Ruoning Yin wins 2023 Women’s PGA Championship

Heading into the fourth round, there was some expectations that this would be an historic day in Irish women’s golf. That is because Ireland’s Leona Maguire had the 54 hole lead after the third round of the 2023 Women’s PGA Championship from the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey and Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow was in third place.

Instead, it was a huge day in the history of Chinese golf. At 20 years, eight months and 27 days old, Ruoning Yin of Shanghai, China became the second Chinese women’s golfer to win a major title when she posted a four round winning score of -8. She defeated her closest competitor, 2021 United States Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso of Japan by one stroke. Saso finished at -7.

Five golfers finished two strokes back at -6. There you could find Carlota Ciganda of Spain, three-time major champion Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, Megan Khang of the United States, Xiyu Lin of China and Meadow. Nordqvist’s major titles came at the 2009 Women’s PGA Championship, 2017 Evian Masters, and the 2021 Women’s British Open.

Three more golfers were at -5 and three strokes back of Maguire. This trio consisted of Japan’s Ayaka Furue, South Korean Jenny Shin, and American Rose Zhang.

Yin posted scores of four-under-par 67 in round one, two-over-par 73 in round two, two-under-par 69 in round three, and four-under-par 67 in round four. Yin’s best result on a single hole came on Thursday in round one when she eagled the par-five 18th hole. The first Chinese golfer to win a major in women’s golf was Shanshan Feng of Guangzhou, who won the 2012 Women’s PGA Championship.

On a side note, you might be wondering why Saso is now representing Japan, when she represented the Philippines when she won the 2021 United States Women’s Open. Saso was born in the Philippines, but has dual citizenship because her father is Japanese. Under Japanese law, Japanese citizens cannot have dual citizenship at the age of 22. Saso wanted to keep her Japanese citizenship, so she dropped her Filipino citizenship.

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