In the early morning of Beijing time this morning, Dou Zecheng staged a 64 stroke for the second consecutive day at the Lekang Classic of the Korn Ferry International Tour held in Florida, leading the half-way clubhouse with a two-stroke advantage, and is expected to complete the dream of returning to the PGA Tour ahead of schedule while striving for the third Light Tour champion of his career!
At the same time, also in Florida, there are several Chinese golfers who have taken a solid big step towards the PGA Tour dream.
At The Club at Weston Hills, the Canadian Tour Qualifying Exam 1st leg of the Eastern United States, two-time Central Tour champion Yip and pro golf newcomer Six Kevin won the 2022 Canadian Tour, a tier 3 tour of the PGA Tour, by virtue of their outstanding performances, finishing second and tied for 7th place, respectively!
Ye Wo Cheng and Six Kevin
Founded in 1970, the PGA TOUR Canada (hereinafter referred to as the Canadian Tour) has been one of the seven major tour events in the world along with the PGA TOUR, European Tour, Day Tour, Asian Tour, etc. However, due to its partiality to Canada, it was unable to expand its size and fell into a financial crisis, and was swallowed up by the PGA Tour in 2013, becoming one of the latter's third-tier tour, alongside the Latin American Tour and the PGA TOUR Series - China.
Each season plus the top 5 places in the year-end standings of the Tour can earn membership on the Korn Ferry Tour (Champion Full Card, 2nd-5th Half Card). In 2015, Chinese Taipei player Pan Zhengchun was admitted to the Canadian Tour after turning professional, and won two championships that year, rising to the second place in the prize money list, which was also called the Wei Tour, and successfully upgraded to the PGA Tour the following year, achieving the perfect triple jump of "Plus Tour - Light Tour - PGA Tour".
In 2015, Pan zhengchun reached the top 5 of the Canadian Tour and was promoted to the Light Tour
Pan Zhengqun soared into the sky, giving many Chinese players the motivation to challenge the Canadian Tour, such as Beijing's Cao Yi, Zhang Huachuang, the youngest participant in the history of the US Open, and Yang Mutian, a Hong Kong player in China, who have made a name for themselves in the Canadian Tour. Unfortunately, a new crown epidemic has caused Canada to significantly narrow its entry policy, and the Canadian Tour has fallen into a long-term suspension, and it has not been able to resume the full schedule in 2020 and 2021, and even lost its long-term title sponsor this year...
Until this week, the Plus Tour Qualifying School Exam was reopened after a gap of two years, with seven qualifying rounds in the United States and Canada from February to April, with the winner of each tournament directly receiving the Full Card for the 2022 Season of the Plus Tour, the 2nd-9th place qualifying for the Half Card, and the 10th-30th place qualifying for the Limited Tournament. Three Chinese players – Ye Wocheng, Liu Kevin and Hunan teenager Cao Senshou – signed up for the first qualifying tournament in the Eastern United States.
Ye Wocheng will begin his plus tour career
As a student at the University of Florida, Ye Wocheng can be described as a "half home" battle. As early as the official prediction of the pre-game plus tour, the first "post-00s champion" in the history of the Central Tour was regarded as one of the "top 5 hot players". However, in the 4 rounds of 72 holes, Ye Wocheng only started with 74 (+2) on the first day, fortunately, he found his touch in time, and the last three rounds all handed over the red letters, especially in this morning's final round, the 21-year-old was full of firepower, shooting 1 eagle and 4 birds in the whole game, did not swallow a bogey, played the lowest 66 in the game, jumped to the second place alone, as the "eye of the list" of the qualification, undisputedly got the membership of the Extra Tour.
According to the regulations, Ye Wocheng will be granted the right to participate in all competitions before the season half of the "reshuffle" – compared to 2019 in the full season of the previous season on the Plus Tour – almost 6 or so games. Graduates of all eligible schools will be re-qualified and will be selected for the second half of the season according to their respective performances. "I feel great and happy to start my new season in Canada!" In an official interview with the Canadian Tour after the game, Ye Wocheng, who started the PGA Tour's dream journey, was excited.
Six Kevin (third from left) was a teammate on the varsity team with Colin Morikawa (first from right).
Six Kevin's name may be unfamiliar to some fans. In fact, in the world amateur ranking, born in 1999 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, he has always been a Chinese mainland of the TOP10 level. In 2019, he was selected for the national training team and competed with Lin Yuxin, Chen Guxin and others in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship held in Sheshan, Shanghai. In 2017, he joined the UC Berkeley Golf Varsity team as a cadet + teammate of Colin Morikawa and achieved 2 top 5 games and 7 top 20 games in his NCAA career.
At the end of 2021, Six Kevin turned pro and used the Plus Tour as a challenge stage. In this week's qualifying rounds, he started the first two rounds 71-68 steadily, once rushing to the second place in the leading list, but the 75 stroke of the moving day +3 put the 22-year-old in crisis. The final round was also full of twists and turns, with four birdies on the first nine holes basically secured his top nine position, but the bogey swallowing in the closing stages of the 16th and 17th holes put six Kevin in a 5-man tie for 7th.
Six Kevin in this week's qualifiers
Since the Plus Tour Half Card is only awarded to the top 9 of the qualifying rounds, and does not include a tie. Five players, including Six Kevin, had to enter the extra hole race. In a brutal "5-out-of-3" battle, it wasn't until the 4th hole that Six Kevin relied on a key birdie and was lucky enough to stand out and get his first Tour membership card since his career change.
Another Chinese mainland player, Cao Sen, played 74-77-73-74 in the first four rounds, with a total score of +10, tied for 53rd place, unfortunately failing to break through. Alexander Herrmann, a 26-year-old German golfer from Georgia State University's varsity team, won the qualifying tournament "Champion" with a four-round 70-69-67-68, a total score of -14, a 5-stroke advantage over Ye Wocheng, and will participate in all competitions of the 2022 Plus Tour as an unrestricted "full card".
The Plus Tour is one of the PGA Tour's third-tier tours
It is worth mentioning that during the epidemic in 2020, in the Canadian Life Series Tour specially designed for players in their home countries, former Chinese Tour champion and Beijing famous Cao Yi once relied on the excellent performance of 1 championship and 4 stops to enter the top 10 to win the first place in the standings, which gave him a half-card qualification for the 2021 Canadian Tour and a valuable wild card for the Canadian Open of the PGA Tour. However, due to the cancellation of the 2021 season, the qualification of all Canadian Tour members will be extended to 2022, which means that in the upcoming Canadian Tour season this year, at least 3 Chinese mainland players will appear on the scene!
Together with Yuan Yichun, Dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun on the Korn Ferry Tour, the Chinese golfers chasing the PGA Tour have gradually formed a "group army". I believe that this kind of unswerving efforts will surely bear fruit on the highest stage of PGA TOUR.
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