“The joy of winning is like dopamine. I didn’t win for the first time this year, but I want to feel dopamine again next year.”
Ko Jin-young is a leading Korean female golfer. She made her KLPGA tour debut in 2014 and had nine wins until 2017. She won the KEB Hana Bank Championship of the LPGA tour in Korea in 2017 and made her U.S. tour debut the following year, and won the ISPS Handa Australian Women’s Open, her first official competition since her debut. The rookie award was all thanks to her.
Since then, Ko has become the world No. 1 for the first time in her career with four wins including two major wins in 2019. In 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic was over, she swept five wins, recording a total of 15 wins on the LPGA tour. She also holds a new record of 163 weeks, the longest record for the world No. 1 in women’s golf.
Ko Jin-young, who is in her 11th year as a tour player this year, has lifted the trophy from 2014 to 2023, but unfortunately has not won a single championship this year. “I thought this year was a ‘year of consciousness’ because my shots didn’t go as I wanted and I didn’t win a championship,” Ko said in a recent interview with The Daily. “I gained a lot. I confirmed my passion for golf and my desire to do better.”
12 hours of short game practice…”Sense of Respect” leads to success
Ko Jin-young was a successful golfer when she was active in Korea. However, few people knew her when she was in the U.S. It was an opportunity for her to become motivated and enlightened.
After finishing the rookie season in 2018, Ko stayed in the U.S. for three weeks and focused on making up for her shortcomings. She took short game lessons from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day and devoted herself to practice. She even changed her put address. Thus, Ko won the ANA Inspiration of a major competition for the first time in 2019, and ranked No. 1 in the world.
He said this was the turning point of his golf career. Ko Jin-young said, “I worked really hard with the idea of making my name known in the U.S. It was a time when I had a lot of fun in golf and wanted to do well.”
Ko Jin-young, who has always been at the top of the list during her 10-year tour, cited “not losing her golf identity” as the driving force behind her long run. “I can handle a long run for about four years. When I enter the 10th year, I feel like, ‘Why am I playing golf?’ This is why it is important to balance golf with life,” Ko said.
“Golf is important, but not everything,” Ko said. “I also lived my life as if golf is everything in my life. I know that feeling grateful for eating with my parents is more important than winning.”
This year, Ko was the runner-up in 18 LPGA Tour competitions, but failed to reach the championship. “I don’t like everything else, but I like the fact that her putt ranking was at the top,” Ko said. This year, Ko ranked second in average putts (1.76), and fifth in per round (29.05).
Having suffered from shoulder pain, Ko said she struggled due to shots, but was able to learn how to make par saves in short games. “I only made seven hits in the green at the major KPMG competition. The course was so difficult that if I failed to block it with a short game, I had to lose points,” Ko said. “I made up my mind to play a short game. It was the best short game of my 10-year tour and I won the runner-up prize.”
No win but happy year…”Ko Jinyoung, a person.” Learn how to grow
Ko Jin-young said, “When I can’t play golf, the answer is when I see whether I am happy or not outside of golf. If I am happy outside of golf, I can concentrate more on golf. This is why I think I had a happy year even if I didn’t win this year’s championship.” 메이저놀이터
In her 29th year and 11th year of the tour, she put down a lot and seemed to have reached the point of liberation. It was Shin Ji-ae, her senior, who influenced her. Ko Jin-young moved to Japan, where Shin Ji-ae is staying, in October, where she talked all night and practiced together. Ko Jin-young said, “(Shin) Ji-ae is very thoughtful. If I think three things, she is a person who thinks 10 things. Talking with her broadens my thoughts and helps me a lot. When I have a lot of concerns about golf, I keep in touch with my sister,” she said.
Ko Jin-young has special respect for Shin Ji-ae when she competed for the championship at the AIG Women’s Open in major tournaments in August. Even though she failed to make the cut, she said. “The easiest thing in the world is to do nothing and just get older. Looking at my sister, I feel that I have to grow up. I am trying to become an adult that fits my age,” she said.
She also let go of setting goals such as Hall of Fame, world No. 1 and championship title. She recently learned how to develop into Ko Jin-young, a human being, as well as a golfer. Ko said this at the end.
“When I didn’t achieve my goal, I felt like what I’d been doing for 10 years was gone. I’m at the point where I’m rethinking my existence. But there’s a lot that I’ve accomplished so far, right? I’m just happy to be someone’s role model, and what I’ve been doing can be an opportunity for young players to challenge themselves.”
