Page 40 - Golf Champion - August 2020

골프를 치면서 배운것 중에 가장 중요한 것은 뭐에요? a person. I can have that free time when I’m older; I want to build up my career first.
항상 흔들리지 않는 인내심으로 열심히 해야된다고 생각합니다. What do you think is the most important thing you learned
골프로 대학을 가고싶은 어린 고등학교 골퍼들에게 조언을 해준다면? from being a golfer?
대학들과의 소통을 일찍 시작하고 꾸준히 이메일을 보내는게 중요해요. 많은학교들 Being patient. Around a year ago, I had a really, really bad back injury: scoliosis and
을 보고 가고싶은 학교를 조사 하세요. two pulled muscles in my back. I never told anyone because I wanted to keep playing.
In one of the tournaments, I couldn’t walk up the fairway and the doctor told me that
고등학교 골프에 대해 가장 그리운 점은 무엇일것 같아요? I might not be able to play golf again. It was one of the hardest things to hear because
몇년 동안 같이 활동했던 팀 친구들이 가장 그리울거에요.
I’d trained for this my entire life! I told the doctor—with a little profanity—that I’m
going to keep going. The options were to stay in a brace for 8 months, or do physical
therapy and hope that it gets better: I chose physical therapy. I remember I would
LUKE CLANTON sneak out at like three in the morning and be so proud after doing three pushups
Can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about who because doing pushups with all those back injuries was crazy. I was really emotional
you are? at the time because the possibility of losing my lifelong sport so quickly was scary, but
My name is Luke Clanton, I go to American Heritage High School down in Plantation that life lesson has really taught me to just be patient with everything.
Florida, and I’ll be attending Florida State University. I have two older sisters who Is there any advice that you could give to young high school
used to play golf when they were younger. As a three-year-old, I wanted all the at- golfers who want to go to college for golf as well?
tention, so I had to join in. They both quit later on to pursue soccer and modelling, but I’d just say work hard, keep your head down, and keep going, because nothing comes
I carried on with my dad and everything went pretty well.
without hard work. That’s what I’ve realized these past two years: you have to work
Throughout your high school career, has college golf been harder than anyone else thinks because no matter what you’re doing, someone else
the end goal? is probably working harder.
My end goal, ever since I was a little kid, has been to go on the PGA Tour. My goal
is always to get to the next level, to make it pro, and I never really want to change What is one thing you’ll miss about high school golf?
that goal. I’ll miss being part of a family. I’m going to college and I’ll be part of a team up there,
too, but having this family with me here right now… I’ll miss that a lot. I don’t even
Could you explain the college sport recruitment process? want to call it a team, it really is a family to me; we’ve all known each other for so long
How do colleges find and recruit potential players? How do and it’s going to be hard to leave that. We all push each other to be better and it’s just
players choose between offers? amazing to have that kind of support.
A while back, I think they made a rule where students couldn’t talk to the college
coaches. I think this was to ensure that students can make serious commitments later. 자기 소개 부탁 드립니다
I was supposed to commit when I was a sophomore, but that’s when they made the American Heritage High School을 졸업 하고 Florida State University를 입학할
rule change so I had to wait. It changed the entire process but it really helped me Luke입니다. 3살 때 두 누나들과 골프를 시작했습니다.
realize what college I wanted to commit to. I had other options, but my mind was 고등학교 동안 항상 골프로 대학을 갈 계획 이었나요?
always on Florida State because it’s one of the best states for golf. The coach actually 어렸을때 부터 PGA Tour를 꿈꾸며 열심히 하여 여기까지 왔습니다.
told me that if I do get an opportunity to go into professional golf, it would be optimal
to leave after two years to start my professional career. I might stay four years, maybe 대학들은 어떻게 선수들을 찾고 모집하나요? 선수들은 많은 오퍼들 중에 어떻게 선
two years—I really don’t know yet—but it’s very nice to have the flexibility. 택하나요?
몇년전에 너무어린 학생들이 대학과 계약을 하지 못하게하는 규칙이 생긴후로 학생
Biggest accomplishments 들이 본인이 원하는 학교를 스스로 고려할수있게 되었습니다. 저에게는 많은 제안이
I would say, winning state championships with my high school team. I won as an 들어왔지만, 플로리다 만큼 골프를 잘하는 주는 없을것 같고 저의 프로 진출을 적극적
individual and we lost as a team. After the first day, we were in 5th place and it was 으로 도울수있어서 Florida State University로 결정하였습니다.
really emotional because we had two seniors who’ve played for around nine years
and this would be their last state championship. We all were in the same room, we all 골프를 하면서 가장 크게 느낀 성취감은 언제였나요?
looked at each other and we said “We’re going to win this thing”, and we went out and 학교 팀 친구들과 나눈 토너먼트들이 제일 자랑스럽습니다. 작년 State Champion-
gave one hell of a try. We lost by only one shot. Man, it was really emotional because ships에서 5등에서 2등으로 역전하며 친구들과 선배님들과의 아쉬움과 자랑스러움
we all wanted it so badly and we had a perfect record, which is unheard of for high 을 나눌수 있어서 좋았어요. 혼자만의 우승은 많았지만, 친구들과 함께 뛴 경기들이
school teams. Personally, I’ve played plenty of big tournaments and I’ve won many, 훨씬 재미있고 기억에 남았어요
but being in a team and winning with my team was my biggest accomplishment. 학기중 연습 스케줄은 어떻게 되나요?
How often did you practice during the school week? 학교가 12:30에 끝나기 때문에 1:30에서 6:30은 코스에서 연습했어요. 7시에 집에 돌
Luckily, I take 5 main courses and get out of school at 12:30 everyday. I play on the 아와서 스트레칭과 근력운동이 끝나면 10시 쯤에야 공부를 시작할수있어요. 아침에
course from around 1:30 until 6:30, get home around 7, stretch for an hour then do 는 5:30에 일어나서 학교가기전 운동을 합니다.
a two hour workout. After that I start homework at like 10 o'clock at night and go to 학교 와 골프를 어떻게 밸런스 했나요?
sleep around midnight. The next day, I wake up around 5:30 to do a workout before 밤 늦게 까지 공부하는 방법밖에 없었어요. 잠을 6시간 정도 밖에 못 잤지만, 학교
school. All this was definitely a lot, especially on school nights, but I had to prepare 와 골프중 하나를 포기할수는 없잖아요. 제가 선택한 길을 걷기위한 또 하나의 조
for the high school golf season and the summer tournaments right after that; during 건인거죠.
the summer, I was gone almost every week.
골프 때문에 사회생활이나 학교생활을 희생해야했나요?
How did you balance this with your school work? 시즌 동안에는 친구들과의 시간은 없었지만, 일단 노력을 해야한다는 생각으로 참
It was mostly staying up late at night. I’ll be honest with you: I didn’t get much sleep. 았습니다.
I probably got like 6 hours of sleep a day. It was hard to balance school and golf some- 골프를 치면서 배운것 중에 가장 중요한 것은 뭐에요?
times, but I just had to find a way to fit it in because this is for my career and this is 작년에 등에 큰 부상은 입으며 골프를 다시는 못할수도 있다는 진단을 받은 뒤 8개
what I want to do. And even though it’s hard, it’s working so far and I’m going to 월 동안 고통과 답답함을 견디며 재활운동을 하면서 인내와 노력의 중요성을 알았
keep going.
습니다.
Do you feel that you had to sacrifice your social or academic
life for golf competitions? 골프로 대학을 가고싶은 어린 고등학교 골퍼들에게 조언을 해준다면?
Yes I definitely had to distance myself from a lot of things like going out to hangout 항상 남들보다 열심히 연습한다는 생각으로 연습 하세요.
with my friends. Of course, it’s great to have some fun sometimes, but during the 고등학교 골프에 대해 가장 그리운 점은 뭐일것 같아요?
season it’s hard to socialize. I know it sounds kind of sad, but I know it’s good for me as 가족 같았던 골프팀 친구들이 보고 싶을 거에요.

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