Page 34 - Golf Champion - July 2020

[LPGA TOUR]

Still a long Road ahead

아직 남은 나의 길

Jeong Eun Lee 6 pushed to learn. I had a lot of things I wanted to do, so

LPGA Tour Player I took a rest from golf for three years, and my parents
understood. My parents wanted me to be happy.
LPGA Rookie of the Year

US Women's Open Winner I lived in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, which is far from a
big city like Seoul that comes to mind when you think
이 정은 6 of South Korea. Life in Suncheon is slow. Everyone
LPGA 투어 플레이어 knows each other. Not many people leave the area, and

all the neighbors feel connected.

I started playing golf again when I was 15 years old,
here is a turning point in every life, and there is a this time it was what I wanted and set a goal to become
Tpoint where you are standing at a fork. It's entirely a teaching pro. If I could play golf well enough, I could
up to me to choose the wide, safe, straight road with have a good life as a teaching pro in Suncheon. I exer-
clear vision, or the narrow, bumpy, winding path that cised hard because I had to score in the low 70 to get a
is hard to predict the ending. At that moment, people license. When I was 17, a famous Seoul director I knew
often don't realize the importance of the choice. It is suggested that I enter the dormitory of the Golf Acad-
not until you arrive at your destination that you realize emy, where I can play golf with school.
how much the journey was different.
That was my first decision on the road. I was able to
I started playing golf at the age of nine. My father's ac- think of a reason to stay at home. My father's presence
quaintance, a teaching pro, recommended me to play was a sure and perfect reason for me to stay at home.
golf. My parents also thought it was important for me I didn't want to stay away from my father in a wheel-
to exercise outside. When I was born, my father drove chair. Actually, I was a little scared. "Will I be good
a truck. But my father had a car accident when I was
four years old, and he had a disability that he couldn't
use his lower body. I was young at the time and didn't
realize the importance of the choice my father had
made. At that time, my father could have been im-
mersed in self-pity or given up on life. However, my
father tried his best for his family, learning and adapt-
ing to the new environment.

The decision made a big difference in my father's life,
but its appearance had a big impact on me as well.

Like my friends who were going through teenage, I
thought golf was boring when I was 12 years old. At
that time I did not love golf. I felt like I was being

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