Angel Yin needed to struggle, however she will be able to formally say she is an LPGA winner. She took dwelling the Buick LPGA Shanghai title Sunday, however it wasn’t simple. Yin and Rolex No. 1 ranked Lilia Vu wanted an additional gap to find out the winner.
Nevertheless, a birdie on the first playoff gap allowed her to take down Vu, who was making an attempt to earn her fourth win of the season.
Due to legendary LPGA golfer Juli Inkster, the 25-year-old lastly determined to channel her feelings.
“I don’t actually really feel a lot feelings on the golf course,” Yin mentioned after her spherical. “She [Inkster] was like, ‘No, that’s not good. I need you to get mad once more.’ I obtained plenty of feelings, and I feel I began doing once more, and I began enjoying nicely.”
“That helped me loads, to be expressive and never simply flat-lining on the golf course. Rising up, everybody taught me to be stone-faced, no feelings — poker face. I don’t assume that matches me. What matches me proper now could be [what] I’m doing to specific myself.”
Yin performed in her first occasion after a robust Solheim Cup efficiency, the place she went 2-1-0. That confidence carried into Shanghai and paid off.
“I mentioned, come on, Angel, that is the second,” she mentioned. “So all the fairway, I’m making an attempt to pump myself up and get emotional. I used to be fairly emotional throughout Solheim, and I did fairly good.”
Yin got here into the ultimate day of play sharing the 54-hole lead with Maja Stark. She made her first birdie of the day on the par-5 4th gap.
A bogey on the par-4 sixth pushed her again to 12-under, however she bounced proper again to 13-under on the par-5 ninth together with her second birdie on the entrance.
She would make par for the subsequent seven holes earlier than making one other birdie on the par-5 seventeenth.
She finally discovered herself in a playoff with Vu, who closed her day trip with a 4-under 68.
Each gamers discovered the golf green on the primary playoff gap. Nevertheless, a uncommon miss by Vu gave Yin the reins.
She sealed the deal in entrance of her mom’s dwelling nation. Yin lastly turned an LPGA winner for the primary time since becoming a member of the LPGA Tour in 2017.
“Truthfully, I’m nonetheless dwelling within the second a lot that I haven’t been in a position to attract on the previous to consider the journey and the place I’m proper now,” Yin mentioned. “I’m nonetheless a lot within the current, and I feel generally golf, you need to be like that… particular to be wanting round and everyone seems to be talking Chinese language. I’m blissful my mother taught me tips on how to communicate Chinese language.”
In her 159th begin, the American lastly prevailed, and this victory proved to be fairly particular for her.