Huh Speaks!

One of the fun traditions of the Sony Open which begins Thursday: the unveiling of PGA Tour rookies who graduated at Q-School or from the Nationwide Tour without ever having teed it up on the PGA Tour.

Jill Painter has done a bang-up job (as usual) profiling the totally unknown Johnny Huh, a 21-year-old born in New York who grew up in Korea and southern California, never played college golf, went through that dreadful Q-School thing, and is playing in his first tour event at Sony.

Huh made rapid improvements in his game from the ages of 18 to 21. Much of that had to do with playing on the Korean Golf Tour. For him, it was the best thing he has ever done. At 19, he won the Shinhan Bank Open and $150,000.

"I went to Korea and got a lot of confidence there," Huh said. "It's just like the PGA. You have a practice round and a pro-am. That's why we went there. I learned a lot. I played a four-day event. Real tournaments."

Huh's older brother, James, is helping with travel arrangements. He has no agent or publicist and just got a new caddie, Hansen Dam's Zeke Salas, who's also a friend. Huh has no equipment deal and, at the moment, only sponsors from Korea.

His father was caddying for him on the Korean Golf Tour. This is a dream come true for the Huhs.

"My parents are very happy," James Huh said. "We didn't think about this (yet)."