It’s not easy to win on the LPGA Tour. Just ask Megan Khang and Angel Yin.
Both players became Rolex First-Time Winners during the 2023 season, two of a record-setting 12 athletes who captured their first victories on the LPGA Tour this past year. But unlike a majority of their 10 counterparts, Khang and Yin had to wait more than a few years to find victory lane on Tour. And while that wait is often agonizing and excruciating, causing a player to wonder if it will ever actually happen for them, it was ultimately well worth it for these two LPGA Tour veterans.
Khang earned her first victory at the CPKC Women’s Open, which was held at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club last year. She had come close a few times earlier in the season, earning three top-10 finishes, one of which was a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course and two of which were ties for ninth at The Chevron Championship and The Amundi Evian Championship.
With those kinds of major performances on her 2023 resume, it felt like Khang just needed the other shoe to drop, but as the calendar turned to August, time to win was running out, meaning Khang needed to make something happen fast.
And that’s exactly what she did in Canada.
Khang kicked off her sixth appearance at the CPKC Women’s Open with a Thursday 71, turning up the heat on Friday and Saturday with two rounds in the red that propelled her up the leaderboard and into the lead with 18 to play in Ontario.
Entering the final round three shots ahead of Sei Young Kim, Khang struggled on Sunday at Shaughnessy, making five bogeys throughout the round to bring the field back into the picture. She did manage to squeeze in a few birdies, the most important of which was a big-time birdie on the par-4 18th hole that saw Khang hit her approach shot inside five feet and bury the putt, an effort that tied the clubhouse lead that Jin Young Ko had posted not long before.
The two returned to the 18th tee for a playoff, and after Ko’s drive sailed left into the trees, Khang piped her tee shot down the middle of the fairway, immediately getting the upper hand on the former Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1. Forced to take a drop and then punch out, Ko’s third shot bounded into the right greenside bunker, leaving Khang standing in the middle of the fairway needing to recreate the magic she had conjured up in regulation.
The Massachusetts native hit another excellent approach shot that landed inside 20 feet, but the ball trickled back to the fringe, leaving Khang in a great position to either drain a birdie putt or two-putt her way to victory. So when Ko’s bunker shot ultimately landed well short and she failed to make her bogey try, all Khang needed was a three-putt to win. She lagged her first putt close, tapping in for par to get the job done and become an LPGA Tour winner at long last.
“Being that it (took) eight years to get the first win, it definitely kind of creeps into your mind, am I going to win out here?” said Khang after her victory. “That's when a good team comes into play. My parents, my boyfriend, my caddie, they're like, if you're going to win, it's like when, and it's kind of like maturing and being more comfortable and confident in my game and focus on the task at hand instead of the results.
“This week it really played a factor in like you can't get upset over stuff that happened the previous holes and you just got to focus on the next shot because that's all that matters. That's what I told Jack in the playoff. I was like, ‘My 2-over round today does not mean anything. Right now, it's pretty much straight-up match play and we're going to make her work for it if it comes down to it.’”
While Khang finally got her fairytale ending in Canada, Yin got a rare chance at redemption en route to her victory at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
Earlier in the season, Yin had come oh-so-close at The Chevron Championship, losing in a playoff to champion Lilia Vu after a watery approach shot on the first extra hole. But instead of letting that heartbreak get to her, the 25-year-old used it as fuel throughout the rest of the spring and summer, earning three more top-10 finishes, one of which was a tie for sixth at the AIG Women’s Open.
After representing the United States at the 18th Solheim Cup in September, Yin turned her attention to the Asian swing, an annual slate of four events that sees the LPGA Tour compete solely in Asia. She headed to the People’s Republic of China for the Buick LPGA Shanghai, which made its return to the LPGA Tour schedule in 2023 after being canceled in 2020, 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yin had a solid start, carding rounds of 70 and 69 on Thursday and Friday at Qizhong Garden Golf Club to sit at 5-under overall heading into the weekend. She then played her way into the conversation on Moving Day, firing a 7-under 65 to vault from T14 into a tie for first with Maja Stark through 54 holes and sleep on the first third-round lead or co-lead of her career.
Sunday saw a steady-handed Yin make three birdies and one bogey to card a 2-under 70, a round that saw her post a four-day total of 14-under to once again finish in a tie with Lilia Vu.
And while it was quite literally déjà vu for Yin to once again be in a playoff with Vu, this time was going to be different. Yin made sure of it.
Just like they did at the Club at Carlton Woods, Vu and Yin only needed one extra hole to decide a champion. But this time, it was Yin who made birdie to win and finally capture that elusive first victory, realizing a lifelong dream that had continued to evade her since she joined the LPGA Tour in 2017.
“Happy that my first maiden win was actually in Shanghai. I've come close twice in 2018 and 2019 before COVID, and so it feels really good to be able to claim this title and do it in fashion with a playoff with world No. 1 Lilia Vu,” Yin said. “Throughout the round, I was thinking to myself, it's not easy to win. It's not easy to win. I’m just very grateful. Honestly, 18 that bunker (that) I was in, anything could have happened, but I was very fortunate to have a very good lie and was able to hit a good shot and everything played out the way it played out. It's been a special week.”
Because of their victories, both Khang and Yin qualified for this week’s season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Fla. Unfortunately, Yin was forced to withdraw after sustaining an injury, but Khang is set to tee it up on Thursday at 8:36 a.m. at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club alongside celebrities Roger Clemens and Dwight Freeney to kick off the 2024 season.
And while no one knows what might happen with a brand-new year in view and while Yin will have to wait just a bit longer to start her season, one can be sure that both players will be standing a bit taller as they traipse the fairways in 2024, competing as confidently as ever knowing that they are now LPGA Tour winners at long last.
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