Zheng Yunhe steps onto the professional golf stage once again.
Highland Golf Club, nestled in the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, east of Victoria and overlooking Vancouver, hosts the Victoria Open this week. Historically a stop on the PGA Tour Canada, the event now marks the opening tournament of the PGA Tour Canada season following the merger with the PGA Tour Latin America to form PGA Tour Series – Americas.
Zheng is no stranger to pro circuits. In 2019, at age 18, he participated in two professional events in China, including one on the PGA Tour China. This year, he featured twice on the Asian Tour in Oman and Macau.
But this time is different. On Thursday, Zheng will tee it up as a professional golfer for the first time at Highland Golf Club. As one of the graduates from the PGA Tour University Class of 2023, he finished 14th in the season-long points race, securing his spot in the remainder of the PGA Tour Series – Americas schedule and a ticket to the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying Tournament next season. The recent economics graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, also marks his transition to the pro ranks in his first event after college.
An Accidental Golf Journey
Like many who stumbled upon their career paths by chance, such as accompanying friends to auditions only to become actors themselves, Zheng’s golf story is filled with serendipity. His younger sister took up the sport before him. At nine years old, Zheng started playing alongside her. Initially, he “just couldn’t get the hang of golf.” Today, while his sister has hung up her clubs, Zheng has left behind his childhood pursuits of swimming and table tennis to pursue golf more seriously.
Born in Nagoya, Japan, with ancestral roots in Tianjin, Zheng spent much of his early life in Japan. After taking up golf, his parents, hoping he would improve his Chinese, sent him back to China at age 10 to train at a junior golf center in Huangshan.
It was during a golf camp in the United States that Zheng discovered a new world. Upon returning from the camp, he realized the training environment was vastly different from what he experienced in China and Japan, and he expressed his desire to pursue golf professionally to his mother.
His parents supported his dream, and soon, Zheng found himself in Florida, far from both his birthplace and homeland, embarking on his junior golf journey overseas.
Most international teenagers learning golf in the U.S. attend golf-centric schools where they balance academic and athletic pursuits. Zheng initially spent a year at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, but then moved to Orlando, enrolling in a regular high school and practicing golf outside school hours. He lived with his cousin, with his parents distant, “barely visiting,” which meant Zheng had to navigate most challenges on his own, especially when competing in distant tournaments.
“About 60 to 70 percent of the time, I went alone,” Zheng recalled about his days competing in American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) events. While many of his peers were accompanied by parents or coaches, Zheng shuttled through airports across the U.S. independently. For a period, his aunt joined him for tournaments, but her limited English meant Zheng handled tasks like booking flights and hotels himself.
The AJGA years honed Zheng’s independence and nurtured his aspirations for a professional golf career. Mental resilience, a challenge many players confront later in life, was something Zheng dealt with from a young age.
“Playing AJGA tournaments really tested my mental strength as a teenager,” Zheng reminisced. “As a kid, you encounter various adverse situations – feeling off, not being in the right state, or dealing with physical discomfort. How do you perform at your best under those circumstances?”
Upon completing his AJGA journey, Zheng chose to attend college on the opposite side of the country from Florida, in California.
The University of California, Berkeley, a top-ranked university in the U.S., and a Division I member in the NCAA, became Zheng’s next destination.
“At the time, I wanted to experience different courses, grass types, and environments outside Florida,” Zheng explained. “Plus, I had some good friends here, and there are more Asians in California, and the food is better – a crucial factor; the overall standard of Asian food is much higher here than in Florida – so I came here.”
Thus, he joined the “Golden Bears,” becoming a junior to the likes of Collin Morikawa and Max Homa.
“I Want to Win the Masters”
At 15, Zheng received a questionnaire from an American university.
After a few successful years on the AJGA, with two titles and numerous top-10 finishes, Zheng attracted college coaches’ attention. The questionnaire included a question about his golf dreams.
“I want to win the Masters,” Zheng wrote.
In 2023, Zheng came close to realizing the starting point of that dream at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, held at Royal Melbourne. A third-round 65, the lowest round of the tournament, put him four shots ahead. However, a double bogey on the second hole of the final round led to a playoff, where he settled for a share of second place.
The Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, co-sponsored by Augusta National Golf Club, grants its winner an invitation to the Masters the following year. Guan Tianlang famously earned his Masters debut by winning the inaugural event in 2012, the same year Zheng arrived in the U.S. at age 11.
Now a professional golfer, Zheng aims to approach his dream through the PGA Tour Series – Americas, following his path from the AJGA to NCAA and the PGA Tour University program.
“Playing on the PGA Tour isn’t my ultimate goal,” Zheng said. “It’s a necessary phase on the way to winning the Masters, a more short-term target, but I don’t put too much pressure on it. The PGA Tour is a natural progression that will come in due course.”
“My dream of winning the Masters hasn’t changed since then,” the 22-year-old affirmed.
From the PGA Tour Series – Americas to the PGA Tour, a year on the Korn Ferry Tour might intervene. If all goes ideally, this would be Zheng’s trajectory in the coming years. Yet, for most players, reality often presents more ups and downs, with many spending years on the Korn Ferry Tour or toggling between it and the PGA Tour.
Zheng is confident in himself and his competitive spirit. He vividly remembers his first AJGA victory, where a poor practice round didn’t deter him from shooting a 65 on day one of the competition.
This refusal to accept defeat has been with Zheng since the beginning of his golf journey. When he started, he struggled under two coaches, one older and one younger, and felt he couldn’t grasp the game.
“That initial struggle motivated me to keep going until now,” Zheng shared.
In his first two years of college, Zheng’s tournament results were less than ideal. He didn’t chase after strong finishes, content with top-25 or top-20 placings. But entering his junior year, he felt a competitive spark ignite. Seeing Morikawa and Homa excel on the PGA Tour, Zheng consulted a sports psychologist.
“Your goal in every tournament should be to win,” the psychologist advised.
Sharing Brooks Koepka’s story, Zheng revisited the mindset that propels champions. He knew the tale but gained a fresh perspective through their discussion.
“When Koepka turned pro, he aimed for a balanced budget, to earn some prize money, so he’d constantly think about the cut line,” Zheng recounted. “When he played well, he focused on how close he was to the leader and how to win the tournament.”
Zheng began adopting the same mindset.
“When I set my sights on winning every tournament and focus on my game, ignoring factors beyond my control, I perform at my best,” Zheng said. His final two years at Berkeley saw improvements in his scoring average, and he made the All-American team in both seasons. In one tournament, he set a school record with a 16-under-par performance over three rounds, tying for third-lowest in Pac-12 Conference history and claiming his first stroke-play title in college.
With this attitude, Zheng even learned more from his appearances as an amateur in professional events. Playing alongside major champion Louis Oosthuizen in Oman earlier this year, he embraced the opportunity to learn while still aiming to compete.
Zheng knows he has gaps to bridge against seasoned professionals, particularly in technical skills and