Taiwan's latest Master: This one's for Yu
Kevin Yu's playoff win in Mississippi boosts 2025 Masters field to 71 players
Kevin Yu of Taiwan celebrates his maiden PGA Tour victory (Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
Kevin Yu flew from Taiwan with his parents to Mississippi last week for the Sanderson Farms Championship. His father, Tommy, drove the whole crew to the golf course on Tuesday and started to pull into the first available parking spot he saw near the clubhouse at the Country Club of Jackson.
“That’s for past champions; we can’t park here,” the 26-year-old Kevin told his dad.
“Oh, okay, okay – we can park here after this year,” said the elder Yu with the confidence of a father who built the driving range in Taoyuan that his 5-year-old son learned to play golf on.
Five days later, the younger Yu willed his father’s parking-lot prediction into existence with consecutive birdies on the 18th hole to finish regulation and close out a sudden-death playoff to beat Beau Hossler and become the third Taiwanese golfer in history to win on the PGA Tour.
“You know, I mean, I don’t know — it just happened,” said Yu with a big smile after his maiden professional victory with his parents in attendance. “I think, I don’t know, just a good start for the week and then had good momentum, and my dad and my mom, they always trust me very much and, yeah, that’s very special.”
Now Yu can park his car next April in the new underground parking facility at Augusta National Golf Club when he shows up for his first Masters tournament.
“It’s literally a dream come true,” Yu said. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I was 5. I think this is the dream for all the golfers, to win on PGA. And then I did it today and I’m really thankful for my parents right there right now. And without them, I don’t think I could’ve done this, win this tournament.”
Tommy Yu opened a driving range in Taiwan and started teaching Kevin how to play when he was 5. His parents worked to be able to send Kevin to college in the United States at Arizona State from 2017-21, where he finished fourth in the very first PGA Tour University class and earned a place on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Yu was actually one of two former Arizona State golfer to earn a spot in the Masters last Sunday, but Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Wenyi Ding of China will forfeit his amateur spot in the field by turning professional on the DP World Tour instead.
“It’s crazy to think about it. I mean, they came here from Taiwan with me this week, and they been working really hard as well trying to put me to college and go through my professional career,” Yu said of his parents. “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.”
Eileen and Tommy Yu were present for their son Kevin’s win in Mississippi (Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
Yu did all the work Sunday to rally from two behind Keith Mitchell with a 5-under 67, capped by a 15-foot birdie putt he knew he had to make on the last hole of regulation to have a chance to be in the playoff. In sudden death against Hossler, Yu stuck his approach to 6 feet this time and made another birdie to win.
In his second full season, Yu continued showed flashes with five top-five finishes. But after competing for Taiwan in the Paris Olympics then failing to reach the FedEx Cup playoffs, Yu went home to Taiwan for a nearly two-month break before returning for the Sanderson Farms refreshed.
“Actually, I didn’t do much related to golf,” he said. “I actually went fishing quite a bit with my friends and hang out my family and friends. I feel like when you go back to Taiwan, my mind just relax a little bit, and feel like before Wyndham we would like, six, seven, eight stretch for the tournaments. It’s just been a grind out there.”
T.C. Chen at the 1985 U.S. Open, where he finished runner-up (USGA via X)
Yu called being the third Taiwanese pro to win on the PGA Tour “really big” and hopes he can be an example to young Taiwanese players they way C.T. Pan was for him.
“I just feel like we have a lot of very talented junior players,” he said of Taiwan’s golf scene.
“I know we grew up in a tough spot. We don’t have a lot of courses in Taiwan. The conditions are just okay, not perfect. So 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.”
The first Taiwanese golfer to win on the PGA Tour was Tze-chung “T.C.” Chen (陳志忠) at the 1987 Los Angeles Open. Chen is best known for his runner-up finish in his U.S. Open debut in 1985 at Oakland Hills when he lost a two-shot lead in the final round thanks in large part to a double-hit on a chip shot that led to a quadruple bogey. The double-hit can to be known as a “T.C. Chen” until the USGA eliminated the penalty for it in 2018. Chen played in four consecutive Masters from 1986-89, making the cut all four times with three top-25 finished including T12 in 1987.
Cheng-tsung “C.T.” Pan (潘政琮) became the second Taiwan pro to win on the PGA Tour when he prevailed in the 2019 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. That earned Pan a spot in the 2020 “November” Masters, where he shot a final-round 68 to finish T7 and earn a return in 2021. Pan has represented Taiwan in all three Olympics since golf made its return to the Games in 2016, winning the bronze medal in a seven-man playoff in 2021 in Tokyo. He also competed on the 2019 International team in the Presidents Cup, going 2-1 but losing his crucial singles match to Patrick Reed in the narrow 16-14 International loss.
Now Chun-an “Kevin” Yu (俞俊安) etched his place as the third Taiwanese PGA Tour winner and earned his first trip to Augusta in April.
“Everybody was saying, like first win is always very special and only get it once, so really happy,” Yu said. “And I still got to keep going and hopefully finish the season strong.”
Overall, seven golfers from Taiwan have previously competed in the Masters: Ching-po Chen; T.C. Chen; T.M. Chen; Min-nan Hsieh; Yung-yo Hsieh; Wen-tang Lin and Lu Liang-Huan. Ching-po Chen was the first in 1963, posting a T15 that marked his best finish in a record six Masters starts for any player from Taiwan.