Women’s golf officially has a new No. 1-ranked player

There’s a new top dog in women’s golf.

Ruoning Yin, the reigning KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner, officially became No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings after her solo third finish at the Queen City Championship this past weekend. Her 14-under total left her two shots out of a playoff with Charley Hull and Minjee Lee.

“I got goosebumps,” Yin said. “I think, yeah, world No. 1 is the big step on the way to chasing Shanshan [Feng]. Yeah, I’m just — I got brain blank right now. I don’t know what so say.”

The 20-year-old is just the second player from China to reach world No. 1 in the women’s game. Shanshan Feng, the 2012 Women’s PGA winner, sat atop the Rolex Rankings from November 2017 to April 2018.

“It means a lot,” Yin said. “For me it’s like dream come true. I think I didn’t get a lot of chance to chat with Shanshan, but I’m looking forward to back to China and play the Asian Game and spend more time with her.”

Yin, who needed a top-four result at the Queen City Championship to overtake American Lilia Vu as the No. 1-ranked player, fired rounds of 68, 66, 73 and 67 for a 274 total in Cincinnati. Her solo third finish is her third top-three finish in a row and her fourth in her last five starts.

With the result, Yin becomes the 18th different player to reach No. 1 in the world. She is also the fifth different player to hold the No. 1 spot this season.

At the age of 20, Yin is the third player in history to hold the No. 1 spot at the age of 20 or younger, joining Atthaya Titikul and Lydia Ko.

Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.