ASU Golf: Chun An "Kevin" Yu Prepares for the 120th U.S. Open Next Week
ASU athletics fans have plenty to be excited about in the upcoming weeks. What has been an insane month for sports just keeps becoming more and more exciting. There are now six golfers expected to represent the maroon and gold, or #TourU, next weekend in the U.S. Open. Senior Chun An "Kevin" Yu will be competing for the third straight year. Kevin goes into the tournament ranked as the third best amateur in the world, according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Kevin's strategy heading into year three on the Open is simple, "I was pretty nervous, but now I've played a couple of times at the U.S. Open. I feel really comfortable now trying to play my own golf and trying to do my own thing. And, it's just golf, you know, just do my own thing and hopefully do great."
His Open caddie, ASU Golfing Head Coach Matt Thurmond, also gave his input on how to be successful on the Open, "You'll see this week the rough is going to be high and so how you can score out of the rough will be a vital, vital skill. It's taking your lumps knowing that you can't go for this once you're in the rough, putting yourself in position, finding a way to make a par. So it's a little different mentality there."
ASU's golf program has been a golden prong on sparky's pitchfork for decades. In the 2019-2020 season, no school's alumni have earned more money on the tour, a combined amount over 200 million(!), and the program currently top-10 for the entire NCAA. The six players Kevin will be playing against encompass six decades of Sun Devils in the U.S. Open. Starting with Phil Mickelson in the 1980s and continuing with Kevin's 2021 season.
"You're going to see Phil Mickelson at age 50 out there; he played great there before. And you're going to have Jon Rahm, who's kind of the hot guy now and guys in between Chez [Reavie] and Matt Jones and Paul Casey. So we have this range of people." Thurmond added, "Chang Kim was here practicing last week, and we talked about maybe playing a practice round with him, Sun Devil. And you don't know him as well because he plays on the Japanese tour. But he's a top 100 player in the world right now."
Whether or not Kevin will play a practice round with any of them before the Open is still to be determined because of COVID precautions.
Previously, Kevin has played with the former Devils and said about his time with them, "it was just amazing by seeing Phil's show gains. Just unbelievable. And then John's ball-striking was just phenomenal. And, you know, you always learn something from those guys."
"It's pretty cool to see the legacy continue and is going to keep going and that we're all in a way connected through a legacy of excellent golf on the biggest stage," said coach Thurmond.