Sang-Moon Bae held on Sunday to win the Frys.com Open, opening the 2014-15 season with his second career PGA Tour victory.
With the win, Bae earned a spot at the 2015 Masters, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and PGA Championship. He also becomes just the third player of Korean descent to win multiple times on the PGA Tour. K.J. Choi has eight titles and Y.E. Yang has two, including the 2009 PGA Championship.
But perhaps the most important thing Bae did Sunday with the win was give his President’s Cup hopes a big boost.
Bae last won in 2013 at the Byron Nelson Championship, but instead of it being a springboard to bigger and better things, he went into a funk. Bae went 36 consecutive PGA Tour starts without a top-10 before his two-stroke victory on Sunday. During the 2013-14 season Bae missed the cut in 11 of the 24 events he entered and saw his season end when he missed the cut at The Barclays. His best finish was a tie for 14th (twice) and he was never close to picking up win number two until this week.
“The first one was hard, but second one was more difficult,” Bae said. “But now I’ve got the second one, I think third and fourth will come easy since I have the confidence. I was very frustrated. Even though my game was good, the score wasn’t. I was very frustrated and I was very anxious and nervous.”
Now that Bae has backed up his first PGA Tour win with a second, he can focus on his next goal, qualifying for the International President’s Cup team. The President’s Cup is headed to Asia for the first time ever in 2015 and it will be held at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon in October. Bae is making it a point of making sure he is a participant and not a spectator for the biggest golf event his country will have ever hosted.
“I think it’s most important to me because it’s in Korea next year. It really means a lot,” Bae said. “There’s a lot of good golfers in Korea, but I’m really working hard. I really want to play Presidents Cup next year. If I can’t play it, I will be really sad.”
Bae is in position to make the International team after finishing the Frys at 15-under-par 273. He closed his round Saturday by going eagle-birdie to open up a four-stroke lead. He pushed it to as many as six early on Sunday and held on despite finishing with a one-over 73.
“There’s always pressure on Sunday because other players behind me are charging,” Bae said. “I tried to maintain focus and play my own game.”
