By Ian Ransom
(Reuters) – With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a U.S. PGA Tour title.
The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday.
Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined T.C. Chen (1987, LA Open) and C.T. Pan (2019 RBC Heritage) as Tour winners from Taiwan.
“I’ve been dreaming this moment since I was five,” said Yu, who claimed a team gold medal with Pan at the 2014 Asian Games golf in Incheon, South Korea.
“This is the dream for all golfers, to win on the PGA Tour.
“I did it today. I’m thankful for my parents. Without them, I couldn’t have done that.”
Poignantly, both Chen and Pan were present in Jackson as Yu soaked up the win with his parents. Yu’s long-time backer Pan missed the cut.
Yu’s dad Tommy, who built a driving range after his son started playing golf at five, drove to the course early in the week and made a wrong turn when looking for a parking space.
“He saw a parking spot in the very beginning and I told him, ‘That’s for past champions, we can’t park here’. He was like, ‘Oh, OK, OK. We can park here after this year’,” Yu said.
“I don’t know — it just happened. I just had a good start for the week and then had good momentum, and my dad and my mom, they always trust me very much and that’s very special.”
With Yu showing talent at a young age, Pan encouraged him to attend college in the U.S. where he ended up a standout in Arizona State University’s golf programme.
With his first U.S. Tour win three years after turning professional, Yu will have no problems finding a parking spot in Jackson in future.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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