Living the life of a touring golf professional is no big thing for Jimin Kang. After all, she’s been on the road since she was a teenager.
The 28-year-old Kang is originally from Seoul, South Korea, and came to the United States when she was 16. She settled with her family in Edmonds and enrolled at Shoreline’s King’s High School, where she graduated in 2000 after becoming one of the best girls high school golfers in state history.
Kang went on to Arizona State University for two years before turning pro. She is in her sixth LPGA Tour season.
“It sounds kind of weird,” Kang said by telephone last week, “but I’ve been traveling since I was in junior golf and then when I was in college. It’s just that on tour you’re traveling every week instead of every other week. So for me (the traveling) is not that much different. It just got busier.
“But I love it. And if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t be playing golf anymore. Through golf, I’ve met all different people everywhere. I get to work with all these ladies who are so passionate about this game of golf. This is great.”
The only downside, she added, is that “I just don’t have a personal life because I’m traveling so much.”
Kang was already a good golfer when she arrived in the United States, but her game blossomed in her first years here. As a junior at King’s, she won the state championship by 21 strokes. She played in the LPGA’s Seattle-area Safeco Classic that same summer and was also the U.S. Women’s Amateur runner-up, beating a little-known Mexican youngster named Lorena Ochoa in the semifinals.
Kang started at Arizona State in the fall of 2000, and in her sophomore season she was the Pacific-10 Conference champion and a first-team All-American. Realizing that she had little left to accomplish as an amateur, she turned pro that same summer, picking up her tour card on her first try at the qualifying school.
Since then her career has been solid if not spectacular. Her sole LPGA Tour victory came in the 2005 Corning Classic, which was the year she had $333,000 in earnings, her best season to date. She could better that mark this year, though, as she already has $190,733 in earnings through 12 starts, including two top-10 finishes.
Sometime this summer, she should go over $1 million in career earnings.
“(This year) is going well,” she said. After missing much of the 2006 season with a stress fracture in her left foot, and dealing with other minor injuries, “I’m excited now because I’m healthy. My golf game is more mature. I’m learning more about my golf game.
“All these little (setbacks) happen for a reason. But God has a plan for my life. I like to plan things ahead, obviously, but whenever I make a plan it seems like it never comes out that way. So I’m just trying to go day by day.”
Kang and her family chose King’s years ago because of her Christian faith, which is still very important in her life. She belongs to a weekly fellowship group with other Christians on the LPGA Tour, “and it’s really a great meeting.” At times being a tour player “can be lonely,” she added, “but at the same time it can be cozy and fun.”
Her closest friend is Suzann Pettersen of Norway. “She’s my best buddy,” Kang said.
When she’s not on the road these days, Kang makes her home in North Scottsdale, Ariz. Though her family no longer lives in the Seattle area, she still has plenty of friends, not to mention a bunch of fond memories.
“That was my childhood,” she said. “I remember a lot of things, like being in high school and golfing. And all my friends there.”
She occasionally returns to Korea for visits, “but whenever I go back I have fun for about a week, and then I have to start trying to be patient. And then I spend more money buying a phone card and calling friends in the United States. This is more home to me now. I have more friends and family (in this country) than in Korea.”
Though her career in golf has required sacrifices, starting with a social life and including a longstanding desire to try winter sports – “I want to learn how to do snowboarding, but I can’t because I have to think about not getting injured,” she said – she considers herself extremely fortunate.
“I know that I’ve been blessed and I am still being blessed by God’s giving me a talent and an opportunity and the chance to work with all these people,” she said. “This is such a blessing. It’s too much traveling, but besides that it’s all good.”
Rich Myhre writes for The Herald in Everett.
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