Cool Kwon ices his first tour victory

Luke Kwon knows how to adjust, on and off the golf course.

The 26-year-old American, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, triumphed in the Qinhuangdao Championship on Sunday — his first win in his eighth tournament on the PGA Tour Series-China.

Kwon’s penchant for quickly adapting to new environments no doubt contributes to his cool demeanor on the course.

He currently resides in Auckland, New Zealand, where he also lived from the ages of 2-8. He then relocated to Dallas, Texas, before moving on to the University of Oklahoma, where he played alongside current tour player Max McGreevy and Charlie Saxon, the tour’s all-time money leader.

On Sunday at Qinhuangdao Poly Golf Club in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, Kwon overcame a double bogey on the 16th by closing with back-to-back birdies to hold off Canada’s Myles Creighton and finish at 68 to secure a one-stroke victory.

“I really needed that birdie on 17. It was huge. I was feeling a bit down and was looking at a long putt from around 30 feet, but it went in,” said Kwon, who is also an avid videographer with more than 11,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

“My putting was good all week, and thankfully it saved me again today. I made some clutch putts at the end.”

American Matthew Negri, who was playing in the final group with Creighton and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Wei-hsuan, carded a 70 to share third place with Thailand’s Suteepat Prateeptienchai.

Wang started the day at the top of the leaderboard but dropped to solo fifth after a 72 in the final round.

Playing in the penultimate group, Kwon, who moved to fourth on the order of merit, started the day four shots off the lead but quickly made up ground by going 8-under through his first 13 holes.

After a bogey on 14, Kwon still held a one-shot lead before the double bogey on 16 dropped him one shot behind Creighton.

With two holes left, Kwon drained a 30-footer for birdie on 17, then birdied from seven feet on 18 while Creighton was finishing with five straight pars.

“I’m really excited and happy that it’s over,” said Kwon, who made his PGA Tour Series-China debut at the Macao Championship late last year.

“I was feeling the nerves coming down the stretch, but I couldn’t be happier with my finish. This win really means a lot to me.

“Being compared to Charlie (Saxon) is a tall task, but I wouldn’t mind copying him. He’s a good friend, and we played together a lot in college. He’s done really well here in China so hopefully I can catch him one day.”

Creighton, who finished tied for ninth last week in Beijing, was disappointed to not get the win, especially after watching his 20-foot birdie attempt on 17 lip out of the cup.

“That was one of the best putts I hit all week and it never looked like it was going to miss, but it ended up catching the high side and lipped out. There’s not much more I can do than that,” said the Canadian.

“It was nice to prove to myself today that I can go out and shoot a good final round. Last week I was two back and I ended up shooting two over in the last round, so I wanted to have a better showing this time. I’m happy with how I played today.”

China’s Zhang Huilin had a strong finish, closing with a bogeyfree final round of 65 to finish in a tie for sixth, the best of any player from the Chinese mainland.

In 46 career tournaments, Zhang has 14 top-10s, including two victories.