In 2025 Yanhan Zhou claimed more wins than Scottie Scheffler.
He won more professional events than Rory McIlroy and Marco Penge combined and already has 11 victories on the China Tour across his career.
Yanhan Zhou is just 17 years old.
And this week the teenager makes his first start as a full DP World Tour member and his first DP World Tour start outside of his homeland at the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
Already a prolific winner in China, the next obvious step might be eyeing more history on the DP World Tour, but Zhou is refusing to get ahead of himself.
“I don’t have any goals because I’m so young," he told the DP World Tour ahead of just his fourth start at Royal Golf Club.
"The only goal I have is to learn things from the tournaments because I have a long way to go. So what I want to do is learn things, not win however many tournaments."
Zhou first picked up a club at the age of three when his father took him to the driving range and he was soon beating the adults in chipping and putting competitions.
His talent for the game is perhaps no surprise as father Xunshu is also a prefessional and something of a golfing celebrity.
From working the fields in rural China, to security guard at a course, to the paid ranks, his inspiring story formed a key thread of a 2014 novel by Dan Washburn titled The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream.
READ MORE
• Xunshu and Yanhan Zhou write another chapter in remarkable father-son story
Zhou Sr is now playing a key role in his son's career as his caddie, coach and everything in between.
“My dad is my swing coach, my putting coach, he’s everything here," said Yanhan. "We are best friends.
“I love my family and I love to travel the world with them."
Yanhan was already enjoying an impressive amateur and junior career in his homeland when remarkably, on Christmas Day 2022, he claimed a maiden professional win at the Chongqing Open aged just 14 - the victory of which he is still most proud.
“My first pro win, I made like a four-foot putt to force a play-off and I made the same distance to win the match," he said. "That encouraged me a lot."
He would rub shoulders with future GAP Rankings winner Wenyi Ding at the 2023 at the US Amateur before successfully defending his Chongqing Open title and, after winning the China Amateur Open a few weeks later, he entered the paid ranks for the 2024 China Tour season at 16.
That season brought two victories - includng a third in a row in Chongqing - as Zhou finished third on the China Tour Order of Merit, just missing out on a place on the HotelPlanner Tour, but better was to come.
After making the cut at the co-sanctioned Volvo China Open and Hainan Classic, Zhou won the Chonqing Open for the fourth year in a row and never looked back, claming six more China Tour wins in 2025 to romp to the Order of Merit title and earn his place on the DP World Tour.
He now arrives in the Kingdom of Bahrain with his parents alongside him ready for his first professional start outside of his home continent and all eyes will be on him to see if the prodigy can make it big.
Zhou is taking it all in his stride.
"I’ll try to enjoy it," he said. "I have no expectations because it’s my first year. I’m looking forward to playing DP World Tour."
We're looking forward to watching him.
