Global pathways accelerating new Asian talents to the fore

The stars truly aligned for Asian golf during one glorious Sunday in October as three young talents — Kevin Yu of Chinese Taipei, China’s Wenyi Ding and Kaito Onishi of Japan — put an exclamation point on the importance of the various global pathways that lead to the sport’s ultimate destination, the PGA Tour.

With golf sustaining its international growth following latest data by The R&A, where Asia remained as the leading region amongst R&A affiliated regions for people engaging with the sport with a total adult engagement of 26.2 million, the multiple initiatives led by the PGA Tour are also beginning to bear its first fruits in recognizing and accelerating the careers of aspiring young stars from the Far East.

A first case in point is Kevin Yu, who proudly became the first Asian graduate of the innovative PGA Tour University program to win a PGA Tour event following his breakthrough victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship on October 6. Yu, 26, had graduated in fourth place on PGA Tour University in 2021 following a stellar amateur career at Arizona State University to earn Korn Ferry Tour status, before playing his way onto the PGA Tour in the following season by finishing 20th on the KFT points list.

Recognizing a gap that existed for non-US collegiate amateur players, the PGA Tour, along with the DP World Tour and R&A, subsequently launched the Global Amateur Pathway (GAP) earlier this year to run in parallel with PGA Tour University, and reward the top-ranked amateur with a DP World Tour card. Highly-rated Wenyi Ding of China became the first recipient of this exemption after cementing his GAP No. 1 status following a stylish victory at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan, coincidentally on the same day Yu triumphed in Mississippi.

Now, all eyes will be on Ding, whom some have touted as a potential major champion, if he will follow in Yu’s trail onto the PGA Tour via the DP World Tour route, which the top-10 players from its Race to Dubai ranking earn dual memberships on the PGA Tour annually. The young Chinese had to give up prized exemptions into next year’s Masters and The Open, but said he was confident of qualifying for those majors as