Yin Ruoning, Coach Tell How Golfer Won FM Championship
(Hint: Ice cream and being under pressure helped)
Yin Ruoning won the FM Championship at TPC Boston on Aug. 30, securing her sixth win on the LPGA tour and her first win in 672 days.
Yin, who turned pro at age 17, won her first three events on the China LPGA Tour. Her rapid rise in the golf world continued as she became the first Chinese winner on the U.S. LPGA Tour.
Her coach, Holton Freeman, who was present at her win at TPC Boston, said that Yin had impressed him with her ability to win and to take advantage of opportunities.
“It's almost like when the pressure is the highest is when she plays the best. Her focus just narrows and she can really rise to those moments,” Freeman said. “I always tell people that's just something about her that is very special, and I think it’s why she's been able to win six times at such a young age.”
But before securing the title at the FM Championship last month, it had been nearly two years since the 23-year-old’s last win at the Maybank Championship.
Yin started the day with a one-shot lead. Despite a close match between her final round groupmates — South Korea’s World No. 4 Kim Hyo Joo and World No. 9 Kim Sei-Young — Yin ultimately held out, making a birdie on the last Par 5 and securing the trophy.
Yin’s success at this tournament was extremely emotional.
“I felt like this is the longest 18 holes I've ever played,” Yin said, sitting next to her glass FM Championship trophy. “(Kim Sei Young) and (Kim Hyo Joo) are just so good, and they don’t really make mistakes. I said it yesterday, ‘if I play my game, I think I have a chance to win.’ And then I think I did a pretty good job out there.”
She said that when she had gotten to the 18th green, she had thought, “Finally.”
After finishing runner up several times over the last two years, including at the Chevron Championship and Mizuho Americas Open earlier this year, she felt like her hard work had paid off at last.
“Second place feels suck,” Yin said, “I don’t like it because I’m super competitive.”
According to Freeman, whom Yin has described as “half coach, half psychologist,” Yin’s game has been in really good shape for a while; what changed was her decision-making.
“I feel like a lot of players get frustrated when they're just not playing well, but I felt like for (Yin), she was getting really frustrated because she knew she was playing really well,” Freeman said. He added that, as a result, she had been trying to force better scores and made some mistakes.
“To her credit, she was really patient all week long, and she just played her game and let the results come to her,” Freeman said.
He added that, while it might be cliché, people learn through failing, and Yin had to experience that — especially this summer — before turning it into a success.
“The only way you can learn to do something is when you get burned on the other side, because I can tell Ronni (Yin’s nickname) or anybody to be patient,” he said. “Like, when I was a kid, I touched a hot iron and burned my hand. So I learned very quickly I shouldn't touch a hot iron anymore.”
“That’s why failing or making mistakes is never really a bad thing,” Freeman said. “One just has to frame it in the right way and have the perspective to step back to learn and grow from the experience. That’s what she did.”
At the FM Championship, Yin won $660,000 and another trophy for her collection, but also a few bets with people in her team. Every time she birdies the last hole of a tournament day, Freeman owes her ice cream. He estimates that after Sunday, she’s done it 12 times since they made the bet.
“I'm going to have to buy her an ice cream truck, I think, eventually,” Freeman said.
Yin’s win marks the second time a Chinese player has won the FM Championship in its three-year span, following Miranda Wang last year.
When commenting on her role model status for many young golfers in China and the crowd of Chinese fans supporting her during the tournament, she said that it’s “good and bad.”
“There are a lot of people who see me as a role model, and that motivates me,” Yin said. “But that also makes me feel a little bit of pressure ‘cause I just really want to do a good job for all the younger golfers.”
Freeman believes that pressure actually helps Yin: “I always tell people, when the lights are bright, I think that she has this innate ability to just zero her focus even more.”
In the coming years, she hopes to add more trophies to her house.
“Major would be nice. Grand Slam would be great,” Yin said, “But more importantly, I think if I can be a good influence for the next generation — that's one of my main goals.”
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