Meet Xiyu Lin and Ruoning Yin: The Landlord–Tenant Duo and Best Friends Contending at Baltusrol

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship contenders have a hilarious connection that extends beyond friendship.

Xiyu “Janet” Lin—the Friday morning clubhouse leader at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship—sent the media tent at Baltusrol into a fit of laughter on Thursday afternoon following her stellar opening round of 67 (4-under). 

Lin wasn’t talking about her steady play when she had such an effect, however. She lit up the room while speaking about her close friend, Ruoning “Ronnie” Yin, another LPGA member from China, who happened to shoot the same low score on Thursday afternoon. 

Moments earlier, the 20-year-old Yin stood in front of the media and explained that when she met Lin five years ago, they immediately clicked. Her expression softened talking about her mentor and companion on Tour.

“It’s amazing [that] I can see her name and my name together on the top of the leaderboard,” Yin said.

“She’s a big sis, helped me a lot,” she continued.

The full picture of Yin and Lin’s relationship, however, wasn’t uncovered until Lin entered the interview area a short while later. 

The pair both use Orlando, Fla. as their U.S. home base and live about 20 minutes from each other. When asked if they ever play golf together during off-weeks, Lin revealed that her connection to Yin extends beyond friendship. 

It turns out that Lin, 27, is renting her old house to Yin. She is literally Yin’s landlord, and the time they’ve spent together recently revolved around some plumbing issues in the house. 

“Well, she lives in my house. She rented my old house,” Lin explained.  “Unfortunately we've been dealing with some draining problems, so when I see her, I always feel so sorry, not with the golf but it’s like the toilet is clogged or something. We finally fixed it like three weeks ago, which is great, so now we don’t have any problems. But yeah, we live like 20 minutes from each other. She will come to my house when I need her to do something, and obviously I have the key—we kind of just go have dinner. We will meet every once in a while, yeah.”

My favorite exchange of the day from Baltusrol. Janet Lin briefly held the lead today with her friend Ruoning "Ronnie" Yin.
Turns out Yin rents from Lin and what followed was an instant classic. pic.twitter.com/DoKmUqna33

— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) June 23, 2023

Yin might be seven years younger than Lin, but she’s already surpassed her in one category: LPGA Tour wins. The 20-year-old captured her first victory at this year’s DIO Implant LA Open, becoming just the second Chinese player to win on the LPGA Tour. 

Lin wanted to exercise her power as a landlord after that impressive win, but she refrained. 

“After she win, I’m like, I need to raise the rent. It was way too low for you now,” Lin joked. 

Lin and Yin said they didn’t have time to catch up after their rounds on Thursday evening, but they’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so over the weekend in New Jersey: The pair of friends are very much in contention at the second women’s major of the season. After the completion of 36 holes, Lin held the solo lead and Yin was just two strokes behind her friend at 2-under.