JM EAGLE LA CHAMPIONSHIP

April 15, 2025

Angel Yin

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, very pleased to be joined our first press conference of the week, Angel here at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.

Angel, home turf for you this week. Tell us how excited you you are to be back here in LA.

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, really exciting. We're in Tarzana, so not that far. It's a little bit further than Wilshire. It's about a solid hour drive without traffic, and Wilshire was probably 25, 30 minutes without traffic.

Played here last week because my members at my club said I needed to come and look at the course; they were right. It was great. I love the golf course a lot. I'm happy I was able to see it last week.

I played with some members here and they're such a great membership and the members are super nice and kind here.

Q. We noticed you replace the HACI hat. Repping some of your favorite sports teams this week.

ANGEL YIN: Yeah.

Q. Tell us about that.

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, went to a Dodgers game yesterday so excited about my purchase. Just been wearing it. Yesterday had a Lakers hat on. Yeah, it's just obviously Dodgers winning the World Series and Lakers going to the Playoffs, pretty cool; home game.

Q. I wanted to ask you, JM Eagle has been doing a lot towards the fire relief. I know Arcadia was especially hit hard by some fires. How excited are you to see the tournament taking such initiative for the fire relief efforts here in Southern California?

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, I mean, I don't really think that much excitement because I know our community is so strong and right when the fire was happening -- I've been pretty lucky with the fire. Just lost electricity for a couple days, but nuts compared to what everyone else has had to endure.

Our Santa Anita racetrack was filled within a day. All the donations were capped. It's just amazing how our community is always coming together and it's never a question.

Just shows how strong our community is as a community, and we really embody that we're a community.

Because LA is quite big. It's not centralized. Let's just say Boston. I'm not familiar with it, but when you go to Boston you see, like this is a city, right?

LA is really spread out. Assuming because of earthquakes and stuff so the architecture has to be more spread out, a little lower, so we don't have that many skyscrapers.

Our community is really big and everybody just came together no matter where they were from. It's just really special, and so I'm happy we're also trying to help out with this tournament especially to fund everyone who lost a lot of stuff. We have a fellow, you know, player, she's I believe the assistant coach for Team USA, Mo Martin; her mom lost her house. Her sister has well. They haven't started rebuilding.

There is just so much stuff they have to clean up just afterwards, just a lot of paperwork, clean up, and reassessment.

Q. What is your favorite thing to do when you're back in LA? I know you got a tournament, but is there any restaurants you got to go to? Got in a game.

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, I mean, our sports games are always really fun. I mean, the Dodger Stadium, anyone that's gone in there, food is such a big thing for us. Yesterday I went and Takoyaki, Bento boxes. We are known for our nachos and our gigantic dog.

Jaquisha (ph) actually got one yesterday. It was really fun. Everybody is really into it.

For me, it's just food. Food especially, I know I'm repping Parks BBQ. My friend owns it and she's a member of my golf club. We have the best food scene really.

Q. And then with this course, did you play it before the renovation?

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, I grew up with a lot of people that played it. Jaquisha played it in high school, and they were saying it was like hallways. My assistant pro, Michael, he just he moved over to Cab and he was telling me pre-renovation it was like hallways and they took out 400 trees.

It's wide open and a different look for sure, but I haven't played it before.

Q. This tournament was named the tournament of the year on the LPGA Tour schedule last year. Why do you think that was?

ANGEL YIN: I think the Wong, family, they really take care of us. Every aspect of the tournament, like food, it's always good. Hospitality, they put us up in a hotel. They just try to make everything very comfortable, and I think players really appreciate that. Especially with it being in LA. Not the cheapest place to travel to and play and stay.

With that, all of it just shows up, and we do really appreciate it. I think that's why it's the tournament of the year. And the courses that we play are very good.

Q. You just described some of the devastation in the area with the wildfires. What do you think this event this week could mean to the surrounding community?

ANGEL YIN: Definitely like bring up -- lift everybody's mood up. My club has Thursday team play. Play with Belleair and a lot of the clubs in LA, Sherwood. I believe it's canceled this year because of the did he have vacation one losing their homes.

It's really devastating because some of the houses, like in Altadena, they've been there forever, a century, passed down. Everybody's possessions that they -- just say sports cards. I been getting into sports cards lately. These sports cards that have been passed down or been around since, you know, '60s, '50s, it's all burned.

When you're running from the fire because it's coming so fast you can't rally grab everything. You see all these people who have just like their clothes they ran away with. All of a sudden the next day they think they're going to come back for stuff and the house is gone.

It's unimaginable. So many members have lost their houses, too. So my friend took in a family, because when their house burnt down it's hard to find a place to stay. We have airbnb trying to help out and hotels were booked up.

Everybody is getting together and getting over this horrible disaster.

Q. You mentioned that you've been lucky in this situation. You sound a little emotional talking about it. How has this impacted you personally seeing what this has done to this area where you grew up?

ANGEL YIN: It's really sad because we have a lot of mountains. It's like right there. All of it is just burned down. We always have fires but never has it burned everything down.

So it's quite shocking to see.

Q. Just wanted to ask, what are you most excited for this week?

ANGEL YIN: Obviously this new golf course and this new environment, and community we're going to be interacting with. Yeah, just a different scenery.

Really excited about this new golf course.

Q. You going to walk with SCPGA junior this afternoon in Play with the Pros. Proud alum of the SCPGA. Talk about that a little bit and what that means to you to give back to the next generation.

ANGEL YIN: Yeah, I mean, I just like doing it. I just agreed to do it because Nikki reached out. Had a bit of a change and I was happy I was able to step in and help out with playing with the junior.

Growing up in California I played in a lot of SCPGA, and if I'm here with -- I think Andrea played in it too, all of us, majority of the SoCal girls who made it out on Tour played through that tour.

You're essentially thinking you're playing with the next LPGA Tour champion or Tour member. It's really, really cool to just play with the next generation.

Q. Wondering when wear the LA cap and we know that Lakers are going into the playoffs and got Doncic and the Dodgers having won the World Series and signed everybody, just wondering --

ANGEL YIN: Hoarding talent now, right?

Q. But for you being a product from here, wearing the hat, do those vibes -- I guess can you explain that? Does that transfer over? How do you describe that winning mentality from this area?

ANGEL YIN: I mean, yeah, I hope I can channel some of that winning into my career. Yeah, it's just like it's home game, more relaxed. I don't have an obligation to wear a hat by a sponsor, and so I'm just happy to wear whatever I like and personally want to represent.

Yeah, it's just more relaxed. I'm really proud of where I come from.

Q. Just looking at your start to the season, it's been incredibly strong. Got the win in Thailand; had a few top 15s, Top 5 in the last start. What's hitting different for you with golf right now mentally or physically that's really -- that you can really attribute to this slate of great results to?

ANGEL YIN: I think more my mentality and I'm just happy that physical can also perform too. I've been more relaxed. Obviously I want to like win, but a win isn't everything for me.

Sometimes before I felt like I needed to win to have validation. Not just for me, but for everyone around me. But I don't really care anymore, so I think that mentality has helped a lot.

Honestly, playing with our Tour members has helped. Played with Charley and I think -- sometimes like little things can snap you, and I was playing a practice round with her I think two years ago. She was with Ads and she was like -- he was like, do you want to play this up tee box? We have multiple tee boxes that we play during a tournament, and sometimes we play all of them to see how it is.

Ads was like, oh, do you want to play the front tee box? She goes, what is it? Just another iron? It's fine. I'm okay.

Yeah, it's really not that different tournament to practice to everything. And so I think I've just relaxed a lot over the last two years and it is what it is. I just so happen to be playing good.

I think just more of a blessing than something that I deserve.

Q. I know big sports fan; you were probably tuning into the Masters on Sunday. Somebody that had to wait a little bit longer than you would've liked to get your first win, did you relate to any of the things that Rory was talking about, and what was it like to watch that win or see it on social media?

ANGEL YIN: It's incredible to see such an accomplishment. I didn't see his press conference or what he talked about. I saw some of the quotes to his daughter on Instagram to never give up on her dreams, and he didn't. Obviously took him, what, his last major win was 11 years ago, so it was a while ago. He was patient and he was able.

There is a lot of people in this world that haven't been able to do it. Phil is still chasing his U.S. Open for his career Grand Slam. So I definitely think it's very special. Yeah, it's like inspiration you can take out of it.

Q. This week, like I said, been on a pretty good stretch here. What are you looking for from your game this week to really contend at a new venue for a lot of -- well, pretty much most of the field?

ANGEL YIN: I mean, I wish I could tell you something groundbreaking but it's just golf. Fairway, greens, make a putt. Greens are really tough this week.

I think it's just the slope. The members will tell you the same. I think the main defense of the entire golf course is the greens.

So putting, everybody knows -- I mean, people can argue with me on this because there is a lot of stats people out there, but it's luck.

You're trying to perfect something that's like a trifecta in my opinion on the surface level. You're trying to guess it correct constantly.

I don't know. I just think if I can make all the putts I was just really lucky that week.

Q. Just what kind of support will we see out for you you this week? Sounds like you'll have some of the membership on your side.

ANGEL YIN: I don't know. I'm not a huge person that's asking my friends to come out and watch, because I enjoy watching the Masters at home on the sofa instead of being in person.

I was watching it. It was so crowded. Everybody was standing up when Rose made that putt. I was like, man, if I made that all I was going to see was butts and legs.

I don't know. I'm more of a TV watcher and I know my friends are always supporting me, so we'll see.

I know some people will come out and watch. I would prefer everybody to stay at home just for their own sake.