Shanghai, China ----- San Jose State University men's golfer Sean Yu experienced the ups and downs of an even par 72 score in the first round of the 11th annual Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.
A senior on the 2019-20 Spartan team, Yu fashioned a round with four birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey on his final hole, the par 4, ninth, on the 7,041-yard Sheshan International Golf Club course. The Taipei, Taiwan native was two-over par after five holes, but hit his stride with three birdies in his next seven holes to go one-under par. Yu was two-under with a hole remaining and finished at level par. He played the four par-5 holes one-under par and the four par-3 holes one–under par, too.
The Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship takes the top 120 amateur players from 42 members of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation. Each country, territory, island or province member is allowed a minimum of two entries based on the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Yu, the first known San Jose State player to compete in this international championship, has a current WAGR of 403, second among Chinese Taipei male amateurs.
The 72-hole tournament consists of four rounds of 18 holes each day. The field will be trimmed to the top-60 and ties after 36 holes. The tournament champion receives an automatic invitation to The Masters at Augusta, Ga., in 2020, and to the 2020 Open Championship in Royal St. George, Scotland.
When Yu finished his 18 holes, he was four strokes behind four players that finished with four-under par 68's. Live scoring is here.
