Suh tries to join 2019 classmates with win

If you tune in to the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship this week, listen closely and don’t be alarmed if you hear a knocking sound.

It’s only Justin Suh banging on the door to join the rest of his fellow class of 2019 rookies at the adult table.

Suh, a 23-year-old San Jose native, got off to a hot start Thursday morning at Corales Golf Club in the Dominican Republic with an opening-round 5-under 67. When he walked off the course, the 2019 USC graduate was tied for fourth and in position to contend for his first victory on Tour.

If Suh were to win, he’d become the fourth member of his loaded 2019 rookie class to do so, joining the “Big 3” of Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Viktor Hovland. Morikawa most recently won the class’ first major at the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. He also claimed the

Workday Charity Open earlier this summer in a playoff against Justin Thomas and won last year’s Barracuda Championship. Wolff took down Morikawa and 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau at the 2019 3M Open while Hovland, a teammate of Wolff ’s at Oklahoma State, won the 2019 Puerto Rico Open.

“Yeah, they took off,” Suh said of his fellow 2019 rookies. “They really got their game together just right off the bat turning pro. Unfortunately, on the first few starts that I had I was facing a wrist injury and just kind of had to battle back. Kind of changed my swing a little bit just so I wouldn’t have to face that anymore.

“But yeah, it’s really awesome seeing the guys I was playing with in college winning majors and competing in majors,” he added. “Matt just finishing second at the U.S. Open and Collin winning the PGA. I played with Collin a couple weeks ago and got him in an 18-hole match, so the game’s there, it’s just a matter of putting it together at a tournament.”