together with 10 on the LPGA Tour.
Yin wasn’t even taking part in golf when Feng received this occasion — then generally known as the LPGA Championship — in 2012. She was 9 years previous and did not take up the sport for one more 18 months. Her foremost 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 together 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 together with her tee shot, then hit her third shot into a super spot and curled within the right-to-left breaking putt, pumping her fist after it dropped.
“I really type of felt that I used to be going to make it, and I made it,” stated Yin, who hit a tournament-best 66 greens in regulation and 48 of 56 fairways. “It is a very bizarre feeling.”
Rose Zhang, who received 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 pictures again.
Saso, the U.S. Ladies’s Open champion in 2021, shot 66. The championship had a mid-round delay of almost 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 to tie the lead at No. 17. She acquired 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 stated. “However glad I did not. Hit a great shot, and second shot hit it within the left bunker. It was not a simple bunker shot, but it surely was manageable, and I used to be in a position to handle it fairly good.”
Xiyu Lin, who both led or shared the lead throughout most of her again 9, discovered the water together with her drive on the 18th and made bogey to shoot 67 and end two pictures 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,” stated the 27-year-old Lin, who’s winless on the LPGA Tour however got here in ranked No. 14 on this planet. “But it surely may have occurred another gap. I feel total I gave myself good possibilities. It is nonetheless a extremely good Sunday to have rather a lot 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 profitable.
“Oh, wow. Really I am interested by purchase her home proper now,” she stated, drawing laughs. “Yeah, simply give it some thought.”
Leona Maguire, who received final week and led after the second and third rounds, shot 74, ending a run of eight straight rounds within the 60s. Looking for to turn into the primary lady from Eire to win a serious, she completed 4 pictures 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 below together with Zhang and Ayaka Furue.
Baltusrol yielded solely 16 rounds below par on Thursday, however with the course softened by rain, 35 gamers broke par within the ultimate 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 profitable her second straight NCAA particular person title, began the spherical at 1 below and acquired to six below at No. 11 together with her fifth birdie of the spherical. She by no means acquired 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 should work somewhat additional tougher to play higher,” the 20-year-old stated.
The subsequent occasion on the LPGA Tour is one other main, the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Pebble Seashore from July 6-9.
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