Se Ri Pak's Tour Diary

As originally written by Se Ri Pak for Joong Ang Ilbo. Translation by LoveGiants

Diary Entry #33: For My Juniors, I Was Very Strict

After the 2nd round of the Giant Eagle, I had dinner with five American players. They did not make the cut. In the world of golf professionals, sympathy is useless, but I do feel sorry for players who do not make cuts and have to pack for the next tournament. Because, I myself have had that bitter experience. When I would not make a cut, I felt so miserable; and what I wanted to do most at that moment was to leave the course as soon as possible. No one paid any attention to me.

"We are all rivals but off the course, we are also companions who are on the same path." Saying this, I asked my manager to invite some players to dinner that had not made the cut, and my manager invited five of them.

When she saw me invite them, Mother said to Father, "Like father, like daughter. Se Ri likes people too much." My father likes people and is very sympathetic. And he is a man of many moods.

When I would win tournaments, he would serve delicious banquets to the neighbors. When I played well in a practice round, he called together the employees of the Yuseong golf club and had food delivered.
On such a day, the employees and I ate until full.

Even when he was penniless, he lived it up to make me full of fighting spirit. I'm not as extroverted as he, but I feel that I become like him more and more. Having dinner with the five players, I found myself encouraging them like their senior, though I was much younger than they.

I recalled the juniors who had practiced with me when I was a high school student. I just forced them to practice harder instead of encouraging them kindly. When I was a high school student, I was notorious for severity. When the juniors slackened their efforts, I punished them ruthlessly. I had experienced severe training, and I forced my juniors to do what I had done. I thought that it was natural. If there was one who did not obey me, I did not play rounds with her and I did not practice with her.

"You need to practice harder, but you don't. Why?" I browbeat them. One day, father said to me quietly, "You seem to be too harsh to the juniors." Some parents of the juniors had said to him, "Se Ri's punishment is too harsh, please stop her from doing that."

Especially one remains in my memory. She is Jeong Jang, who lived near my house. She attracted my attention all the more because she was also a friend of my younger sister's. She stood out among the juniors. She seemed to have a lot of pride and fighting spirit. She seemed sick and tired of my punishment and scolding. She didn't obey me and we considered each other dead for 1 year.

She might have just been waiting for a chance. When I returned to Korea in August 1997, I reconciled with her and played rounds with her. She had improved a lot. I heard that she had won the Korea Women's Open as a high school student, for the first time in the history of the KLPGA.

If I make much money, I will spend it for juniors like her.

Diary Entry #34: Afraid of Being Broken, I Do Not Eat Eggs

(in Korean, being broken and being beaten are homonyms.)

I've spent several years thinking about only golf all day long, so all my life is closely associated with golf. Habits, jinxes... all are connected with golf.

I believe in Buddhism. I'm not as faithful as my parents, but I'm very interested in Buddhism. When I was a student, Father would take me to a temple that was near a tournament I was going to play in. I would pray to Buddha before the tournament. If I grew restless during the tournament, I would calm down if I pictured myself in the sermon hall of whichever temple I had most recently visited.

I do not believe in superstition, but I do have rituals related to jinxes. They help me feel at ease. I pay much attention to them and I try to keep them as ironclad rules. One is about food and the other is about clothes.

As I said it before, I like almost all kinds of food. But there is one that I don't eat. It is eggs.

I do not eat fried eggs or steamed eggs, let alone raw eggs. In our house, any kind of egg that has to be broken to be eaten is taboo. Since I started golf, mother has forbidden me to eat them, because she's afraid of my spirit getting broken in tournaments. It's just like a student who prepares himself for an exam does not eat seaweed soup (to eat Miyeok kuk (seaweed soup) is to fail an exam in Korean idioms). At first, I alone did not eat eggs, but now no one in my family eats eggs either.

"I have nothing to do with that type of superstition." At first, I had no regard for it, but when the tournament did not go well, I often felt, 'Did I eat something that made me unlucky?' For example, after the second round in the 1998 LPGA Championship, I had a Japanese dish for dinner. But the next day, the ball flew in the wrong direction; and I missed some putts. So after that I felt like it wasn't such a good idea to have Japanese dishes.

I do pay attention to clothes before tournaments. Of course, it's not to spruce myself up. Some even says my style is too boyish and is too much like a country-girl. What I do is select the colors of my clothes according to the players who are paired with me or the rounds that I have played. When I play with players with whom I feel comfortable, I wear bright colors like white. But on the final day of the tournament, when I have to fight for victory, when I have to compete with players who are stronger than I, I wear something dark like black, in order to make an impression of intensity on the rivals. It's a kind of psychological tactic to intimidate rivals. I heard that Tiger Woods, THE Golf Genius, always wears red on the final days of his tournaments. Maybe it's for the same reason.

Samsung sends me four outfits for each round that are tailored to my taste.

And I have another habit I've grown accustomed to since I started golf, although it's not about getting jinxed. I always sleep with my clubs. I sleep with my clubs to keep them within arm's reach. I feel most comfortable in this position, because my belief is that I have only myself and my clubs to depend on during tournaments.