Q & A spotlight: Jimin Kang, 1999 U.S. Women's Amateur runner-up
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Q: You were living in Edmonds and attending King's High School in Shoreline when you were runner-up in the 1999 U.S. Amateur. Bring us up to date.
A: I just finished my freshman year at Arizona State. I'm on a golf scholarship. I finished third in the NCAA regionals and shot a 66 on the second day of the tournament. I was 10th at the NCAA Championship. My first semester in school was real hard. I was homesick and my back was messed up. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't swing well. I took Motrim all the way around the course some days. Everything was better in the spring. ... My brother, David, just graduated from King's, and he and my mother have moved down here to live in Scottsdale. My father still spends most of his time in Korea with his businesses but visits us.
Q: You arrived in America in 1995 to improve your life and your golf. How old were you when you arrived and how did you get by not knowing English well?
A: I was almost 16. I smiled a lot.
Q: There's that wonderful story about how your mother was in the pro shop at the Nile course trying to find a good instructor for you and was referred by some folks to Dan Smith at Lynnwood Municipal. How much did he help you?
A: A lot. He was a good teacher and a good friend. Two other people who really helped me were Katherine Eklund, who was my tutor, and Meredith Beals, my high-school counselor.
Q: Your golf accomplishments when you lived here included winning the Washington Amateur, the Orange Bowl International Championship, finishing second in the U.S. Amateur, winning the 36-hole state 1A high-school title by 21 strokes and making the cut in the LPGA Safeco Classic. Have we missed any?
A: I was Pacific Northwest Golf Association junior girl player of the year for my 1998 season and woman of the year for the 1999 season.
Q: What was the biggest change from King's High School to Arizona State?
A: King's was a small, friendly Christian school. It was a good school and my college classes haven't seemed that hard because of what I learned there. But living in the dorm at college was like, "Welcome to the real world!" King's was a Christian school and people didn't swear. College was a real shock. I had never heard girls say such words as they say to each other, words that I'd only heard in rap songs or in movies. Right in front of me. I realized how sheltered I had been.
Q: How tough is it to go to school and play college golf?
A: It's difficult. You can miss almost a week of school for just one tournament. You take your textbooks with you on the road, but I learned the hard way that exams are based on more than textbooks. In spring semester, I made a point of making a friend in every class I had and telling them, "Please take good notes for me." I got a 3.5 grade point.
Q: Have you stepped on any rattlesnakes playing Arizona courses?
A: No, but I've seen some. It's scary.