DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The People’s Republic of China has seen plenty of players have success during the 2023 LPGA Tour season. Shanghai native Ruoning Yin became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the DIO Implant LA Open in the spring, defeating major champion Georgia Hall by a single shot at Palos Verdes Golf Club to capture her first title in just her second season on the LPGA Tour.
Yin struck again just a few months later at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course, taking home her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. On a Sunday that saw many make devastating mistakes coming down the stretch, the 21-under hung tough and carded a bogey-free, 4-under 67 to post at 8-under overall, finishing just one stroke ahead of 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso.
The young superstar’s longtime friend and landlord, Xiyu Lin, has also been making plenty of noise of her own over the last couple of seasons. In 2022, the 27-year-old earned four top-five results, three of which were runner-up finishes at the Honda LPGA Thailand, Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G and The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America.
Lin hasn’t slowed down in 2023, recording five top-five finishes so far this year, including two runner-up results at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and Portland Classic as well as a pair of T3s at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She also finished T4 at the Dana Open.
On top of that, two of the 10 Epson Tour graduates from last season, Yan Liu and Xiaowen Yin, are also competing regularly out on the LPGA Tour. The pair have captured three top-10 finishes and made well over a combined $300,000 in career earnings thus far. Liu even had a hole-in-one earlier this season at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, a shot that helped the 2023 rookie stay on the right side of the cut line.
So as Siyun Liu and Miranda Wang were preparing for this week’s Epson Tour Championship with LPGA Tour cards – among other things like a paid-for exemption into LPGA Q-Series – on the line, they have been looking to their LPGA Tour counterparts for inspiration as they ready themselves for one of the biggest weeks they’ve faced so far this year.
Like Yin, Liu is also from Shanghai and the 24-year-old has been paying close attention to the 21-year-old’s banner year. For so long, female golfers from the People’s Republic of China only really had major champion and former Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Shanshan Feng to model their careers after.
But with players like Yin and Lin – among others – playing solidly and winning out on the LPGA Tour, there are now plenty of examples to follow. There’s also now a legion of women from the People’s Republic of China proudly carrying on the tradition started by Feng, a group that Liu is looking to join this week at LPGA International, or even down the line at LPGA Q-Series.
“For a really long time, it was basically just Shanshan (Feng) who's on the top of the leaderboard all the time and being the world number one who inspired my generation to start working for the world number one and thinking this is actually within reach,” Liu said. “To see (Ruoning), someone who's about my age, actually slightly younger than I am, to get to that spot, it's just amazing.
“Just to see her doing that great makes me want to do something big like what she's doing too. I know that she's been working so hard so it's given me a lot of motivation to even grind harder and work on how to make my practice more efficient and more precise to help me get better.”
Liu has also seen many of the Chinese Epson Tour graduates having success on the LPGA Tour, getting an up close and personal look at what it’s like on one of golf’s biggest stages via the experiences of two of her closest friends. “(Xiaowen) Yin and Yan Liu, who made it to the LPGA through the (Race for the Card) top 10 last year, they're both friends of mine,” she said. “Just watching their success really inspired me to get onto the LPGA as well and join them to kind of follow their suit.”
For Wang, it’s been Lin who has had the biggest influence on her pursuit of LPGA Tour Membership. The pair have known each other since their amateur days, having both been members of the Chinese National Team in their youth, and Wang has always looked up to Lin, calling on her friend’s experiences and successes for inspiration in moments of doubt and hardship.
“(Xiyu Lin) has always been a role model for us and also for young Chinese players,” said the Tianjin, China native of the LPGA Tour veteran. “She's a great player since even in junior times and I think she works really hard and she’s really competitive.
“Sometimes when I feel a little down, I think of all Xiyu went through all these years. She was not born in the U.S. She didn't even go to college in the U.S. It was pretty foreign for her. But she went through all those and got better and better. I think that's really inspiring.”
Anything can happen at the Epson Tour Championship, and with an LPGA Q-Series berth and LPGA Tour Membership on the line for Liu and Wang this week, both will be doing everything in their power to achieve their respective goals. But they’ll also be chasing their dream of playing on the LPGA Tour and continuing the tradition of excellence that players like Feng, Lin and Yin have made the standard for professional golfers from the People’s Republic of China.
“LPGA is my dream, and it’s the highest stage for professional golfers. My goal is to put out my best performance to show myself and to show the people that believe in me that I'm able to be performing well on that stage,” Wang said. “I will be also very proud because I'm Chinese player and I will be proud to follow their steps. To be on Tour with Ruoning and Xiyu would be really exciting for me.”
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