AVONDALE, La. – Seung-Yul Noh curbed a bizarre trend Sunday on the 2013-14 PGA Tour: He was the first winner outside of the United States and Australia.
The 22-year-old South Korean won by two shots at the Zurich Classic. Prior to the week, 19 of the 23 winners had been U.S.-born players; Australians (John Senden, Jason Day, Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones) comprised the other four.
Though one streak ended, another continued.
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Noh’s victory marks the 10th year in a row that a player of Korean-descent has won on the PGA Tour. In the past five years, those players have all been in their 20s (Anthony Kim, Kevin Na, John Huh, Sang-Moon Bae, Noh).
Noh, 22, is the seventh first-time winner this season, and the fourth under the age of 25, joining Harris English (24), Russell Henley (then 24) and Patrick Reed (23).
Also mentioning Rory McIlroy, 24, and Jordan Spieth, 20, in his winner’s news conference, Noh said that he needs to “try and work hard, catch up with those guys.”