China's Carl Yuan channels creativity, secures first PGA TOUR card

Carl Yuan isn’t beholden to conventional wisdom.

He might warm up by hitting one-handed chips backwards, or intentionally shanking shots on the range.

He might approach a greenside chip with a full-swing flop. He might overextend a follow-through, just for effect.

“I just like to explore my way around the green,” Yuan explains.

The mindset extends beyond golf. On Yuan’s recruiting trip to the University of Washington, the accomplished junior table tennis player challenged his future teammates in ping-pong.

He used a cell phone as his paddle. He won.

“He just crushed them,” recalls Matt Thurmond, who recruited Yuan to the University of Washington. “He put on a clinic in table tennis.”

The China native with one of golf’s most creative minds is now headed to the PGA TOUR.

With a T7 finish at last week’s Club Car Championship at The Landings Club, Yuan crossed the Korn Ferry Tour’s fail-safe Points threshold to secure his first PGA TOUR card via the Regular Season Points List.

Earlier this season, Yuan earned his first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS; he has also recorded a T2 at The Panama Championship and T3 at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay.

The results ensure Yuan’s first trip to the PGA TOUR. He’ll receive his card upon the conclusion of the Korn Ferry Tour Regular Season-ending Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna in August.

“It’s going to be a new experience,” reflected Yuan on Sunday afternoon at the Club Car Championship. “New courses, new challenges … maybe pair up with some big names, learn from them.

“Everybody has contributed a lot, including my coach, wife, caddie, parents, friends. Everybody surrounding me, making me who I am. A big thank-you to all of them that make me where I am now.”

An imminent TOUR card marks the culmination of a lifelong dream that was fostered as a kid in Dalian, China. Yuan was first introduced to the game at age 9, when he would join his dad at the course – “I wasn’t even playing; I would just tag along with him.”

Yuan began to play at age 10 but kept it casual, maybe a round or two a week, paired with a trip to the driving range. He didn’t have a coach at first, but as he became a teenager, he started to understand the joy that golf brings him, recognizing his innate talent and deciding that he wanted to pursue “a bigger goal.”

With his parents’ blessing, Yuan moved from China to Florida and enrolled at the Eagles Dream Golf Academy and Lake Mary Preparatory School. He honed his game with Sean Foley, among others, and developed his competitive instincts via the junior golf circuit.

Thurmond remembers the first time he came across Yuan on the recruiting trail, at an American Junior Golf Association event in Bend, Oregon.

“It was remarkable how accurate he was,” recalled Thurmond. “He probably hit 15 or 16 greens, hit them close with a variety of irons.”

Ranked as a top-25 junior prospect, Yuan accepted a scholarship to the University of Washington and moved to the Pacific Northwest.

While in Seattle, Yuan also met his now-wife Cathy Luo Ying, a professional golfer who played for the University of Washington women’s golf team.

“She was a better golfer than me in college, it felt like,” said Yuan, noting the Washington women’s team’s 2016 national title.

After a successful three-year stint as a Husky, he departed post-junior year and played a season on PGA TOUR Series-China – winning the Qingdao Championship in his third start, competing as an amateur. (He waited to turn professional until that summer’s Asian Games, in which he helped lead China to a silver medal.)

In accordance with his dream of playing the PGA TOUR, Yuan headed back to the United States to pursue Korn Ferry Tour membership via Q-School.

A pivotal moment occurred at Second Stage. Competing at Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, Florida, Yuan stood four strokes outside the number to advance with four holes remaining.

He made four consecutive birdies to advance on the number, earning Korn Ferry Tour membership for 2019.

Sunday afternoon, Yuan thought back to that moment, noting its significance in his journey.

“Without one of those birdies, I probably wouldn’t be here at this moment,” Yuan said. “I know that if I’ve got holes left, there are more chances for birdies, and I’m not quitting until the scorecard is turned in. I took that same mentality into the last couple years, and it really paid off … knowing that I have the ability to finish strong.

“Even though I was behind, I never gave up on hope, and I’ve been able to grind through a lot of tournaments to have high finishes.”

Yuan made just 11 of 23 cuts in his rookie Korn Ferry Tour season, but he maintained full status with a No. 59 finish on the Points List, propelled by a solo third showing at The Panama Championship.

He took further strides in the 2020-21 combined season, recording three runner-up finishes and maintaining a spot inside The 25 for the majority of the campaign.

Beginning in late June 2021, though, Yuan took a leave of absence from the Korn Ferry Tour to represent his home country in the Olympic Men’s Golf Competition and then compete in China’s National Games.

He missed the final six events of the Regular Season, as well as the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals, knowing this would delay his PGA TOUR ambitions by a year.

Thurmond wasn’t surprised to hear of this. He thought back to a time in college, when Yuan informed the team that he would be away for three weeks in September to compete in the National Games.

“Carl is an extraordinarily loyal person,” Thurmond said. “He’s loyal to his friends, his family and his country.”

After the Korn Ferry Tour’s lengthy offseason, Yuan picked up right where he left off and immediately implemented an attack mindset in competition. Missed cuts didn’t bother him; he shook them off to contend in the very next event.

A missed cut in Abaco was followed by a T2 in Panama. A missed cut in Bogota was followed by a victory at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open. A missed cut at the Lake Charles Championship was followed by a TOUR card-clinching T7 in Savannah.

A creative approach, coupled with the confidence to respond from adversity time and again? It’s a #TOURBound formula.

“He has an incredible work ethic,” Thurmond said, “so he’s willing to go longer and harder than most people. He is extremely independent in his thinking; he may take information from lots of different people, but at the end of the day, he’s got a great sense of what he needs to do for him, and he’s not looking for approval or confirmation from the people around him.

“He charts his own course, and it takes a massive amount of confidence to live your life that way.”

Thurmond, who now coaches at Arizona State, recently spoke with his team about the importance of matching personality with one’s playing style.

Yuan is the embodiment of that, Thurmond said.

“He’s extraordinarily independent in how he views things,” Thurmond said. “He says things differently, he thinks of things differently, and so he plays golf differently.

“He just loves the game, he loves to practice, and he does it in his own unique way and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. You’d have to say, ‘Carl, can you just hit some stock shots, easy chips, a stock 8-iron?’ because he was always trying different crazy lob shots and bouncer shots, different shot shapes and hitting it as hard as he can.

“But it’s fun to coach someone who loves the game that much.”

PGA TOUR fans will have fun watching Yuan compete, as well.