Kevin Yu parks in winner's circle in playoff victory at Sanderson Farms Championship

Early in the week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Kevin Yu’s father, Tommy Yu, tried to park in what turned out to be an area reserved for past champions. As fathers tend to do, Tommy made a passing comment that, well, next year his son would have his own spot in there.

What a call.

It took an extra hole - the third straight year the Sanderson Farms Championship has gone into a playoff - but Kevin, an Arizona State alum whose father got him into golf in the first place, emerged as a first-time winner on the PGA TOUR over Beau Hossler.

“Feels amazing," Kevin said. "Feels like a dream come true. I've been dreaming this since I was 5. I just feel like to do it with my parents out here, it's really special. “Everybody was saying, like ‘first win is always very special and only get it once,’ so (I’m) really happy.”

Yu birdied the first extra hole after stuffing his approach to 5 feet. He closed with a tidy 15-footer on the 72nd hole to post at 23-under.

Hossler was in trouble off the tee on No. 18 but after he punched out from behind a tree, he knocked his approach to a few feet and rolled in his par. Keith Mitchell, the 54-hole leader, had a 35-foot birdie try to win in regulation but it just slid by. And he missed the comebacker for par, leaving him one out of the playoff.

“I hate that it ended that way," Mitchell said. "The way I played on the back nine probably wasn't -- definitely wasn't my best. Only hit one fairway which was 18. I was just grinding to stay in it. Long story short, glad I fought 71-and-a-half holes.”

For Yu, his journey to the PGA TOUR winner’s circle is one of hope, perseverance, and of course, a father’s love. Yu started to play when he was about 5, and his father built a driving range not long after that. It didn’t take very much time at all before Yu got good. Real good. He beat his dad when he was just 10 years old, he recalls. Yu’s parents worked hard to get him to America, help him to college, and they just so happened to be in Jackson all the way from Chinese Taipei for this particular week.

“Just to have them out here, it's really special,” Yu said. “I don't really get to see them very often, and I mean, to have them out here is very special. Just really thankful for them to be here. I think they're a part of the reason why I win today.”

The victory came after a hearty mental reset for Yu, who took the last month to come down after a busy summertime stretch. Yu had played six events in a row on the PGA TOUR, then represented his home country at the Olympics before returning for the Wyndham Championship. This was his first start of the FedExCup Fall. Through the final part of the season, Yu admitted he wasn’t quite into it mentally.

So, this week, Yu took it back to as simple an approach as possible. He wanted to be aggressive and not overthink the results as much. That was that. And the result was the best of his career.

“I feel like this week I was really calm and just feel like little break from last month really helped me, just not thinking too much,” Yu said. “I took a little break and now I'm back and I just feel like my mind is really fresh.”

Yu is the 12th first-time winner on the PGA TOUR this season, but just the third in TOUR history from Chinese Taipei to tilt a trophy. T.C. Chen was the first, all the way back in 1987 at the Los Angeles Open (now The Genesis Invitational), and C.T. Pan followed at the 2019 RBC Heritage. Adding Yu’s name to that small list is not lost on him. An honor. An inspiration for the next generation. And frankly, something that’s just very cool.

“I just show them that we can do it, we can do it by working really hard, have a clear mindset and dream big and we can do it," said Yu.

Winning on TOUR is a dream, achieved, for Kevin Yu.

And of course, it comes with a nice parking spot next year at the Sanderson Farms Championship.