Kevin Yu's journey to PGA TOUR rooted in resilience

At the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank, Kevin Yu rattled off five birdies in his final seven holes during the tournament’s closing round. At the time of the season when every shot, and every point, really matters, he sprinted across the finish line.

Yu texted his old coach at Arizona State University, Matt Thurmond, filled with joy. It was classic Yu, Thurmond said, who always took a lot of pride in how he finished off events. Three times at ASU, Yu birdied the final hole of NCAA Regional competition – often a vital putt for the school to move on.

“Sun Devils finish,” was the text Thurmond received.

“It was massive,” the coach said.

Born in Taoyuan, near the northwestern coast of Taiwan, Yu’s journey to the PGA TOUR includes tens of thousands of miles traveled. (In international competition and on PGA TOUR leaderboards, Yu represents Chinese Taipei.) Now that he’s made it to the ultimate stage in the sport, Thurmond isn’t surprised to see it. Yu finished No. 20 on the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season Points List to secure his first TOUR card, a year after finishing No. 4 on the inaugural PGA TOUR University Velocity Global Ranking to earn automatic Korn Ferry Tour membership.

“His game is just suited really well for the TOUR. He hits the ball high and far and he’s just got a good all-around game,” said Thurmond, who has been at Arizona State since 2016.

Yu finished runner-up at the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation earlier this season, kick-starting a torrid stretch. He notched a third-place result at the Wichita Open and then a tie for second at the Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper, his top results of the season.

It was an impressive stretch of golf for Yu to earn his way to the TOUR, but for folks like Thurmond, who have known him since he was a young teenager, it’s not all that surprising.

“He’s always seen himself as a PGA TOUR player,” said Thurmond. “That’s the only option or thinking in his mind.

"That's where he belongs."

Yu first came to the U.S. when he was 13 to play AJGA events in the summer, and two years later he broke through as the gold-medal winner in golf at the Asian Youth Games.

“Golfers from Taiwan work really hard,” Yu said on the Korn Ferry Tour’s Golf’s Next Wave podcast last year. “The harder you work, there’s a chance to be really successful. All the juniors work really hard, and I think that’s what you need when you’re young.”

His father was his first coach, and Yu won his first tournament in the third grade. At 17, he won the Western Junior and the Junior PLAYERS Championship – that’s when big schools in the U.S. first started to take notice.

At the time of recruitment, Thurmond was the coach at the University of Washington, where Yu’s mentor C.T. Pan was a star. Thurmond was interested in Yu at the time – to become a Huskie – but it just wasn’t the right fit at the time. Thurmond didn’t end up recruiting him and was “bummed” to not be able to take their relationship to the next level.

But lo and behold, some things just work out. Tim Mickelson, then the head coach at Arizona State, had brought Yu to the school. Thurmond was hired to coach the ASU squad after 15 years at Washington, and Yu became a player on his team after all.

There was a hurdle left for Yu, however. Every school in the NCAA has an English proficiency exam for international students, and Yu did not pass the test at first. Thurmond ended up enlisting Pan, and his wife, to help Yu and after “a ton” of English tutoring and hard work, he got the score. Thurmond already knew Yu as a high-character guy and a superstar player. They just had to cross the proverbial finish line.

“I went to watch him at the Asia-Pacific Amateur in South Korea in 2016 and that was a crucial time,” remembers Thurmond. “He and I spent some time together and got him on track and focused and we connected, we bonded, and he re-committed to making his way over here.”

Yu began in January 2017 at ASU. Things were a little different.

“I was excited to come (to America). I had always dreamed to play on the PGA TOUR … and had a chance to play in the U.S. I think the first thing I remember is that everything was huge,” Yu said on the Korn Ferry Tour’s podcast. “The land is huge. The food portions are huge. I couldn’t finish one plate. Place to place … it’s far. My first memory here is that everything is huge.”

The opportunities, however, were also huge. The first tournament Yu played for ASU was in Hawaii. He played “OK,” according to Thurmond. The second tournament he got “his butt kicked” and his result just “wasn’t acceptable” and Yu knew it. Yu adjusted and had a totally different mindset and strategy for the third tournament of the season, which paid off in a big way. Yu won, after shooting a final-round 64, becoming just the sixth ASU freshman in school history to win a tournament. Jon Rahm, who won twice in 2012-13, had been the most recent.

Yu reached as high as No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and he will always be connected to Rahm in the school’s record books. His scoring average fell just shy of Rahm’s college total, and Yu’s 586 birdies were also second only to the former world No. 1.

Now Yu is embarking on the next phase of his golf career.

Another huge opportunity. A big beginning.

And hopefully, a Sun Devil finish.