Dylan Wu earns first win, secures PGA TOUR card at Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Dylan Wu’s last top-10 came 364 days ago at the 2020 Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper. He entered the week having slipped to 31st in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings with just three regular season events remaining. But on Sunday, not even a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay could slow him down as he cruised to his first victory at the 2021 Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper.

With the win, Wu leaps to 14th in the points standings and secures his standing among the top-25 players at the end of the regular season, resulting in his first PGA TOUR card.

“Yeah, I don't think it's hit me yet, but just super happy,” said Wu after his win. “The last two years, I mean, playing 40 events out here, I felt like I played well enough last year to get a card but COVID kind of – there's a lot worse things in life with COVID affecting a lot of people and luckily I was still able to play professional golf, but not getting a PGA TOUR card last year was really – it kind of hurt.”

Overall, Wu is a fan of cities named Springfield. Two years ago, Wu got a call as he was headed to a Forme Tour event and learned that he had gotten into the Korn Ferry Tour tournament that week in Springfield, Illinois. He went on to breakthrough with a runner-up finish that week, his first made cut on Tour, and earn strong status for the remainder of the year. Fast forward two years and Wu has made his mark at another Springfield, this time in Missouri at Highland Springs Country Club.

“I mean, something about Springfields are great,” laughed Wu, who turned 25 years old on Tuesday. “Luckily there's a lot of them, probably the most named city in the country…I mean, including this week, the last two years I probably had my best results at [this tournament]. My last top 10 was here a year ago. Coming into this week, I'm like, wow, that's been a long time since I had a top 10.”

Entering the day tied for the lead, Wu birdied three of his first four holes out of the gate to build the advantage. He tacked on two more at Nos. 7 and 8 to turn in 5-under 31. At one point Wu held a five-stroke lead, though that dropped to two late as last week’s champion Taylor Moore made a late charge. A weather delay halted play for more than two and a half hours from 1:45 p.m. to 4:18 p.m. as the final group was on the 10th fairway. After coming back out, he added two more birdies at the 11th and 16th holes down the stretch for the two-stroke win.

“I just hung out with a few buddies,” said Wu of his time spent during the rain delay. “One of the guys was Max McGreevy, who won this last year. We were talking inside. A lot of my buddies were just saying the round's probably going to get canceled, and I don't want to hear this because I have a five shot lead right now, I don't want to go into a playoff or something like that.”

The win came a month after switching caddies to his younger brother, Jeremy Wu, at the Live and Work in Maine Open. Since the switch, the Northwestern University alum has finished top-25 in three out of four events, including this victory.

“He's been great; for me, having him on the bag just gave me a little more confidence in my own ability to call my own shots and play my own game,” said Wu, a former hockey star in high school. “He's kind of just there for support and to keep it chill and keep it fun while I'm playing just because golf is really stressful, playing these tournaments is really stressful, but he keeps it calm.”

Moore came up just short in his bid to become the 13th player in Korn Ferry Tour history to win back-to-back events. After a 27-under total at last week’s Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS, Moore has now gone 52-under over his past two tournaments. Taylor Dickson’s finish of third ties his career-best mark.

Next week the Korn Ferry Tour is off before heading to the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank from August 5-8.

Final-Round Notes

• Sunday’s weather: Partly cloudy giving way to afternoon thunderstorms with a high of 91 degrees and wind in variable directions from 5-10 miles per hour; the final round was delayed for two hours and 33 minutes from 1:45 p.m. to 4:18 p.m.
• The Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper was the 18th event of 2021 and the 41st (of 43) of the 2020-21 combined regular season; Wu moves to 14th in the points standings with a win while Moore advances to fourth
• The winning 72-hole total of 27-under 261 ties the tournament record, originally set by Doug LaBelle II (2006)
• Wu competed in his first major earlier this year, the 2021 U.S. Open, where he finished T31
• Defending champion Max McGreevy finished T19, and by doing so, surpassed the Korn Ferry Tour’s threshold of 1,650 points guaranteeing that he will finish inside the top-25 in the regular season and earn his first PGA TOUR card
• Another past tournament champion, Dawie van der Walt (2015), finished T32
• Alex Kang (-22, T4) was the only player without a bogey (or worse) through the first three rounds before his streak ended after 61 holes at the par-5 eighth hole on Sunday
• By finishing in the top-25, Monday qualifier Hayden Springer (-20, T6) gained entry into the next Korn Ferry Tour event, the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank
• Taylor Moore’s Sunday 62 was the low round of the week, two shots shy of the 18-hole tournament record (Tyler Williamson/R4/2004)
• The Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper is one of four events from the Korn Ferry Tour’s inaugural 1990 season that still remain today with each tournament contested at Highland Springs Country Club
• This week’s purse was $600,000 with $108,000 going to the champion, Dylan Wu; Wu also receives 500 Korn Ferry Tour points
• The combined 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour schedule will conclude with 25 PGA TOUR cards awarded in August at the 2021 Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna, with an additional 25 cards awarded at the conclusion of the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour Finals