Sluggish play? Loos? One of many LPGA’s brightest personalities is a good pay attention

NAPLES, Fla. — Eavesdropping on Angel Yin, you overhear ideas on…Teslas. She’d eyed a luxurious automotive passing by, and he or she brings up the topic. 

She additionally has questions on…Roger Clemens. Her caddie has looped for the previous pitcher, and Yin was curious. 

After which there’s dialog on drivers. However that’s a given. Yin is without doubt one of the greatest gamers on the planet, and this week, she’s among the many 60 who’ve made it to the CME Group Tour Championship, the LPGA’s season finale. 

She’s additionally a vigorous thinker, too. And a character, arguably the brightest on tour. You’ve perhaps seen her channel Deion Sanders. You’ve maybe heard her session with reporters final yr on the CME, the place she mentioned, effectively, a little bit of the whole lot. So it’s price catching as much as her this yr, if solely to listen to, effectively, a little bit bit extra. 

The writer’s questions are in italics. Although you might in all probability guess who’s who. 

First topic? Her ideas on the Tour Championship’s document prize. 

What would $4 million imply to you when you received?

“Quite a lot of money, a number of taxes, however a number of cushion for my profession, for the yr and for the yr after, so I can have extra freedom of who I wish to rent and what I need on my crew. It creates a number of monetary freedom. We would like sponsorships as a result of we would like them to help our profession, and we do want it at occasions as a result of our career is such a big gamble occasionally. Simply offers us as a participant and as an individual extra freedom.” 

What could be essentially the most enjoyable factor you’d spend it on?

“I don’t know. Trying out shares. I’ve been getting these days into shares. Most likely that may be extra my enjoyable factor. Make investments it.” 

I feel this yr, in professional golf normally, it looks like there are a number of solutions, a number of concepts on the desk. There’s change. There are changes on the lads’s tour, the ladies’s tour. Should you had been accountable for the LPGA, what’s a big-ticket merchandise you’ll change? 

“That’s a fairly loaded query as a result of I don’t know if there’s a big-ticket merchandise I might change as a result of I feel the path we’re in proper now’s good. We have now a giant wave of girls’s sports activities that’s on the rise. Most likely my fundamental give attention to all of it isn’t getting extra sponsors however getting us identified. As girls’s sports activities are on the rise, when you don’t surf it, it simply dies out and you have to catch that wave.” 

Have you considered a approach that may occur? 

“Oh, I don’t know. I feel stuff like that, to enter element, to have the ability to give an trustworthy reply, is somebody with the ability to have a look at all of the numbers and all of the methods within the final 5, six years and see the place we are able to progress and examine to what different organizations are doing. If I needed to give a solution proper now, it might be investing into gamers. For instance, Nelly [Korda]. Nelly’s doing quite a bit. Nelly received her seventh event, she obtained her Sports activities Illustrated swimsuit, she went to the Met Gala — she’s doing quite a bit. And he or she’s placing her title on the market. Whether or not she is aware of, she’s additionally representing all of us and so we recognize what she does quite a bit and he or she’s doing good. And so yeah, simply spend money on gamers.” 

What’s an actual small factor you’ll change? To offer you assist with the reply, I requested this query final yr to Jon Rahm, and he mentioned on the lads’s tour, he’d prefer to see extra loos on the course. So it could possibly be one thing as minor as that. However what would you alter low-key?

“Man, I actually haven’t considered it as a result of — let’s give it some thought. Extra loos? No, I feel we’ve sufficient loos. And since you understand why loos aren’t a giant challenge? As a result of as ladies, we can not simply go anyplace to go pee. And so it’s been a difficulty we’ve tackled, and I feel we’ve seen the outcomes on that. Actually proper now, we’re doing OK. … However general, our tour is fairly good for accommodating us.” 

Alongside these traces, and also you’ve sort of talked about, with Nelly, with girls’s sports activities normally, the Caitlin Clark rise in girls’s basketball, that this has been a possibility for the LPGA to seize that second. Do you assume they’ve executed job of that?

“No.” 

Why do you say that?

“Gosh, it simply doesn’t really feel prefer it. It’s an opinion. Caitlin Clark coming over to our event created a crowd, created a buzz — didn’t really feel prefer it obtained on the market sufficient. Went out to a certain quantity of individuals. However I don’t know, like I mentioned, to provide an in depth reply, I’ve to love — I wish to be extra accountable with my solutions so I simply don’t wish to communicate. But when you need to ask how I really feel about that, I don’t actually assume we’ve capitalized that a lot. Simply using the wave that different individuals are doing and we’re simply related to girls. Sadly, I don’t assume we’ve executed sufficient.”

One golf instruction query I had. So my 16-year-old nephew is making an attempt to interrupt 80 and get onto his highschool varsity crew subsequent yr. What’s one tip you’d give him?

“Hit by the ball and never on the ball. It’s easy. I feel lots of people attempt to hit on the ball as a result of it’s the one ballgame you play that the ball is admittedly stationary and you need to go after it. In soccer, they’re throwing it at you; tennis, the ball is coming at you — you’re reacting. The place this one, you need to, I don’t know, go after the ball. It’s a little bit bit completely different. You must make the ball transfer.” 

One final query. Is sluggish play a difficulty on the LPGA tour?

“So, I’ve my opinions. I do know Charley [Hull] gave a solution.” 

I’m going to ask in your resolution after.

“I simply came upon about it this morning. It was fairly humorous and I joked about it on the golf course at present. But when I’ve to actually say, through the years I’ve been on tour, I feel it was worse earlier than. It was worse earlier than, we had been ready extra, and I feel now we’ve combination of quick gamers after which that’s when the sluggish gamers actually begin exhibiting up. As a result of the vast majority of the ladies are enjoying a lot quicker, the place you can’t be actually too sluggish or then you definitely begin getting behind. Though we’re having extra delays on the tees this yr. However that could possibly be course setup this yr, the spacing and the whole lot. Our pro-ams are slower. That is also a spacing challenge. So I don’t actually assume it’s particularly the gamers.” 

Like final week and the dearth of daylight. 

“Sure. I feel it’s only a spacing challenge as a result of we stand up to the tee field and we’re already delayed and we’re in a morning tee time. So how can that fall onto a participant? And that’s additionally going again to the place I feel we are able to enhance as a tour, a small challenge. I can’t level fingers an excessive amount of, however there are particular varieties of people that I really feel like they need to be capable of handle that higher. I feel the simplest technique to level fingers with out considering too deep into it’s gamers slow-play, however it takes quite a bit for the schedules to suit, and if the schedules don’t match, then we’re simply sitting on a gap. And I feel that’s the place it’s exhibiting up. On the U.S. Open, we had a sluggish gap the place there was like 4 teams stacked up there. However that’s additionally as a result of the pin was in a very ridiculous …” 

The par-3. 

“Yeah. Nelly obtained a ten, I feel. So stuff like that. It has nothing to do with the participant. I’m fairly certain Nelly goes actually quick. If you’re taking drops and also you’re doing this and that, there’s nothing we are able to do about it. Or for instance, final week on 18, there’s a guidelines official sitting on that gap, ready for us. If a participant makes a seven, they’re going to take seven photographs and 7 photographs of time. In order that accumulates. So I feel that’s the place it’s occurring. And so my resolution is healthier scheduling, higher placement. It ought to be robust. It shouldn’t be silly. However yeah, I feel there are sluggish gamers on the market, however I positively don’t assume it’s as unhealthy as earlier than. As a result of once I first got here out on tour, I may take a nap. It was horrible. They usually had been actually simply getting warnings. So that they’re a lot harsher now. They’re doing the suitable steps. However I feel it’s simply all the time simple for everyone to level fingers on the gamers.”