KirkwoodGolf

Monday, July 13, 2015

In Gee Chun coming to Turnberry with 

chance of a unique Major debut double

In Gee Chun, a 20-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, is going to try to pull off a debut double - the US Women's Open, which she won by a stroke on Sunday, and the Ricoh Women's British Open at Turnberry from July 30 to August 2.
It will be her first trip to Scotland.
Chun's parents sank every cent they had into her golf game. Both her mother and her father, Jong Jin Chun, were left unemployed and without an income when her father’s small convenience store folded in South Korea
In Gee Chun was a maths prodigy at school. She initially hated golf and kept playing only because someone teased her about her swing when she first picked up a club and she grew angry.
Now, she is one of the most popular players in South Korea — and that was before she birdied four of her last seven holes on Sunday to win the US Women's Open.
“My parents tried everything to make sure I didn’t feel any financial pressure,” Chun said. “It wasn’t until later that I realised that they had financial troubles.”
She had a beaming smile throughout the final round of the US Women's Open.
“That’s just her make up and character,” Chun’s caddie, Dean Herden, said. “She’s got a good upbringing and good parents. Coming from a not-well-to-do family, they really trusted in In Gee and her game. They had no money, and she wanted to be a pro golfer, so Mom and Dad stuck with her. It’s one of those Cinderella stories.”
It was In Gee Chun's fifth competition on the LPGA Tour.this year. She did not win any of the first four but, she said through an interpreter, "I got a lot of experience just playing in America. It helped a lot on Sunday."
She has won seven times in all on the South Korean LPGA Tour, three this year plus one on the Japanese LPGA Tour.
A record US Women's Open first prize of $810,000 should boost the family finances further.