Lydia Ko, Angel Yin find themselves involved in rules incidents at CME Group Tour Championship
Angel Yin and Lydia Ko were involved in separate circumstances regarding breaches of rules at the LPGA CME Group Tour Championship. On Friday (Nov. 21), the wind conditions were a source of trouble at the Tiburon Golf Club—Gold Course, which resulted in these incidents.
The first incident involved the 2024 Olympics Women's competition winner Lydia Ko, whose golf bag blew away because of the wind and fell onto the golf ball. Following this, she discussed it with an official and since the ball was moved by an external factor, the LPGA phenom didn't get any penalty. Finally, the ball was replaced by another ball under rule 9.6.
Besides Ko, Angel Yin was also involved in a situation regarding a breach of rules at the par-4 hole 4. On the second day, her second shot took the golf ball into the water. Following that, a rules official called Yin to go over the drop at the fourth.
Yin explained the entire incident on Friday. She said (via GolfMonthly):
“They wanted to ask me about the process of the drop and if I used all my resources to be able to come to a determination of where I crossed and how I took my drop.
“Then we talked it through. We even brought Narin and Justin in, everybody from the group. I think there was some misunderstanding -- oh, actually it wasn't a misunderstanding because it was just footage and someone had interpretations of it… I think everybody is trying to hold up integrity and the rules of golf because it would be bad if we cheat, so we don't want that.”
How did Lydia Ko and Angel Yin perform in the CME Group Tour Championship?
Lydia Ko shot 67 in the first round, with 4 birdies on the front nine and two on the back nine. She fired 74 in the second round with 1 birdie and 67 in the third round with 3 birdies on the front nine and 3 on the back nine. Ko made nine birdies in the last round.
Angel Yin scored 65 in the first round with seven birdies and one eagle. She scored 69 in the second round with six birdies and shot 67 in the third round with five birdies and one eagle. Yin made 66 in the last round with six birdies, out of which two were on the front nine and four were on the back nine.
Ko won $550,000 at the CME Group Tour Championship, while Yin took home $1,000,000 in winnings.