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Country: gb Page generated at: Friday, 3 April 2026 at 12:27:36 British Summer Time
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Lady golfer: 5 Minutes with Na Yeon Choi

published: Apr 11, 2013

|

updated: Jul 24, 2023

Lady golfer: 5 Minutes with Na Yeon Choi

Tom IrwinLink

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The World No 2 and US Open champion on one shot at a time, Tae Kwon Do and Brazil 2016

Lady golfer: 5 Minutes with Na Yeon Choi

MY coaches Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott always give me good advice about really small goals. They say I need to have a small goal every day. Sometimes you have to forget a bad result or a bad day.

But sometimes you have to forget good days too. So just do what you can do and just focus on your game and have some small goal before you tee off, and just warm up. And warm-
up is just warm-up.

Don’t judge or compare about the swing. They always say golf is five or six hours of sport. But I have to do only 10 minutes of focus on my game. When I hit the shot, it only takes like five or seven seconds. And after the shot, during the walk to the next shot, I switch off.

Before I started golf I was playing Tae Kwon Do. I went to Tae Kwon Do academy every day with my brother. I had a coach in there and he really want to make me like a professional fighter but my father say ‘you can’t do this’. She’s going to play golf.

When I started golf, I just quit the Tae Kwon Do. I think American parents or American people like to compliment but I think Korean people get motivated from other people. We can bounce other Korean players up higher. 

My final goal is I want to play in the 2016 Olympics and get a medal under the Korean flag We have a lot of golfers on the LPGA Tour around my age like Inbee Park, Jiyai Shin, Song‐Hee Kim and IK Kim. We grew up together and we were on the same national team when we were young. I think we’re pretty close to each other.

My final goal is I want to play in the 2016 Olympics and get a medal under the Korean flag. That is my biggest goal right now. I can be like No. 1 in the world or Player of the Year, but my biggest dream is playing in the Olympics and I want to get a medal from there.

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After I won the Vare Trophy 2010 and I finished No. 1 on the Money List, I felt not many people knew about me, especially American fans and American media. Then I talked to my dad, saying I might need to study English.

I found myself an English tutor and travelled with him for whole year. And even when we had dinner or when we had breakfast, I was talking English with him.

About the author

Tom Irwin
Tom Irwin

Tom is a lifetime golfer, now over 30 years playing the game. 2023 marks 10 years in golf publishing and he is still holding down a + handicap at Alwoodley in Leeds. He has played over 600 golf courses, and has been a member of at least four including his first love Louth, in Lincolnshire. Tom likes unbranded clothing, natural fibres, and pencil bags. Seacroft in Lincolnshire is where it starts and ends.

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