BETEZDA, MARYLAND They do not come more honest, which is refreshing in any profession nowadays, but extremely in sports. Ask the athletes to share their innermost feelings about anything and you will probably get looks ranging from bewilderment to contempt. At a time when the world seems to live on Me Island and every sentence begins with “I”, athletes are known to talk endlessly about themselves without saying anything.
Then there’s our newest big champion, In Gee Chun, who caught the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a shot over his neighbors in Irving, Texas, Minji Lee and Lexi Thompson. Unlike most 27-year-olds, Chun tells you everything. It is an open book – an honest, sincere, intellectual and gentle soul that makes you feel honored to know her.
She had been a breath of fresh air all week. Ask her about the record on track 64, which she shot on Thursday. “I’m so happy,” she said. List the 75 she did on Saturday, reducing the lead from 7 shots to three, and she said, “I have to put that aside and remember that I still have the lead and be happy with it.” Ask her about cooking for her. neighbors, Minji and Say Young Kim, and she laughed before saying, “I’m working on the steak seasoning now.”
So when she was asked on Sunday what it felt like to take a three-shot lead in the first four holes of the final round and make a U-turn after losing the lead for the first time at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Chun pulled no hits.
“The first nine holes I had a lot of pressure on, so honestly, I couldn’t enjoy playing golf,” she said with the KPMG PGA Championship trophy for women next to her. “But I believed that if I stuck to my game plan, then I believed I had a chance at the back nine. So I tried to stay there. I am so happy that I succeeded. However, my body is still trembling. ”
So it was with everyone else. Chun revealed such a commanding lead in the first 45 holes that it looked like it would be a fugitive. At one point on Saturday, she was 11 under par, a number no one had seen coming to the Congressional Country Club when the week began. But big establishments have a way of giving way. Chun made several careless swings late Saturday and ended the day at 7-par, three cleared by Thompson and Hye-Jin Choi.
40 on the front nine on Sunday, and she seemed to have slipped away.
“So I want to tell the truth,” Chun said afterward. “I could not control all the tension. That’s why I had four waves (front). At the same time, you know, this course is never easy. Congressional Country Club is a solid golf course and we had difficult pin positions. Sometimes my golf is not perfect. Today it just turned out to be (not perfect) in the top nine. ”
Then she laughed and said, “Golf is never easy. Still, I can’t believe I won. That’s why I feel really emotional now. “
In the sign of the champion, Chun replied. She played the hard last four holes 1-under par, which was enough for the win.
At the time, I was thinking, “In Gee, if you never give up, then you can get something. Just don’t crack under pressure. Just keep doing what you do. Look at the big picture. Keep catching your goal. “
It was a long way. Chun last won the 2018 HanaBank Championship in his native South Korea. Prior to that, she won specialties in 2015 and 2016.
“When I crashed, some people said, ‘At Gee, you have to retire because your game isn’t good right now.’ But whatever they said, I believed I could win again. I’m so proud now. “
She has always been open, even to some of the struggles she had earlier in her career with depression. When asked what this victory meant, not only for her career, but also for her personal journey back, she became quite emotional.
“I am happy because my sponsors have always believed in me,” she said. “I know it’s never easy, so I really appreciate all my sponsors. Then my family and my coach, my managers, my friends, they never gave up on me, no matter how I did it, so I really wanted to win the last few years.
“I really appreciate everyone. When I fell, I really wanted to leave golf, but not because of them. I stayed with him. I kept playing. That’s how I won this week. That’s why I’m so grateful. “
Grateful and honest. How refreshing.
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