U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

May 29, 2025

Angel Yin

Erin Hills GC

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Angel Yin, 4-under 68. Angel, sitting atop the leaderboard after round 1 of the U.S. Open. What was working well?

ANGEL YIN: My ball striking. If you play a USGA event, they're just asking for good ball striking, and I hope I do that for the rest of the week.

Q. What was your first reaction when you saw the course this week?

ANGEL YIN: A lot of land. We got a lot of land. That's America. (Laughter). So that's what I was thinking.

Q. Angel, yesterday you told me that you thought the course was very hard. Has your opinion changed on that after today's round?

ANGEL YIN: Yep, still very hard. On 17 I made like the most basic mistake, like the worst mistake you can make. It's like elementary level, terrible. I just needed to make it onto the green. I'm already not like in a great position. I'm trying to make par.

Then I just made a tiny mistake. Didn't hit it as good, and it just goes all the way down. Then you're in for a double if you don't make an up-and-down for a bogey.

This is what this course can do, and it's just challenging all around.

Q. Angel, it's been sort of feast or famine for you in this championship. You've got some great finishes and some missed cuts. How do you explain your record in the U.S. Women's Open?

ANGEL YIN: I don't understand it either. It's bipolar, like Hyde and Jekyll. Either really good or really, really terrible, where I don't see the weekend.

I think it just says a lot about the championship. You have to play your best. There is no mediocre. You can't save it around. You can try to make good saves, but at the end of the day, if you don't have it, you don't have it. It just maximizes whatever you have that week.

Q. Have you made a few putter changes this year? The one you're using right now a pretty recent one?

ANGEL YIN: Yes, this week. I like to tinker with things, and I've been trying to adjust to our playing conditions since the beginning of this year. We've been playing on slower greens. I think it might be weather related, I don't know. I don't want to speak too much on that.

Then I know U.S. Open is going to be extremely fast, so I wanted to find a putter that will hold the ground and just do what I want it to do. It just so happened to be this putter.

I started tinkering with it like about a month ago, and I got lucky to use it.

Q. First tournament with it this week?

ANGEL YIN: First tournament.

Q. There are several 22- and 23-year-old women on the leaderboard. What do you make of that? Don't they know it's supposed to be hard?

ANGEL YIN: I mean, the 22- and 23-year-olds are really good. It's great to see young players being really good. And I think Rio, she won like six times on the JLPGA last year and won obviously on the LPGA and won again at Blue Bay. She's great. I played with her in Arizona.

So we have a lot of great talents.

Q. What do you think about No. 9, and how did you birdie it?

ANGEL YIN: I really thought my back was going to give out. So I got -- it was like -- I think there was audio on my shot too. It was not a full pitching wedge. It was like a three-quarter pitching wedge, and I hit it, and it looked really good direction-wise, and my back almost gave out. I was like I hope it's enough. It just carried enough to be great.

It's a really difficult hole. There was a volunteer that joked it was the hardest par-5 on the golf course. So dad joke, whoosh.

Q. You talk about your performance this year, but how important is this major to you?

ANGEL YIN: I mean, I'm American, so I want to win this. This is my nation's championship. Used to be at -- it used to be Chevron, just because it was in California, but this is the next best thing to me. Well, the greatest thing ever.

Q. Just from your perspective, what was the wind like today compared to what you'd seen earlier in the week, and how did that kind of impact the severity of this course?

ANGEL YIN: Did you say wind?

Q. Yes.

ANGEL YIN: When there's this much land and open air and land you expect a lot of wind. With the storm coming in, around the 13th hole, it was actually switching around.

There's a lot of variability and constant changes, especially with the weather brewing around or nearby. We're lucky that the rain hasn't hit us.

Q. Hoping to get an update on the gluten allergy that you have since Chevron.

ANGEL YIN: Obviously I've taken that into like a very serious matter because I was -- I didn't believe in it, and I ate pizza in New York and I died afterwards.

So I've been -- huge tournament, very important, so I've been taking it more seriously. I got an airbnb, so I'm just cooking every night. I eat meat and vegetables and then rice. I'm very careful. I don't even eat out anymore.

Q. Wow.

ANGEL YIN: I live and learn. But I still don't believe in it. I'm going to work on it. Just not this week. This is really important.

Q. On your back giving out on 9, was that a one-time deal, or is that like a back issue?

ANGEL YIN: It's just a one-time deal. This course is a really tough walk. I didn't get enough air in my lungs when I was walking up to 9.

But it's not an easy course to walk either, so endurance is huge.

Q. You tend to look really comfortable when you are playing well at major championships. What's the key to that comfortability for you out here when it's really hard golf?

ANGEL YIN: I think it goes with his question that he asked me, either you play really good or make the cut. Either/or; it's a coin flip. I'm trying to be on the good side of the coin flip.

Q. What's making you comfortable this week?

ANGEL YIN: The fact that I'm staying at home and not going to have a gluten allergy, a little bit peace of mind. But not really anything. This course is difficult. I'm constantly on edge. I think that's why my back almost gave out. I'm just scared.