By Derryl Trujillo
— WICHITA, KANSAS — Norman Xiong has had success at every level of golf but life as a professional has been a struggle for the former Temescal Canyon Titan who played collegiately at the University of Oregon. Before this week It had been three years since he made a cut on the Korn Ferry Tour, and he was on the road to being the next kid pegged to make it but didn’t.
However, in golf, one week can change everything and after last week, he’ll never forget the city of Wichita, Kansas. After shooting rounds of 66-61-64-63 (-26) on the Par 70 layout measuring 6,913 yards Xiong prevailed by five shots over Kevin Roy for his first victory in a PGA Tour sanctioned event. His total score and score in relation to par are the second lowest in the history of the PGA Tour’s developmental circuit, which goes back to 1990. A win is special enough, but Xiong also had to Monday qualify for this stop since he did not have status on the tour.
“I really don’t know how I’m feeling just because I didn’t expect to be here,” stated Xiong, in a Korn Ferry Tour press release. “I just knew I couldn’t let up today. I think that just shows how tough it is out here, and I think you can only recognize how much of a battle it is for all these players out here.”
Not having a place to play is now a thing of the past as he has full playing privileges on the Korn Ferry Tour for the remainder of the year and is in a position where with a few more good finishes can graduate to the PGA Tour next year. He is 34th in Korn Ferry Tour points, just 149 points from the last graduating spot (25th place), with nine events left including this week’s stop in Maine.
Derryl Trujillo has been a sportswriter in the area since 2018 and is a 2019 winner of the IEBCA Supporter of the Year award. He can be reached by email at socaltrekkie@gmail.com.
