Yuan soars to new heights with career-best birdie blitz
China’s Carl Yuan Yechun fired a career-best 10 birdies en route to a tied-seventh finish in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Club Car Championship in Savannah, Georgia on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Yuan was rocksolid with his game as he made five birdies on both the front and back nines, including five consecutive gains from holes 2 to 6, to return the day’s joint lowest score of 8-under 64.
He finished the week with a 14-under 274 total, three shots behind winner Adam Svensson.
Yuan’s compatriot Marty Dou Zecheng, who started the final round one shot off the lead, also finished tied-seventh after a closing 72. After making three birdies against a lone bogey, Dou, who is a two-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour and played one season on the PGA Tour, stayed in contention throughout the back nine but a costly double bogey on the par-3 17th snuffed out his title hopes.
It was Yuan’s first top-10 of 2021 following a tied-12 at last week’s Louisiana Open, and moved him up six places to 44th on the tour’s regular-season points list.
Dou, who shot earlier rounds of 68, 68 and 66, also notched his first top-10 of the year and moved up four rungs to 34th place in the latest rankings.
The top 25 players at the end of the regular season will earn PGA Tour cards, with another 25 cards available in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which is a series of three tournaments that concludes in September with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
After birdies on the last two holes of regulation, Svensson birdied the second playoff hole and defeated overnight leader Max McGreevy of the United States.
It was Svensson’s second victory on the Korn Ferry Tour victory as he became the first Canadian to win on the tour since Michael Gligic in 2019.
Americans George Cunningham, Shad Tuten, Brett Coletta and Taylor Moore tied for third.