Crackers and jerky were the snacks of choice that fueled Angel Yin onward toward victory in her Saturday afternoon match with Jeeno Thitikul and helped her advance to the semifinal matches of the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards.

On Saturday afternoon at Shadow Creek Golf Course, Yin said she began to feel lightheaded while playing her 30th hole of the day. She had already played 18 holes in the morning in her round of 16 match in which she defeated Mai Saigo to advance to another 18-hole match with Thitikul in the afternoon. But it was midway through that second match-up that Yin began to feel the long day starting to take its toll. So, she grabbed a snack she thought would help her make it through the next several holes she still needed to play.

“I started shoving crackers and jerky in my mouth because I was like, ‘Wow this is really tiring,’” Yin told Golf Channel after her victory Saturday evening. “I don’t know. It keeps me going.”

Yin and Thitikul went back and forth throughout their quarterfinal match, beginning with Yin’s opening birdie to take an early 1-up lead. But it didn't take long for Thitikul, who had been undefeated to that point in the week, to flip the match back in her favor by the fourth hole.

“I think we were both pretty tired, so it was a lot of back and forth,” Yin said about grinding through the afternoon.

On the 13th hole, the momentum seemed to shift in Yin’s favor. Faced with a slippery, downhill, sidehill lie off the back of the 13th green, the two-time LPGA Tour holed her chip for birdie at the par 3 to regain a 1-up lead on Thitikul. Yin then found her first green in regulation on the next hole and made another birdie to further extend her lead.

“My chip-in on 13 really helped me feel confident because the golf course is getting ridiculously hard. Everything is like concrete hard, and putts are hard,” Yin said about the course conditions. “There are just some holes that are so difficult, and I still haven’t quite figured it out.”

Ultimately, Yin would make three birdies in her final four holes of the match, and with both energy and daylight running low, she closed out Thitikul on the 16th green, winning 4 and 2 to save herself from having to play two more holes of golf.

“This golf course, anything can happen,” Yin said after her victory. “I was like, okay at least it's going my way, but I mean, even until like 16, until I chipped it to two feet, that's when I was like, okay, the match is over. With Jeeno and a player that good and a golf course this difficult, it's never over.”

Yin handed Thitikul her first loss of the week, who, in her morning match with Nataliya Guseva, had handily defeated the Epson Tour alum 8 and 7 to advance to the quarterfinals against Yin. The duel felt like a rematch of sorts as Yin and Thitikul had gone head-to-head in November at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, where the pair shared the 54-hole lead, and where Thitikul ultimately edged out Yin for the win and the $4 million first-place prize. But on Saturday afternoon, it was Yin who this time came out on top and will advance to the semifinal matches on Sunday morning.

“Definitely feels good to beat her,” said Yin.

Angel Yin hands Jeeno Thitikul First Loss of Week, Advances to Semifinals

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