Angel Yin reveals Juli Inkster’s ‘emotional’ influence after LPGA Shanghai playoff win

Angel Yin had to fight, but she can officially say she is an LPGA winner. She took home the Buick LPGA Shanghai title Sunday, but it wasn’t easy. Yin and Rolex No. 1 ranked Lilia Vu needed an extra hole to determine the winner.

However, a birdie on the first playoff hole allowed her to take down Vu, who was trying to earn her fourth win of the season.

Thanks to legendary LPGA golfer Juli Inkster, the 25-year-old finally decided to channel her emotions.

“I don’t really feel much emotions on the golf course,” Yin said after her round. “She [Inkster] was like, ‘No, that’s not good. I want you to get mad again.’ I got a lot of emotions, and I think I started doing again, and I started playing well.”

“That helped me a lot, to be expressive and not just flat-lining on the golf course. Growing up, everyone taught me to be stone-faced, no emotions — poker face. I don’t think that fits me. What fits me right now is [what] I’m doing to express myself.”

Yin played in her first event after a strong Solheim Cup performance, where she went 2-1-0. That confidence carried into Shanghai and paid off.

“I said, come on, Angel, this is the moment,” she said. “So the entire fairway, I’m trying to pump myself up and get emotional. I was pretty emotional during Solheim, and I did pretty good.”

Yin came into the final day of play sharing the 54-hole lead with Maja Stark. She made her first birdie of the day on the par-5 4th hole.

A bogey on the par-4 6th pushed her back to 12-under, but she bounced right back to 13-under on the par-5 9th with her second birdie on the front.

She would make par for the next seven holes before making another birdie on the par-5 17th.

She ultimately found herself in a playoff with Vu, who closed her day out with a 4-under 68.

Both players found the fairway on the first playoff hole. However, a rare miss by Vu gave Yin the reins.

She sealed the deal in front of her mother’s home country. Yin finally became an LPGA winner for the first time since joining the LPGA Tour in 2017.

“Honestly, I’m still living in the moment so much that I haven’t been able to draw on the past to think about the journey and where I am right now,” Yin said. “I’m still so much in the present, and I think sometimes golf, you have to be like that… special to be looking around and everyone is speaking Chinese. I’m happy my mom taught me how to speak Chinese.”

In her 159th start, the American finally prevailed, and this victory proved to be quite special for her.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.