For much of the time since earning his PGA Tour card in 2022, Chinese Taipei player Kevin Yu has had Californian Zeke Salas as his caddie – and the two have shared some notable success along the way.
If Yu was looking for experience to help him navigate his rookie PGA Tour season, he certainly found it in Salas. He began caddying in 2011, and before linking up with Yu, previous players he had looped for included John Huh, Jin Park, Tyler Aldridge, Brad Schneider and JJ Spaun.
One of Salas’ early successes came the year after he began caddying, when he helped Huh to victory at the Mayakoba Golf Classic on his way to becoming PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. It wasn’t just caddying Salas had assisted Huh in, either. He is also a club pro and had mentored him before he turned professional in 2008.
In the immediate years before joining forces with Yu, Salas had caddied for players including Moriya Jutanugarn and Noh Seung-yul, so he could draw on plenty of top-level experience to assist Yu, and he responded by finishing 99th in the FedEx Cup standings after the 2022/23 season, with highlights including top-10 finishes in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and John Deere Classic.
Things got even better for the pair in 2024. Further impressive performances came in several tournaments, including T3 at The American Express, while Salas was also with him when he represented his country in the Paris Olympics at Le Golf National, but the best was to come.
In a Q&A with The Caddie Network back in 2018, Salas said the best part about being a caddie was “being in contention to win a golf tournament and hopefully playing a part in that victory”, and that experience came his way at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he guided Yu to victory, edging out Beau Hossler in a playoff to cement his status as one to watch in the coming years.
