Landlord, tenant and good friends, Ruoning Yin and Xiyu Lin, T-2 at KPMG Women’s PGA

SPRINGFIELD N.J. — A landlord and their tenant are tied for second after the opening round of the KPMG Women’s PGA. 

Ruoning Yin and her “mentor,” Xiyu Lin, both shot 4-under 67 on Thursday. The China natives met about four years ago when Yin was still a teenager and have since become good friends. 

“She came up and asked me what would be the proper way to get on the LPGA,” Lin said after Round 1 at Baltusrol. “At that time I was like, ‘Wow, like this kid, she really wants something.’ There’s not many like 16-, 17-year-olds that are planning that far ahead. That’s actually how we started talking.”

Added Yin: “She’s a big sis, helped me a lot.”

However, Lin is now more than just a confidant to Yin, as she is renting Lin’s old house in Orlando. 

Full-field scores from the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

“We live like 20 minutes from each other,” Lin said. “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.”

But sometimes, Yin boggles Lin with typical landlord duties. 

“Unfortunately we’ve been dealing with some draining problems,” Lin said, “so when I see her, I always feel so sorry, not with the golf but it’s like the toilet is clogged or something.”

Fortunately, though, that issue has been resolved. 

“We finally fixed it like three weeks ago,” Lin said, “which is great, so now we don’t have any problems.”

Earlier this season, Yin won the DIO Implant LA Open, joining Shanshan Feng as the only other LPGA winner from China. The victory came with a payday of $262,500 — and Lin took notice. 

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

Though it appears the rent hasn’t been raised, maybe that changes if one of them edges the other out at Baltusrol for their maiden major victory in an event with a $10 million purse.