For PGA Tour champion Kevin Yu, father knew best and he called it

When Kevin Yu, a 26-year-old Taiwanese golf pro, first entered the gates of the Country Club of Jackson for the Sanderson Farms Championship last week, his dad, Tommy, was driving.

“My dad pulled into the first empty parking spot he saw,” Kevin Yu said. “I told him we couldn’t park there because there was a sign that said the spot was reserved for past champions.”

With no hesitation, Tommy Yu began backing the rental car out and replied to his son, “That’s OK, then we will park in this spot next year.”

Rick Cleveland

Now then, here is the rest of that story: Kevin Yu, whose real name is Yu Chun-an, can park anywhere he wants to park at next year’s Sanderson Farms Championship at CCJ. He earned that privilege by shooting a final round 67, then winning a one-hole playoff with Beau Hossler to claim the first prize of $1,368,000 and his first PGA TOUR victory. The victory also means a two-year tour exemption and entry into The Masters, the Players Championship and the PGA Championship.

Yu did it the hard way. He came from two shots behind in the final round and birdied the difficult, 500-yard par-4 18th hole twice – first to force the tie with Hossler and then to claim the playoff victory. That’s right: He birdied perhaps the most difficult hole on the course twice, back-to-back, with the championship on the line.

“It is a dream come true for me, something I have dreamed about since I was like five years old,” Yu said. “This is the dream of all golfers, to win on the PGA Tour. To do it with my parents (Tommy and Eileen) here is really special.”

Kevin Yu’s dad is a golf pro in Taiwan and introduced his son to the sport at an early age and began teaching him at age 5. He taught him well. Kevin won his first tournament at age 7, beat his father for the first time at age 9 and began competing internationally at age 13.

He earned a golf scholarship to Arizona State, where he is the second-most accomplished golfer in that school’s rich golf history behind somebody named Jon Rahm. This is Yu’s third year on the PGA Tour and third time to play in Mississippi’s only PGA Tour Tournament. He finished tied for 19th in 2022 and missed the 36-hole cut last year. He said he loves everything about the tournament.

“I like the whole environment here,” Yu said. “I like the course layout. I think it suits me. The greens are so pure and they are fast and I like that, too. The atmosphere is easy-going, the course is great.”

Yu came here last week, thinking he was about to play in the last-ever Sanderson Farms Championship because of an announcement weeks ago that the Laurel-based poultry company was ending its sponsorship after a 12-year run.

Said Yu, “I was really sad, because I do love this place and this tournament.”

Then came Friday’s out-of-the-blue news that Sanderson Farms was extending its sponsorship for one more year. “I was so happy to hear that news,” Yu said. “Now I can come back and defend my title.”

And with preferred parking, he might have added.

Yu becomes the third Taiwanese player to win on golf’s most lucrative tour, following first T.C. Chen (1987 Los Angeles Open) and C. T. Pan (2019 Heritage Classic).

“I think this means a lot for all Taiwanese,” Yu said. “I feel like I can be an example. We don’t have a lot of golf courses in Taiwan and the conditions are just OK, not perfect. So I just show them that we can do it by working really hard and dreaming big.”

Yu shot three rounds of 66 and then Sunday’s 67. He did it all in a easy-going manner, smiling and chatting often with course volunteers with his playing partner Bud Cauley in the next-to-last group.

“I was really calm all week even to the last few holes today,” Yu said. He indicated his parents might have had something to do with that.

Tommy and Eileen Yu flew to Jackson from Taiwan last week, and Yu is mighty glad they did.

“I really don’t think I could this without my parents,” he said.

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