“I didn’t know I would be playing this long. I was someone who had no connection to golf at all.”
When asked the secret of the ‘long run’ to ‘the oldest seed’ Choi Ho-seong, an unexpected answer came back. Choi Ho-seong was 23 years old and didn’t know about golf driving ranges until he got a part-time job at Anyang Benest CC. When he saw the green netting in the cage, he thought it was a chicken coop. Then one day, a shot he tried for fun changed his life. Every time I made a miss, the ball that was hit properly flew about 200m and fell. At that time, he first experienced the feeling of Chae hitting the ball with a ‘tap’. He said that the pleasure shimmered in his head even before he went to bed. The beginning was accidental, but after that, I trained rigorously. Days followed by waking up at 4:30 every morning and practicing for 6-7 hours. Having joined the Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) in 1999, he won the Hana Tour Championship in 2008, then won two domestic and three Japanese Professional Golf Tour (JGTO) victories. In addition, this year, the title of the oldest seed holder was added. As the only 50-year-old on the KPGA Tour this season, he takes to the field with his outstanding juniors.
Choi Ho-seong, who met with Asia Economic Daily on the 10th, explained, “Junior students are beings that give and receive good influence rather than competitors.” He explains that whenever he sees a junior with excellent skills and superior physical condition, he gets a good stimulus as a fellow player rather than a competitive spirit. In particular, I admired Kim Joo-hyung, who recently posted the ‘youngest two wins’ on the US Professional Golf (PGA) tour. Kim Joo-hyung is the first player born in the 2000s to win the PGA Tour Wyndham Championship in August last year, and two months later, in October, at the Shriners Children’s Open, he won his second championship. It became a hot topic in Korea with a record faster than the ‘golf emperor’ Tiger Woods (USA). He said, “I feel vicarious satisfaction when I see my juniors performing outstandingly in foreign countries,” he said.
At a later age, he also received media attention. In 2018, his finishing move, aka ‘fisherman swing’, in which he lifts one foot and spins around, became a hot topic. With this opportunity, he was invited to the PGA Tour AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament held in February of the following year. It was his first PGA Tour event. There were many positive reactions, but there were also criticisms that ‘the swing form is not standard’. He said, “The angler’s swing is a posture I developed to put maximum strength on my shot, as I have less strength and flexibility compared to younger players.” 온라인바카라
Choi Ho-seong is also going on a senior tour this year. I will focus on the regular tour, but plan to participate in the senior tour whenever I can afford it. He is the oldest on the regular tour, but he is a “rookie” on the senior tour. “When I go on the senior tour, I’m just a rookie,” he said. “I feel more and more that age is just a number. It’s my personal wish to have more players in their 50s like me on the regular tour.”
Recently, I also started a new hobby. I added fun to the ‘one-stroke method’ of drawing without taking the brush off the paper even once. His first work was a picture of himself playing a fisherman’s swing. Choi Ho-seong said, “Painting is a way to get away from golf and imagine for a while.” He finds happiness even in the time he spends with his children. I record videos of children copying lines from TV dramas or mimicking singer vocal chords, and I gain strength by watching them throughout the season.
Golf, which I came across by chance, has now become everything in my life. He said, “Golf is a means of making a living for the family and everything in life.”
My goal for the future is to maintain my skills as I am now. Choi Ho-seong emphasized, “It’s not easy to keep a place in the golf world where young players with excellent strength and technical skills are pouring out every year.” .