Kevin Yu of Taoyuan, Taiwan won the 2024 Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. Yu needed a playoff before beating Beau Hossler of Mission Viejo, California.
Yu and Hossler both posted scores of -23 after 72 holes. Then in the first hole of the playoff, Yu posted a score of birdie, while Hossler had a score of par.
Yu had a first round score of six-under-par 66 in each of the first three rounds, and then had a score of five-under-par 67 in the fourth round. Yu had a key birdie on the 18th hole in the final round which contributed to the playoff.
Five golfers were in contention. Lucas Glover of Greenville, South Carolina, the 2009 United States Open, and Keith Mitchell of Chattanooga, Tennessee were tied for third place at -22. Alex Smalley of Rochester, New York and Bud Cauley of Daytona Beach, Florida were tied for fifth place at -21, and Daniel Berger of Plantation, Florida was all alone in seventh place at -20.
Yu and Hossler both posted the second best 72 hole score in the history of this PGA event in Jackson. The best score ever belonged to Scott Stallings of Worcester, Massachusetts, who had a score of -24 when he won the 2012 True South Classic.
Yu, who attended Arizona State University, had a prestigious amateur career. He won the gold medal for Taiwan in the boys individual event at the 2013 Asian Youth Games in Nanjing, China, and the gold medal for Taiwan in the men’s team event at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Among the teammates with Yu in Taiwan for the Asian Games was 2021 Olympic bronze medalist Cheng-tsung Pan.
