For countless golfers, the dream from the day their foot touches the fairway is to somehow achieve professional status. This lifelong ambition came to realization for Liberty senior Jonathan Yaun on March 3 as he secured his ticket to the PGA Tour Canada.
Yaun, who has been nothing but a steady competitor in his time as a Flame, earned the right to join the professional ranks with a first-place, five-stroke victory at the PGA Tour Canada qualifying event. The tournament triumph earned the senior full-season status on the tour for the upcoming 2023 season, set to begin in June.
The win was one of many that Yaun has secured over the span of his career. But while it may have seemed like any other solid outing for the ASUN stud, the victory was a testament to the faith and tranquility Yaun possesses in moments of pressure.
“The week before going to that tournament, I had my worst event of the year,” Yaun said.
Entering the Canadian Tour qualifying event, Yaun was fresh off a performance he would like to forget at the Prestige Invitational, where he shot 13-over-par, and Liberty finished 12th out of 24 teams.
What sets this 22-year-old golfer apart, however, is his ability to maintain the right headspace and never waver. Yaun approached the following week with a mindset of peace, confident that his struggles would all be for good.
“It all lined up,” Yaun said. “God made it all work out. It’s crazy how when adversity hits you in the face, when you have peace and you don’t let that dictate who you are in Christ, anything can happen. God can use it for good.”
What Yaun saw come to fruition in the qualifying event was more than a mere recovery from a poor outing at the Prestige Invitational. Rather, it was a lifetime’s worth of dedication to the game that he was raised to love.
For the native of Minneola, Florida, golf is simply in his blood. Yaun’s father, Radford Yaun, played collegiately at Jacksonville University in the mid-70s, eventually claiming a spot in the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996. Meredith Yaun, his mother, paved a path of her own in the golf world, moving on from a collegiate career at the University of Miami and Florida International to the ranks of the Ladies’ European Tour.
While other children spent their afternoons at the park, the golf course was Yaun’s playground.
“I might have been 3, 4 or 5,” Yaun said. “But sometimes they’d let me get out of the cart and start chasing them. I usually would just run after the cart, run on the greens, grab the flag for them.”
It wasn’t until the age of 7, however, that Yaun was gifted his first set of used Callaway clubs. Wide-eyed and eager to get his feet wet on the course, not much time passed before the child discovered the knack he had for the game.
“I found out really quick that I was pretty good at it,” Yaun said. “But my parents wanted me to learn the game. And so they taught me slowly and just told me to have fun. We’re not out here to try and be perfect.”
His parents emphasized pace to their child, not forcing anything out of him, but rather allowing his attachment to golf to blossom in its own time.
That time came when the 10 year old got to attend his first PGA Tour event, the Outback Steakhouse Championship, with his father by his side.
“There was this competitiveness in the game that I had never seen before,” Yaun said. “A couple of the pros came and signed my golf ball after the round, and they were so kind, so nice with their time … I was like, ‘Dad, dad, we gotta go back tomorrow. We’ve got to go back.’ So, we went back. And sure enough, after that day, in the car, I said, ‘Dad, this is something I want to do when I grow up. I want to be a professional golfer.’”
Yaun still keeps that golf ball signed by the pros, along with every signature he has received from a PGA event. And now, 13 years since seeing those professionals grace the fairway, he is bound to become a pro himself.
Yaun’s parents, of course, were overwhelmed with pride when their son claimed his spot in the professional ranks of the PGA Tour Canada.
“My parents were crying, they were ecstatic,” Yaun said. “Even though my dad was still sick, he gave me a call, and he gave me some encouragement. He said, ‘Praise the Lord.’”
Yaun was only 13 years old when he beat his father in a round for the first time. Then, at 14, he qualified for the U.S. Kids World Championship, won the Orlando region and finished first on the points list. The teen was now facing competitors from across the globe.
As the level of competition changed, however, Yaun’s parents and coaches managed to keep him grounded, not only in the game of golf but in his faith.
“I had a lot of mentors growing up that instilled in me that you’re playing this sport for more than yourself. It’s to give God the glory,” Yaun said.
Through the highs and the lows, this sentiment has never left the senior. To make one’s way to professional golf, there will inevitably be challenges. The Florida native, however, overcomes those challenges with a simple motto.
“Seeing his face, feeling his presence and trusting his love out there,” Yaun said. “It’s a great, great motto to live by and go by. If (God) is leading you and guiding you, then you’re going to have that peace under pressure.”
While much of the pressure has been lifted from Yaun’s shoulders since securing a place on the Canadian Tour, his gaze remains fixed on the closing chapter of his collegiate career. Just one tournament remains for the Flames before the ASUN Championship and a hopeful NCAA Tournament run.
“I want our team to have some success this postseason,” Yaun said. “I think we can make it very far in match play and have a chance to win this thing … Let’s go do something special.”
When the next phase arrives, however, Yaun doesn’t envision much to change. For the 22-year-old golfer, his intentions on the course remain unchanged since the days he was trotting around the greens with his parents.
“I’m humbled by the opportunities I’ve been able to have at Liberty, and it’s all just by the grace of God,” Yaun said. “I just want to do it for God’s glory and want to do it for him. And whatever he has for me next in the journey I have with this game, I’m just gonna walk in the Spirit and do it by his power and his might.”
Cory is the sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on Twitter
