Usually, when Angel Yin enters the media room, she puts on a show.
Take last year at the Solheim Cup when she showed up at a press conference with massive shades, and channeled her inner-Coach Prime with her answers, getting a rise out of the room.
But it’s not only her sense of humor that has made her a fan favorite on the LPGA Tour — it’s also the candor she exhibits when speaking about weightier topics, such as the state of women’s professional golf. Take, for instance, earlier this week when GOLF’s Nick Pistowski caught up with Yin to pick her brain on a variety of subjects, including whether the LPGA had capitalized on the boom in women’s sports over the past few years.
“No,” she said, contending the buzz around Caitlin Clark playing in an LPGA pro-am last week “didn’t feel like it got out there enough.”
On Friday, she broke down a ruling she received on the 4th hole of her second round when she was asked to review video footage of a drop.
She expended 753 words in explaining what happened. That was nearly double the number of words she used in her entire press conference Saturday evening.
But the context is important.
Friday night, Yin was comfortably heading into the weekend at the CME Group Tour Championship with a two-shot lead. She has contended in big tournaments before — she won her first and only LPGA Tour event 13 months ago in China and lost a playoff to Lilia Vu at last year’s Chevron Championship — but something about this week is markedly different.
This week’s purse is a record $11 million, and the winner will take home $4 million, larger than the prize for many of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events. To put that in perspective for Yin, a 26-year-old who joined the LPGA full-time in 2017, a first-prize check on Sunday would almost double her career earnings of $5.2 million.
The other bit of context is that Yin’s two-shot lead had swelled to three shots at one point during the third round, but she’ll start the final round tied for the lead with Jeeno Thitikul after the former World No. 1 went eagle-birdie to card a nine-under 63.
A first-place payday Sunday would be career-changing for nearly every player in the field. But for Yin, a win would also would go a long way in changing her image from fan favorite to player to watch in 2025.
