NORTON — Xiyu Lin made it to Massachusetts. Her bronze medal made it to Massachusetts.
Her golf bag, with her clubs and the Boston Celtics putter cover that will likely endear her to the LPGA crowd this week in Norton?
Not yet.
Lin, who also goes by Janet, has spent most of August playing continental hopscotch. France for the Olympics where she won a bronze medal for China. Back to Massachusetts where she spends much of her downtime with her fiancé Barney Wang. Another bounce across the Atlantic to Scotland where she made the cut at last week’s British Open.
She arrived back at Logan Airport on Monday and was at TPC Boston for the FM Championship on Tuesday. But her bag is still on vacation.
According to AirTag, when she flew west, her bag went south from Edinborough, Scotland to DeGaulle Airport in Paris.
“There are two airlines and none of them were willing to make an effort to go get it, even though I know where it is,” she said. “It just hasn’t been moving.”
While she was awaiting word on its arrival, she’s borrowing Barney’s clubs, most of which used to be hers.
“But luckily I call this my home as well so I bring out my fiance’s irons,” she said. “Just going to give it a try on the range today.”
But he had one of them stamped “Janet’s short game coach” with his initials B.W. She said he was hoping that club would see action. She has asked Callaway to send her a few new clubs just in case.
“He’s like you have to hit that,” she said smiling and rolling her eyes a little playfully. “I’m like, I’m not going to. ... So hopefully Callaway will give me some fresh wedges and I don’t need to use these old ones. But he made me carry it to the golf course today.”
Missing, however, is her Celtics putter cover. Lin has become a big fan of Jayson Tatum and her adopted hometown team since she started spending much of her offseason in the city. Barney bought her a green cover with the team’s shamrock logo that she’s been using since the playoffs.
“Barney bought me a Celtics putter cover,” said Lin, who has also started getting into the Bruins. “That was before the last (NBA Finals) game. I’m like, I need to put this on, and they finally got the win and that was pretty cool. ... I just love the environment here. The last two playoffs we could just walk into the bar and then everyone was really excited about the game. This year they finally got it done.”
She’ll try to get things done on Thursday with whatever clubs she’s got. She practiced with her fiancé's clubs on Tuesday and might play in Wednesday’s Pro-Am with them. Thursday is about being in the right mindset.
“I just believe it’s still mostly about my mind just hopefully we can put together a decent set of clubs,” she said. “And then it’s all on me, which I have confidence in myself.”
