Laundry list of thanks
PGA Tour rookie Suh arrives at tourney full of gratitude, confidence
After chatting in the players’ lounge Monday afternoon at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, golfer Justin Suh was off to do laundry.
The PGA Tour rookie calls the chore “calming.” Most regard it as a necessary evil. No one would view it as glamorous.
Well familiar with the toil of professional golf, Suh has “laundry day” down to a fine art.
“I basically live in a suitcase the entire year,” he said. “You have a limited amount of clothes. If you don’t do laundry quick enough, it wrinkles — which screws you up for the whole week.
“You want to be able to do it fast, efficiently and make sure you take it out and fold it really quick.”
Suh’s rise to the game’s upper ranks has been anything but swift and at times a bit messy.
But the 25-year-old will tee it up Thursday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with plenty of gratitude, determination and confidence.
Suh was the 54-hole leader during this past week’s Honda Classic before settling for a fifthplace tie. The highlight was a hole-out eagle during Saturday’s third round from 152 yards on the 12th hole. The overall performance was further validation for the reigning player of the year from the Korn Ferry Tour, professional golf ’s version of Triple A.
Injuries and inconsistency pushed Suh into the shadows after a stellar college career at USC. He had seven wins and set the school-record scoring average to become world’s top-ranked amateur for six months in 2018-19.
When he turned pro, Suh joined the star-studded 2019 class featuring Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolfe. While the trio immediately thrived on the PGA Tour, Suh scrambled for playing opportunities where he could find them.
Success as an amateur earned him some sponsor’s exemptions into tournaments. Monday’s qualifiers were Suh’s other avenue.
Those pressure-packed 18 holes often ended in disappointment. He did, however, survive qualifying for 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where Suh missed the cut.
“It was a long road,” he recalled. “For a long time, I didn’t get out of any Mondays. We had to keep trying, keep trying. You have a one good day; you can play the whole week. So it’s weird when you’re, ‘OK, I might have to be here another week or fly back on a Tuesday morning and Monday night.’’ ”
Agent Peter Webb ironed out the travel details to allow Suh to sort out his golf game. In 2022, the pieces began to fall into place during a full season on the Korn Ferry Tour featuring 10 top-10s in 24 starts and a victory at the season-ending KFT Championship.
Despite his recent success, Suh — who is No. 110 in the world rankings — received a sponsor’s exemption into this week’s 120-player field.
He might not need another one if he can maintain his current trajectory. Suh credits his rise to iron play, putting and on-course strategy based on statistics culled by USC’s former head coach Chris Zambri, whose ball-striking analytics are featured in Scott Fawcett’s app, DECADE.
“Me and my caddie [Ryan Jamison] use it pretty religiously on the golf course,” Suh said. “It tells you what’s the right play; this is where you need to hit it. Golf is a game of misses. That keeps the game a lot more simple.
“It can get pretty confusing at times.”
Suh’s early struggles were a head-scratcher to the golf world.
A member of the winning 2018 Palmer Cup team, Suh played Bay Hill as an amateur in 2019 when his professional success seemed inevitable. Looking back, Suh’s story unfolded as it was destined.
“I still knew I needed to get a little bit better, a little more consistent,” he said. “You learn and adapt. For me I definitely needed that learning curve in professional golf.”