Louisiana in the southern United States can be regarded as a major "blessed land" for Chinese golfers.
In 2008, Liang finished 12th at the New Orleans Classic in the state's largest city, the first time a Chinese mainland player to reach the top 30 on the PGA Tour.
In 2017 and 2019, Zhang Xinjun, who competed on the Korn Ferry Tour, won the second and third places at the Louisiana Open.
At that time, just into 2022, on Saturday, March 19, replaced by China's Golden Flower Fawei, 23-year-old beauty golfer Wang Xinying won the LPGA third-tier wapt tour Louisiana Open with an advantage and won the first championship in the United States.
Champion: Yuan Yechun
Just a day later, the bigger surprise came at another stadium, a 90-minute drive away. At the Louisiana Open, which ended in the early hours of this morning, Yuan Yichun relied on the birdie of the overtime game to beat the American star and former world amateur champion Peter Uihlein to win the first championship trophy of his four-year PGA TOUR second division career!
This is also yuan Yechun's first professional tour victory since he turned professional in 2018! In July 2018, at the age of 21, he won the professional championship at the PGA TOUR China Championship in Qingdao, but Yuan Yechun retained his amateur status in order to represent China at the Asian Games in Jakarta. At the Shaanxi National Games last September, although he won a weighty individual gold medal for the Hainan team, it was not a professional champion with a world ranking point certification.
In 2018, Yuan Yechun, a 21-year-old amateur, won the Qingdao Championship
In fact, as early as September 2018, in the Suzhou Open, the professional debut after the Asian Games, Yuan Yichun had the opportunity to win the championship. Unfortunately, he was counterattacked by Korean Canadian player Richard Zheng on the last hole, and unfortunately finished second. Since then, Yuan Yichun has survived from the age of 21 to 25 for a "first professional victory", waiting for 75 professional games, including 59 light tour matches - during which he has been runner-up in the light tour as many as 4 times, ranking third twice! In 2022 alone, he created two great opportunities to win the championship in the Bahamas and Panama, but unfortunately failed.
Even last night, when the Louisiana Open final kicked off, the golf god did not show much sign of favoring Dalian's new star. After 54 holes, Yuan yechun was only tied for 7th, five strokes behind the leader Ulain, and was scheduled to start in the leading group 6 times on Sunday. For most of the final round, it was two Americans — Ullyan and Trevor Werbylo — who alternately led the way...
However, with Yuan Yechun catching four birdies in a row on the 7-10th hole, he began to quickly close the gap with the leading group, and when he shot the 7th bird of the day on the 15th hole, he was only two strokes away from the top of the table, Webaylo! The latter then exploded a double bogey on par4's 13th hole and suffered another penalty on the final hole, sending Yuan Yichun to the lead while also taking the lead in the championship race.
Yuan Yichun, who finished the race an hour early, waited for the leading group results
At this time, as Ulain made up for the birdie on the penultimate 2nd hole, he and Yuan Yechun's results also came to -14, and the game will be decided with extra holes! On the first hole of the playoff, both successfully went up twice, facing the 8-foot birdie push – the winning opportunity he had been waiting for for four years – Yuan Yechun held his breath and hit a hit! Ullyan, who has a better ball position, can only watch painfully as the ball brushes past the hole cup 6 feet away...
Another Chinese king of the PGA TOUR Ii was born! Yuan Yichun thus became the third Chinese mainland player to win the Korn Ferry International Tour after Dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun, and the fifth victory won by Chinese on the Light Tour!
"Once I push to win this kind of ball, I often imagine this scene in practice, to practice my putter. It felt good to have the opportunity to advance today and win the game! The 25-year-old Dalian star said after the game.
This is also the second professional victory won by a Chinese male player in 2022 after Wu Ashun won the Kenya Open at the DP World Tour two weeks ago – if together with Lin Xiyu's LPGA seven days ago, Chinese golfers will continue the collective blowout of the Year of the Tiger in March! Coincidentally, Wu Ashun won the round in the African arena after falling behind by 4 strokes, and now Yuan Yichun has completed an even more amazing 5-stroke counterattack, which has also set a record for the number of reversals in the new season's Light Tour.
An even more amazing coincidence is that the day after the final (March 21), Yuan Yichun will celebrate his 25th birthday. In September 2018, when he served as a caddy and helped his girlfriend Luo Ying win the CLPGA Tieling Longshan Challenge, it happened to be the day after the latter's 25th birthday!
In Louisiana, Luo Ying, who is now Yuan Yechun's wife, witnessed the victory of her lover next to the green of Cave 18. "My wife always says that the birthday week of the game, the luck will be very good. So I've been very trusting of her this week. After pushing the champion forward, Yuan Yechun and Luo Ying passionately embraced each other to celebrate the bitter victory, "Although I was still a few shots behind in the final round, I have not given up. Seeing her on the sidelines gave me a lot of confidence and perseverance. ”
Yuan Yechun hugged his wife Luo Ying to celebrate the victory
A 14-point Light Tour trophy, which allowed Yuan Yechun's world ranking to soar to a career-high of 177th, is only 23 seats away from Wu Ashun, and is expected to regain the throne of "China's First Brother" - this is also the first time since January 17, 2021 (Li Haotong 177/ Zhang Xinjun 200) that two five-star red flags have appeared at the same time in the world's top 200!
Winning the championship also earned Yuan the biggest bonus check in his life: $135,000 (about 858,000 yuan). But what is crucial is that the 500 rich light patrol points exchanged by the champion have allowed Yuan Yichun, who has entered the top five in 5 games in the opening season, to accumulate 853.333 points in the season - not only ranking first in the light tour, but also greatly surpassing the "top 25 safety line" of 774-776 points in the regular season in the past season! This means that Yuan Yechun has locked up a place in advance to qualify for the 2022-23 PGA Tour season 5 months in advance, and will become the third PGA TOUR member from Chinese mainland in history after Dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun!
The biggest dream of entering the PGA Tour is basically completed, but for Yuan Yechun, he obviously has new goals.
"The primary goal this year is to finish in the top 25 on points. Then a higher goal is to reach first place in the total number of points on the Glorious Tour and then qualify for the PGA Tour throughout the year. In an online interview with domestic media earlier this month, Yuan Yichun once said, "I am still quite confident in myself this year, and all kinds of training and competitions are established plans and schedules." So I just need to be myself, control a good mentality, and I think there is a good chance. ”
As he said, the first victory of the Light Patrol is only a starting point. Judging from the past experience of the outstanding players of the Light Tour, in the next season, for Yuan Yichun, there are at least three major stage goals to impact:
1. Three wins to the PGA Tour
Anyone who wins 3 regular season titles on a one-season Light Tour can immediately qualify for PGA Tour membership and be promoted directly to the next week's PGA Tour instead of waiting until next season – this is the biggest benefit of PGA TOUR II: the Three-win promotion!
Pereira was the lucky one to rise to the PGA Tour in a three-win instant
It sounds like it doesn't seem to be clear, just imagine that the light tour only has 23 regular season games in a year, 3 wins, which is equivalent to winning the championship almost every 7 weeks, and the difficulty can be imagined. However, since the establishment of the "three-win system" in 1997, 12 players have relied on the "hat-trick" of the light tour championship to qualify for an immediate appearance on the PGA Tour. One of the toughest is 2001, which created 3 "three-win direct promotion players" in one year!
The most recent "lucky one" was last year's Chilean Mito Pereira. However, last season's light tour adopted a "two-year-in-one" New Year's Eve format, and the difficulty of accumulating three wins was half as easy as yuan Yechun today. However, for Yuan Yechun, there are still 17 games left before the end of the regular season in August, as long as he can continue the raw state of the beginning of the season, win two more championships, and instantly become an PGA Tour player, for the current light tour leader, it is not a fool's dream.
2. Light Tour Year-End Ball King = PGA Tour Full Card
The Light Tour generates 50 places each year to upgrade the PGA Tour, including the top 25 in the regular season standings and the top 25 in the three playoffs. Yuan Yechun's current points have allowed him to lock in one of the 25 tickets for the regular season promotion in advance, but this does not guarantee that he will be able to participate in the PGA Tour next season.
In 2017, Zhang Xinjun and Dou Zecheng were promoted to PGA Tour members
According to the PGA Tour's membership eligibility, the members of the Light Tour graduates are "Category 26", ranking in the top 125 of the Federal Cup (Category 20), and after the last PGA Tour top ten (Category 25) and other categories - this means that in every PGA Tour, more than 150 people are ranked ahead of the Light Tour graduates - unless these people quit, the Light Tour promoted players have the opportunity to participate. In other words, this is really just a PGA Tour "half card".
Within the nearly 50 light tour graduates, they must also be ranked according to the point ranking of the regular season + playoffs. Ranked higher, with a high chance of qualifying for the PGA Tour, relying on the latter, the chances of participation are probably not excellent. Moreover, this ranking is not fixed, and every almost a month and a half, there will be multiple "reshuffles" according to the PGA TOUR Federal Cup standings, such as the most recent one, after the Genesis Invitational in February, American player Cameron Young relied on an excellent performance at the beginning of the season, including a PGA Tour runner-up, jumping from the bottom of the ranking to re-ranking 1st place, and then enjoying the highest priority ranking to ensure the number of multiple games.
To avoid this "precarious" ranking, a light tour player must win the "year-end ball king" - that is, the first place in the combined total points of the regular season + 3 playoffs. If you are crowned first in total Light Tour points and promoted to the PGA Tour, you will enjoy a separate membership "Category 23", which will be ranked much higher than the other 49 Light Tour graduates, equivalent to obtaining a PGA Tour "Full Card" qualification.
3. Grand Slam + Player Tournament Qualification
And once you finish first in the Overall Light Tour standings, you will also receive many "benefits" of the PGA Tour, including the next year's flagship "Fifth Grand Slam" - the players' championship qualification!
The Light Tour King will go straight to the 2023 U.S. Open in Los Angeles
In the latest policy announced by the USGA (American High School Association) in January this year, the first person who ranks first in the total points of the regular season + playoffs of the Light Tour will also be able to get tickets to the 2023 US Open and win a Grand Slam!
Historically, there was once a Chinese player who was ranked first after the regular season of the Light Tour – he was Zhang Xinjun. In 2019, relying on the excellent performance of two wins in a single season, Zhang Xinjun won the title of "Ball King" in the regular season, but unfortunately, in the next 3 playoff games, he failed to keep the lead, and was surpassed by Scotty Schaufler, who had not yet seen the sharp edge, who was honored as the year-end ball king of the Light Tour, and then won the PGA Tour full card, and gradually gained a foothold in the first level, until he became the world's top ten PGA Tour champion player...
On the other hand, Zhang Xinjun, although he has been leading the light tour standings for most of the season, because of the "missed hand" in the last 3 games, he had no choice but to miss many "benefits" such as the light tour king, that is, the PGA Tour full card, player championship qualification and so on... Fortunately, in the following season, Shaanxi celebrities seized the limited opportunity to enter the top 125 of the Federation Cup, and won back the full card qualification and player championship tickets one by one with actual performance.
For Yuan Yechun, the championship is just the beginning
It can be seen that Yuan Yechun's first crown is only a milestone in his career. Can he reach the height of Zhang Xinjun that year, and then go to the next level, get the PGA Tour full card, and qualify for the first Grand Slam of his career... In the coming months, Dalian Boy will continue to challenge the highlights of the Light Tour.
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