LOUIS, Missouri – The Advocates Professional Golf Association (APGA) Tour might be a young man’s game, chock-full of mostly 20-somethings these days, but Kevin Hall scored low over both rounds of the APGA Daugherty Foundation Championship and scored one for the APGA’s first generation.
The Cincinnati native backed up a first-round 6-under-par 65 on Wednesday with a final-round 5-under 66 on Thursday to overcome APGA Tour rookie Jonathan Yoshihiro for an overall score of 11-under 131 and a one-stroke victory in the APGA Daugherty Foundation Championship at Glen Echo Country Club.
It is the eighth APGA triumph for Hall, who has played on the APGA Tour since it was established in 2010. He was the first African American to play college golf at Ohio State, serving as a co-captain during his junior (2002-03) and senior (2003-04) years. Hall turned pro in 2005 and broke through to win his first APGA title in 2016 at the APGA Tour Championship.
Hall, 43, has now won APGA events in each of the past three seasons, all after turning 40.
“There were times today, during the round, I thought of Tim O’Neal (former APGA player and current PGA TOUR Champions golfer) and how he continued to win well into his 40s. If he could do it, I can do the same thing,” Hall said. “It means a lot that I am able to get a win here and there.
“It’s an amazing feeling. There are a lot of extremely talented golfers on the APGA Tour, and to be able to hold my own is a satisfying feeling. The level of competition is very high on the APGA Tour, and it drives me to work hard every day and continue to get better.
The APGA Daugherty Foundation Championship is the second of three golf tournaments on the APGA Farmers Insurance© Fall Series. Hall received 500 points toward the APGA’s Jeff Dailey Standings and a $13,500 winner’s prize from a $45,000 purse.
The tournament’s first-round lead was held by Yoshihiro, of Yorba Linda, California, on the strength of a 7-under 64. The Cal State Fullerton graduate made his six birdies over the first 11 holes, including three consecutive birdies on holes 5-7, and closed his round with an eagle on the par-4 18th hole. Yoshihiro won his first APGA tournament in August at the tour’s most lucrative event, the Mastercard Tour Championship, and has four top-three finishes in his maiden season on the APGA.
Yoshihiro (10-under 132) entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over Hall, and two shots clear of Jonathan Kang, of Santa Clarita, California. Hall opened the final round ablaze, making birdie on three of his first four holes and offsetting Yoshihiro’s eagle on the par-5 fourth hole with an eagle of his own on the par-5 eighth hole to leapfrog Yoshihiro into the lead for the first time at 11-under. Following his tee shot into the eighth fairway, Hall hit his 9-iron approach from 144 yards to 18 feet and made the uphill putt with a slight right-to-left break.
“I think the key was birdieing almost all the holes that were yielding a lot of birdies, and the key was making the eagle on (No.) 8,” said Hall, who prepped his game this week by advancing out of the Pre-Qualifying Stage of PGA TOUR Q-School two weeks ago and placing third at the APGA at TPC Las Vegas last week. “The putter is starting to feel good, and that is key.
“I tried to get all I could on the front nine. Then, the back nine was all about executing shots and not making a mistake coming down the stretch. I would rate my game at around 6 or 7, out of 10, right now. It’s starting to heat up at the right time.”
Yoshihiro, who carded a closing 3-under 68, rallied from two strokes down to start the back nine, briefly catching Hall at 11-under following birdies at Nos. 10 and 12. But the par-4 was pivotal, with Hall making birdie and Yoshihiro making the first of two bogeys over his next three holes, and it gave Hall a lead he would not relinquish.
Hall and Kang each registered seven birdies in Wednesday’s first round. Hall got into red figures following birdies at Nos. 4 and 5 and closed with four birdies over a clean back nine, finishing up with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18. Kang, who played college golf at UC Irvine from 2016-21 and joined the APGA in 2023, strung together five birdies in a seven-hole stretch, tallying them consecutively at the fourth and fifth holes and Nos. 8-10.
Hall’s last APGA triumph, prior to this week, came at the 2024 APGA at Bermuda event. That win granted him an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s 2025 Butterfield Bermuda Championship in mid-November. He will forgo that sponsor exemption, however, so he can compete in the 2025 Deaflympics in Tokyo (Nov. 15-26).
The APGA’s only deaf golfer, Hall has made two starts on the PGA TOUR – as the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption recipient for the 2017 Genesis Open and most recently at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The Deaflympics is a personal calling that supersedes the pageantry and potential payday of a PGA TOUR event.
Said Hall: “I have never competed in the Deaflympics and, since it goes every four years, I felt it was time at 43 to go experience it once before it’s too late. I have been blessed to play in a lot of big events and this was one I have yet to do. I felt like I needed to go play in the Deaflympics. It will be one of the greatest honors of my life and I can’t wait.”
Former Howard University teammates Everett Whiten Jr. (9-under 133), of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Gregory Odom Jr. (8-under 134), a Memphis, Tennessee native, finished third and fourth, respectively. Two-time APGA winner Andrew Walker, the tournament’s 2024 champion from Holt, Michigan, placed T18 at 2-under 140.
The APGA Tour travels west for its 14th tournament of the year and descends on its most iconic tournament locale – Pebble Beach – at the 20-player Cisco Invitational (October 13-16 at Spyglass Hill Golf Course), the last of three 54-hole events on the APGA Tour. The 2025 APGA season runs through November with 16 tournaments from coast to coast.
About the APGA Tour
The APGA Tour was established in 2010 as a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring an inclusive future through the game of golf. The APGA Tour Board of Directors works diligently to accomplish this by hosting and operating professional golf tournaments, player development programs, mentoring programs, and by introducing the game to inner city young people. In addition to conducting 16 tournaments awarding more than $1 million in prize and bonus money, the APGA has organized a Player Development Program to aid golfers as they work to chase their professional golf goals.
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