WESTON, Florida – The Yaun family certainly has another generation of greatgolfing to be proud of.

Back in the 1970s Radford Yaun burst on the scene of top amateur golf by winning both the New York State Junior Amateur Championship and the New York State Amateur Championship.

Following graduation from Liberty High in 1974, Radford went on to a prolific college golfing career at Jacksonville University, where he was team caption from sophomore through senior years and won six collegiate tournaments as well as qualifying for the NCAA Division 1 National Championship.

Fast forward about five decades and now Radford and his wife Meredith, a very prolific golfer in her own right, are following their son Jonathan around the course as he moves up the chart on the world ranking of amateur golfers.

Jonathan, of Minneola, Florida, was the top-ranked player in the Atlantic Sun Conference while going 48-0 against league opponents as a sophomore at Liberty University.

Jonathan is now a senior at Liberty U and is showing that he too can win on the big stage.

Just last week, February 28 through March 3, Jonthan competed in – and won - the PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying event at Mission Inn Resort and Club in Weston, FL.

Tournament results

Report written and photo by PGA TOUR Canada staff

The final round of the second PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying event proved a difficult one for all involved, but amateur Jonathan Yaun was able to battle through the windy conditions and walk away the clear victor. 

Yaun fired an even-par 72 Friday, giving the 22-year-old Liberty University senior a five-stroke victory over a trio of players at Mission Inn Resort and Club. His win secured him membership for the entire 2023 PGA TOUR Canada season.

John Pak, the former Florida State University standout and top-ranked PGA TOUR University player in 2021, was the co-leader after round two, but after shooting a 4-over in the final round, tied for second with George Kneiser and Cole Bradley. 

They all finished with a 7-under 281 to also earn PGA TOUR Canada status. 

Others picking up guaranteed starts in the first half of the PGA TOUR Canada season are recent Texas Tech graduate, Kyle Hogan, who moved up one spot in the final round, to finish 6-under and alone in fifth. 

Canadian Thomas Giroux, who led Yaun by one stroke after the third round, which players completed Friday morning due to suspended play from Thursday, shot an 8-over 80 but still qualified, finishing sixth. 

Bryce Emory, Ryder Sutcliffe and Brian Richey all tied at seventh, at 3-under, while Michael Sweeney, who was an assistant pro at the Villa Roma Resort and Conference Center a few years ago, fell three positions after shooting a 3-over 75 in the final round but was able to hold on for the No. 10 spot and the coveted exemption into PGA TOUR Canada through at least the reshuffle.

But in the end, it was Yaun’s week, especially as he pulled ahead down the stretch Friday.

“I’ve won out here (before), so I just had that mentality that I could do it,” Yaun said. “Last week I played in this similar type of wind, so I thought I’d be ready for that, but I didn’t play very well. Today was really tough, I’ve never played this course in that hard of conditions.”

Yaun began his final round with a bogey-6 but bounced back on No. 2 with a birdie. He had a stretch, starting at No. 3, where he made 11 consecutive pars. Birdies and Nos. 14 and 17 offset bogeys on two of his final three holes.

The wind definitely took its toll on all the scores in the final round. The lowest score shot Friday was a 2-under 70 by Cameron Willis, who was able to make a huge jump of 25 positions up the leaderboard to finish with conditional status.

Did you know, this isn’t the first time George Kneiser has found himself tied near the top of the leaderboard at the end of a PGA TOUR Canada Qualifying event at Mission Inn? Kneiser, a native of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and a University of Wisconsin product, played in last year’s qualifier and finished 7-under and tied for eighth. He ended up securing one of the two exemptions up for grabs in a five-players-for-two-spots playoff. Kneiser earned his spot a year ago thanks, in part, to a final-round 65.

Key Information

How the  Tournament Worked

The PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamérica are international PGA TOUR-sanctioned tours that provide access to the Korn Ferry Tour and are part of the pathway to the PGA TOUR. Since its inception in 2013, the PGA TOUR Canada has held 32 Qualifying Tournaments across the U.S. and Canada. This event was the second of six PGA TOUR Canada Qualifiers scheduled prior to the 2023 season. Each qualifier is a 72-hole, no-cut event, with playoffs, if necessary, for the medalist position and for the 10th and final position available.