Justin

Suh

The first-timer has no history at TPC Sawgrass but is sticking to the basics and it paid off on day one. He’s piped 11-of-16 greens, gaining 2.5 strokes on approach along the way. The highlight came just before the horn blew, as he stuffed his approach at the par-5 16th so he’ll be standing over a 28-foot eagle attempt when play resumes on Friday morning. Speaking on the state of his game he had this to say, “I’d say it’s been trending up in the last few events, which is nice, especially at this time of the year for tournaments.” The youngster has top 25s in three of his last four starts and could be ready for his big breakout on the big stage.

Suh was the 36-hole leader this week after a 66-64 start but couldn’t find that same magic over the weekend (70-71). Today, he pelted 14 GIR but gave 3.5 shots back with the putter. Despite the sour finish, this will still go in the books as his personal best on the PGA TOUR, previously a T8 at the 2020-21 Shriners. The talented youngster will likely add more big finishes to his resume before the season’s over.

The USC product is making his course and tournament debut this week. “I didn’t even get to see No. 14 to 18 yesterday. We were in the pro-am, and it was delayed quite a bit. We got called off the golf course, and I just took a cart in, and I thought it honestly just helped because I didn’t get to see the holes, and when I did see them today, it was all about just hitting the number that me and my caddie kind of figured out. I thought I just kept it simple.” He kept it simiple with 10-of-14 fairways hit (T24) and 15 GIR (T3). From there, he gained 2.5 strokes putting to seal the deal. Suh is currently just one shot off the leaders at the top of the board. He’s found just one top 25 in 12 starts this season.

Suh was arriving off a T20 at the Farmers Insurance Open but couldn’t keep the momentum rolling in his home state. He started at Spyglass Hill this week and swallowed a triple-bogey 8 on his second hole of the day, the par-5 11th. He squared one more bogey at the 16th before a par at the 17th. He was 4-over thru 8 at the time of his WD. Suh started the week at 107th in the early FedExCup race.

Suh started his week at the Plantation Course and took advantage of the easier, par-72 layout. “We hit the ball really well. In the beginning the first couple holes it was tough to adjust to the Plantation’s greens. I kept on hitting them like five feet short and then I would try to adjust and I’d hit it eight feet by on the second hole. So that was a little tough in the beginning, but luckily I was able to hit it close enough to the point where I could give myself looks at birdies, which got me, which got me a lot of birdie chances.” Steady striking was the recipe for success, as alluded to. Suh piped 12-of-14 fairways and landed 16 GIR. Suh has nothing better than a T29 finish in six starts this fall but he showcased his upside potential last year on the Korn Ferry Tour where he bagged 10 top 10s in 24 events played.

Suh was on the minds of many as someone who would make a splash on the Tour the season. In round one he was solid. He played well enough to finish under par, yet it he needed to either replicate of improve on that round on Friday to make the cut.

In round two he only hit 11/18 GIR. He lost -4 strokes on approach. Finishing 36-35 after carding five bogeys. It’s back to the drawing board for Suh.

Suh made it look easy this week on a difficult Victoria National layout, particularly on the back nine. The USC standout swallowed just three bogeys all week and none of them came on the homeward nine. Steady striking was the name of the game for Suh who led the field in GIR (85%) which led to 24 birdies by week’s end. Suh had already punched his ticket to the PGA TOUR via the season-long points list but this win vaults him into the number spot which gives him fully exempt status next season and a spot in the 2023 U.S. Open and PLAYERS Championship fields. The former World No. 1 amateur is starting to live up to his potential and this might just be the start of a great career.

The two-time All-American at USC struggled out of the gate when he turned pro but later revealed he had an unfortunate injury that he was playing through. Feeling healthy by the end of 2020, he popped with a pair of top 15s on the PGA TOUR but failed to convert that into any long-term status. His end-of-season record was 6-for-11 with a trio of top 25s. That earned him a seat in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals where he went 2-for-3 with paydays of T48 and T64. Suh then finished T39 at Q-School which will earn him a “healthy number of starts in the first part of the KFT season”. The 24-year-old should be one of the favorites to earn a PGA TOUR card for the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season but he will likely be trying to play his way up in class even sooner.

The 24-year-old Suh, a two-time All-American at USC, carded a bogey-free, 8-under 64 at Windsor Golf Club outside Santa Rosa, Calif., to share medalist honors with Norway’s Kris Ventura. “To go bogey-free at Windsor was just an accumulation of solid approach shots and being fairly conservative off the tee,” said Suh, who was the only qualifier to go bogey free. “The course wasn’t very long so I knew if I was in the fairway, I could give myself a good shot at birdie each hole.” Suh, who represented the U.S. in the 2018 Palmer Cup, came into Monday off a brief break following his T-64 in the KFT Championship and a missed cut at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship the week prior. “I actually took it easy this off-week and came into this Monday with a fresh mindset,” he told PGATour.com. “Before this week, I flew to California after missing the cut in the second event of Korn Ferry Finals to work with my coach (Bill Johnson) all day Saturday, so we were able to figure some stuff out. Since then, I’ve been diligent to just practice what we’d worked on.” Last season, Suh made six cuts in 11 events with three top-25 results, with the most recent being a T-11 at the Zurich Classic. He was six shots off the 54-hole lead at Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship before a final-round 1-over 73 dropped him to T-14, and Suh finished T-8 the following week at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.