Se Ri Pak's Tour Diary

As originally written by Se Ri Pak for Joong Ang Ilbo. Translation by LoveGiants

Diary Entry #9: The Practice Machine which even Surprised Father

I think that for a professional athlete, talent is a very important thing, but the most important thing of all is will, the will to overcome anything. Talent without will does not take you far. Maybe people cannot understand the relationship between my father and me. Some seem to regard me as a golf machine created by the harsh rods and bitter words of my father.

Well, it's true that father sometimes gave the rod and said bitter words to me because he had a sharp tongue. But it's not true that father only abused me. I believed whatever he said, obeyed whatever he ordered. But it was not because I was afraid of him. How could I have overcome all my harsh training if I did not have the will to overcome everything?

An old Korean saying goes, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink'. Whether to drink water or not is up to the horse. In my case, well, it's true that father forced me to do an enormous amount of training, but it's also true that I, myself, wanted it. I really wanted to play golf well. Frankly speaking, I thought I could make money through golf. I'm not sure I was influenced by my father, but maybe I was. Anyway, I wanted to make a lot of money, so I overcame all the hard training. That has made me what I am.

It was not long after I had started golf. Father took me to a practice range and told me to practice my swing. And then he went to meet his friends. I wasn't aware how much time had passed while I practiced. Much later, he returned to the practice range in a hurry. He had forgotten about me, and not until he had come home did he find that I was not back. So he came back to the practice range. He saw me practicing alone at the empty golf range; it was almost midnight. "You stupid fool! To forget to come back home!" I replied, " I should practice hard to become a world class player."

There's another story. In 1995, when I was in my 3rd year in high school, I participated in a golf event sponsored by the minister of Japan (??). On the first day, I scored 73 and led Yoshida, the Japanese player, by 2 strokes, but on the 2nd day, I scored 80 and was defeated by 2 strokes. I couldn't sleep that night. I could not stand the fact that I was defeated. I started putting on the floor of the hotel, while other players were sleeping. I didn't want others to think me odd, but I felt I had nothing to relieve my suffering except practice. Some players saw me practicing and they started to practice with me. This became the most memorable moment among the players who participated in the event.

I desired victories and when I was not satisfied with the results, I practiced more as punishment. Some people seem to feel pity for me because they think that I wasted my beautiful days playing golf. But I can say with confidence that I spent my most beautiful days doing what I like most.

Diary Entry #10: My First Shot Was...

If I say what made me start to play golf, people may laugh. I was my father's ball boy, strictly speaking, maybe a ball girl, as I was a girl. The story goes back to 1986, when our family emigrated to Hawaii.

Father loved golf so much that he always practiced his swing in the park near the apartment house we lived in. Gathering the balls he hit was my task. He enjoyed
hitting balls and I always gathered them back up. One day, I had an annoyed look, and maybe he felt bad about that; he said, "Will you try hitting a ball?", and handed me a club. According to father, it was a 9 iron. (Ben Hogan steel shaft). He thought of a device for me to pass him the balls more easily.

I fingered the club. It was the memorable moment where I met golf for the first time in my life. My first try, though, did not look impressive. What could a nine year old girl have done with a golf club as long as her height? But, soon, I didn't have to do the annoying task anymore.

Father says looking back at that moment, "At first, the golf club seemed to swing Se Ri Se Ri could not even touch the ball. So I took the club from her, but she resisted. She hit a couple of more balls. Suddenly, the ball started to fly about 20 ~ 30 meters. Then, I finally noticed her talent."

But at that time, father and I did not have a clear goal in golf. We were just content with spending time together. Our family situation was so bad that he could not have the idea to teach me golf. We were bad off, and our emigration to Hawaii was almost to take refuge in a safe place.

Father went back to Korea alone, leaving us in Hawaii. I hit balls alone without anyone to teach me anything. One day, I broke a neighbor's window and mother suffered a bitter insult. She asked me earnestly to behave gently, instead of making trouble. After that, I forgot about golf. I was also good at other sports, so I did not have a special interest in golf. Not until I came back to Korea and was admitted to Yuseong elementary school in Daejeon did I think about golf again.

But, in Korea, when I reunited with father, I recognized that I had already been attached to golf.