Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Most PGA Tour golfers played in college.
- Tiger Woods won the 1996 NCAA Championship at Stanford and was named
Collegiate Player of the Year.
- Phil Mickelson won 16 tournaments at Arizona State and joined Gary Hallberg,
David Duval and Bryce Molder as the only four-time, first-team All-Americans
in golf history.
- Rickie Fowler, Charles Howell III, Hunter Mahan, Edward Loar, Michael
Bradley and Scott Verplank all attended golf powerhouse Oklahoma State.
- Jason Dufner was an honorable-mention All-America in 1997 at Auburn despite
not picking up a club until he was 15.
John Huh lacks similar credentials. He didn't play in college. In fact, he
barely went to college. Yet he is your 2012 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.
Huh's route to PGA prominence has been circuitous to say the least.
Born in New York, he was raised in his parents' native South Korea for 12
years before the family returned to the States and took up residence in
Chicago.
Three years later they were on the move again; this time settling in
California, where Huh attended Crescenta Valley High near Los Angeles.
Huh played on the golf team, but he wasn't its best player.
"I was decent," Huh remembered earlier this year. "I wasn't really good, but I
was okay."
He was okay enough to garner interest from several college coaches, but thanks
to an NCAA policy change, Huh once again found himself on the move.
The then-recently changed rule required 16 core courses for a student to be
scholarship eligible. Huh had 15.
"I took my summer school and tried to do everything I could do," he said. "I
ended up one course short, so I couldn't get any scholarships."
Huh attended Cal State Northridge for two weeks, sans scholarship, and then
left to turn pro -- on the Korean Tour.
After three successful years of refinement, Huh tried his hand at Q School in
2011 and made the cut on the number to earn his PGA Tour card.
Huh had made it back to the States as a much-deserved professional, but
without the notoriety of collegiate and Web.com Tour success, he remained
relatively unknown.
That didn't last long.
In February, just five events into his PGA Tour career, Huh picked up his
first victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
He did so in memorable fashion, carding a bogey-free, 8-under 63 on the final
day to overcome a 7-stroke deficit and force a playoff with Robert Allenby.
There, the pair fought for eight holes -- tying for the second-longest playoff
in PGA Tour history and the first eight-hole playoff since 1983 -- before Huh
finally secured the win with a par against Allenby's bogey on the par-3 10th.
In April, he overcame a disastrous start at the Valero Texas Open and played
the last 3 1/2 rounds at 14-under to finish tied for second with Matt Every.
For the season, Huh recorded four top-10 finishes and 12 top-25 results.
He made the cut in 22 of 28 tournaments, reeled in nearly $3 million in
earnings, and was the only rookie to advance to the Tour Championship.
On Tuesday, Huh, who counts his father as his primary swing coach, was chosen
by his peers as the 2012 Rookie of the Year.
"I was speechless," said Huh. "I couldn't say anything for two minutes and
after two minutes I called my dad and said that we did it."
From New York, to Korea, to Chicago, to LA; back to Korea, to PGA Tour
success.
Huh?
Sounds roundabout doesn't it?
Well ... it was; and, clearly, it worked.
The Sports Network