The outgoing Angel Yin couldn’t help but notice the extra attention on her late Friday at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples. Rules officials met with her following a second-round 69 in the CME Group Tour Championship to review television footage of her drop on the par-4 fourth hole.
Media waited for the 36-hole leader and asked for details on the drop. Yin clarified that the discrepancy came from when someone who witnessed the drop on tape felt she dropped her ball farther ahead than she should have on her approach shot.
“I didn’t have anything I wanted to clarify because I believe I did all the steps of the rules of golf to make my drop and make the decision,” Yin said. “I’m a big scaredy cat so I always like to go by the rules.”
Leaving the meeting without penalty, Yin walked away from a dark Tiburon with the lead at 10 under par, following an opening 65 with the 69 that included six birdies against three bogeys. She’s ahead of Hye-Jin Choi and Narin An by two with a chance for a freedom-purchasing $4 million first-place prize. It’d be the season-salvaging victory of a tumultuous 2024 for the gregarious personality.
4-under in Round 2, @angelyinlol has a three stroke lead 🤩 pic.twitter.com/FvmfMsPm5Z
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 22, 2024
Yin, 26, had an ascendant career-best year on tour in 2023. She lost to Lilia Vu in a Chevron Championship playoff, then bested Vu in a playoff rematch to win the Buick LPGA Shanghai. Her year-long consistency was part what allowed her to win the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, earning its $1 million prize and putting it to practical use.
“I just bought myself freedom,” Yin said Thursday. “And then I was lucky enough to pick up a few sponsors this year. I’m just creating more financial freedom for myself and can do whatever I want.”
Yin, however, broke her ankle in the offseason and the injury delayed her season debut until April in Las Vegas. She surprised in her return by advancing to the eight-player match play bracket and losing to Nelly Korda, 3 and 2. Yin then withdrew from the Chevron Championship, where she lost in a playoff last year. That started a run of making only three cuts in nine events and not finishing inside the top 30, removing any hopes of her dreams of making the Olympics.
“I missed a bunch of cuts in the middle,” Yin said. “Was kind of depressing, but I figured it out. Now we’re turning it around and I’m here. Because I really didn’t think I was going to make it here in the middle of the season, because it’s hard to move up in the points unless you finish solo.”
Turning her season around to get to the tour championship, where players must finish in the top 60 in CME points, started with a round with her past Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster while mired in the missed cut run. The LPGA legend pushed Yin to recognize she needed to trust herself, especially after Yin carded an eight-under score with a training aid for a putter while playing together. Yin decided to take full control of her game and brought a friend to caddie for her so that Yin could make all the decisions, picking yardages, lines, and winds.
The Portland Classic in August became a crossroads moment. Yin’s runner-up finish started a run of more consistently placing herself at the top of leaderboards, earning five top 10s over her next eight events. She finished in seventh place in her Buick title defense. While her run came too late to earn a fourth time on the American Solheim Cup roster, Yin played her way into her sixth tour championship.
The flagstick did @angelyinlol so dirty here 😠pic.twitter.com/RmIgMBdEGS
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 22, 2024
Despite the limited fields in the season finale, Yin had previously struggled in Tiburon. Last year’s T-47 was her career-best finish. She posted her first score in the 60s on the scorable course during her third-round 68 last year, her 16th career round at Tiburon.
The longtime California native shared Friday her struggles came from not reading the Bermuda grass greens well, having grown up on Poa annua and bent grass. In trusting what she didn’t know, Yin brought veteran caddie Michelle Simpson—who worked for Brittany Lincicome in her career finale during the Annika tournament last week—onto her bag for the CME. Yin is averaging 27 putts a round heading into the weekend, which would be her best of the season and nearly 2.5 better than her career average.
“These greens are always rough, and with her help I’ve been able to get a few lines in,” Yin said. “I don’t really miss the putts too far, but that inch or centimeter makes the putt drop.”
There’s no big splurge that Yin is eyeing with a win and its historic $4 million prize, which is a bigger check than awarded to the winner of three of the four men’s majors. Yin wants to expand what she has already done: take care of her friends.
“Even bigger financial freedom,” Yin explained. “To me it’s not something I would buy, something I would get, because I’m really happy with my life now. Maybe I would like try to make it better, but I have everything I need.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
