After making two birdies in her opening nine holes, the back nine of the Kendale Course at Kenwood Country Club, Angel Yin didn’t see another par for the rest of her second round at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. The 23-year-old finished up Friday with a 33 on the front nine, a 3-under performance that saw her card a double bogey and an eagle back-to-back as well as five birdies and two bogeys en route to a 5-under 67, moving her to -8 overall and five back of the lead. Roller coaster days can sour a player’s mood, but Yin says she just kept playing and ground out a positive result.
“My caddie, Donny, is really encouraging, so it's good. He was telling me about Real Madrid. Best comeback ever, so bounce back. It was right after my double. It's more about having fun and trying to keep it level-headed,” said Yin who hit 12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens on day two. “At one point I was 3-under, falling down a lot, so I was like, ‘Okay, I got to get it back together.’ It's tough. Course is not that easy, especially with the difference between the green and the fairway and how wet it is. The greens are quite firm actually.”
Yin has had a tough 2022 season thus far. She’s missed six cuts in 17 starts and was forced to withdraw from the Amundi Evian Championship after a back injury left her barely able to walk. There have been a few successes, including a top-five result at the Cognizant Founders Cup where Yin finished in a tie for third. But Yin isn’t one to linger on the good or the bad, simply plugging along and taking each day as it comes, even in the wake of adversity.
“It's exciting because I've been playing good golf,” said Yin. “I was really looking forward to Europe but Thursday of Evian I woke up with a bad back and I couldn't walk. I tried to push through but just didn't happen. That entire Europe trip went to shambles. It was just terrible. And so I started working out again. Last week was really unfamiliar. I wasn't really sure what's going on with my body. I was hitting my 8-iron 15 yards short sometimes because I didn't want to go after it because it was kind of traumatizing.”
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