Going with the flow, Brandon Wu fires 67 at Maridoe in return to action

The coronavirus pandemic and its affect on professional golf couldn’t have come at a worse time for Brandon Wu.

But the former Stanford star, who less than a year ago led the Cardinal to the NCAA title, has a simple mantra: Go with the flow.

After qualifying for both summer Opens and helping the U.S. win the Walker Cup last year, Wu turned pro and made a splash in his PGA Tour pro debut, finishing T-17 at the Houston Open. He has made the cut in all four of his Tour starts this season, including most recently at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in early February.

With 72 non-member FedExCup points in his back pocket, Wu was hoping to do what Viktor Hovland did last season: earn enough points to get into the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and earn his PGA Tour card that way. (Hovland has already won a Tour event.)

Now, though, with the KFT canceling its postseason and instead creating a mega-season that won’t end until August 2021, Wu will have to wait longer to have a crack at reaching the Tour. 

And he is OK with that.

“There are bigger things going on right now than professional golf,” Wu said. “You can be disappointed or frustrated with it, but at the end of the day it’s not going to change anything. I’m just going to take what’s presented and keep going.”

Wu has a sponsor exemption into the TPC Colorado Championship on July 1-4, the fourth KFT event back. As a conditional member, Wu can secure more playing time on the developmental circuit with a strong week.

If Tuesday was any indication, he is more than capable. Despite taking about a month off because of the pandemic, Wu recently got back to practicing at Trinity Forest, his new home course after he moved to Dallas following the Pebble Beach event.

But he fired a 5-under 67, making just one bogey and missing just one green, in Tuesday’s opening round of the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational 2.0, where he co-leads with Scottie Scheffler and Ryan Palmer.

“I haven’t competed in a while, so just tried to play smart and make my round stress-free, which was all I was looking for,” said Wu, who started 4 under through seven holes. “It was a little rusty, for sure, but I do already feel like I’ve got it back to where I left off. I’m going to keep trying to build off this and peak when the Korn Ferry Tour starts back up again.”