CHINESE Taipei’s Kevin Yu takes aim at the world’s best golfers at The PLAYERS Championship this week with a realization that he doesn’t need to play perfect golf to achieve success.
The 26-year-old will make his second appearance in the US$25 million PGA Tour flagship tournament at The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass starting Friday, eager to ensure his game continues to trend upwards following a maiden PGA Tour victory last October.
C.T. Pan will also be amongst the elite 125-man field in what is his sixth PLAYERS appearance.
“The game has been good. I’ve had two top-20 finishes which is pretty good and I feel like the game is trending in the right direction,“ said Yu, one of only three golfers from Chinese Taipei to win on the PGA Tour.
“In the beginning of the year, I feel like I was hitting it great but I kind of put myself under too much pressure and set a really high standard and trying to be like perfect every time. I mean, you can’t always be perfect.
“You have to accept misses and being in other situations that you don’t want to be in and it’s just going to happen. I’m trying to go out there and be free and be happy. So just try to be very positive and I think it’ll be good.”
Yu’s debut at the daunting Stadium Course last year saw him shoot rounds of 74-73 to miss the weekend cut but a return to TPC Sawgrass is always memorable as Yu had won the Junior PLAYERS Championship at the same venue in 2015. He finished T16 and T17 at the WM Phoenix Open and Genesis Invitational respectively for his best finishes to date this year, and is looking forward to facing a stellar field led by two-time defending champion, Scottie Scheffler.
“It’s always good to be back. A lot of memories from the Junior PLAYERS and it’s such a special place. It’s a tough course but I love the challenge and hopefully I can play good,“ he said.
“All the good players are here, like Scottie, and it’s the best field in the whole year. Just seeing those guys compete makes this event go up another level but it’s still a tournament where I have to bring my ‘A’ game out.
“I won the Junior PLAYERS when I was 17 but I feel like this week just means so much more. You can compete with the best players in the world, and it’s always what I dreamt of since I was a kid. So just to beat those guys, to prove that I can beat those guys … that’s going to be a big achievement. Hopefully I can play good this week.
He knows the closing stretch of three holes on the Stadium Course, which features the iconic par-3 17th hole which has an island green, will deliver the test and drama on Sunday afternoon. Last year, he navigated those holes in 1-under through two rounds.
“It depends on the wind but 16 is pretty gettable. 17 is such a famous hole and the wind is different from the ground level to where the ball flight is, so sometimes your judgement is a bit weird. I just feel like anything on the green is pretty good on 17. And on 18, it’s such a tough tee shot, not the easiest tee shot in the world, due to the water on the left.
“It’s such a good golf course as you have to work to hit draws, have to hit fades out there and you can’t like get away from hitting just one type of shots. Short game is going to be important as you’re going to miss some greens for sure. It’s a good test. You have to be very disciplined and keep to your game plan. You have to be patient as it’s a tough course that tests everything,“ said Yu.
