Athlete of the Week: Menlo’s Eric Yun

After the departure of Yun’s brother, Menlo hadn’t been performing so great. After not carding in the Central Coast Section playoffs last season — much in part to Jeremy being out of action due to injury — the Knights opened this season with two straight losses. But Menlo turned that around last Monday thanks to an epic round by Yun.

“That is probably one of the better nine-hole rounds I’ve ever played, but our entire team stepped up,” Yun said. “I think it shows in the scores. … With five cards, everyone dropped 3 strokes from their scores from the previous matches. It was good to see everyone step up. It was a long time coming.”

Playing on Menlo’s home course at Baylands Golf Links, the Knights rallied for a 193-227 win over the King’s Academy. And Yun has earned Daily Journal Athlete of the Week honors for leading the way by shooting a 6-under 31.

It was Menlo’s first match of the year on its home course, and Yun certainly looked at home. That might be because Baylands is something of a home away from home for him.

The Palo Alto course is located just down the street from his Menlo Park home. It’s where he shot at the driving range for the first time in his life — he guessed it was when he was about 2 — accompanied by his grandparents. And soon after the course reopened in 2018 following an extensive remodel, he immediately began playing regularly there.

“I’ve basically been going there my entire life,” Yun said.

It took some home-course savvy to navigate the gnarly weather last Monday. Yun knows the right approach — keep the ball low to the ground; don’t let the upwards of 30 mph wind gusts get ahold of the long shots on the course’s several par 5s.

Despite this, Yun’s nine-hole round nearly went off the rails early.

“It actually opened — I should not say a rough start — but the first hole I opened with a bad drive … an iffy drive, then an iffy second shot,” Yun said.

His third shot was pretty iffy as well. From 25 yards away, he wedged it about 20 feet from the cup, leaving him looking at a long putt for birdie. But he sank it to set the tone for the rest of his afternoon.

“Interestingly, that was kind of the precedent for the rest of the day,” Yun said. “I was not putting the ball as close to the hole as one might expect for getting a 6-under par.”

Perhaps more importantly, the shot locked him in his long putting stroke.

“As soon as one goes in they just all seem to go in,” Yun said. “It was really just one of those days. … “Three or four times that day, the stars just kind of aligned.”

On the par-5 third hole, he hit a 35-foot putt for eagle. On the fourth hole, he birdied. And so his day went … until the par-5 ninth.

It was a bummer he ended with par on nine considering he had a chance to match his best round ever. The 6-under still proved to be his personal record for a nine-hole round. But Yun’s best round ever was a 7-under 18-hole round. And he nearly matched it, as his third stroke was a 25-yard chip shot that left him with a seven-foot putt for birdie.

“That was kind of the one putt all day I would have liked to take back,” Yun said.

Yun missed his birdie putt but saved par for his best-ever nine-hole round, and medalist honors in Menlo’s first win of the season. His teammates enjoyed happy homecomings as well. Marcus Ying finished with a 2-over 39, Saaz Ahuja and Ryan Schaefer each shot a 40, and Amay Goel a 43.

The win also broke a curse for Menlo spanning from last season. The Knights finished the 2021 regular season with a perfect 8-0 record. But the West Bay Athletic League championship went south when a majority of the team opted out to take an Advanced Placement test.

It didn’t affect Menlo’s CCS standing, as the team earned an automatic bid to the section championship by virtue of the WBAL dual-meet title. But the CCS championships at Laguna Seca Golf Ranch were a wash when Menlo fielded just two individual golfers, though Yun was one of them, shooting a 73 to tie for sixth place with Palma’s Evan Russo and Serra’s William Walsh.

Still, it was a year like no other for Yun, who had never played on the same team as his older brother Jeremy.

“It was really cool,” Yun said. “Obviously I’ve been playing golf with him my entire life. For a lot of my life though, I wasn’t on an even playing field with him … but it was really special getting one year with him. It was really cool, especially since we had such a good season. It was really unforgettable.”