Defeat at the U.S. Women’s Open changed Jenny Chuasiriporn’s Life
The year was 1998. The place, BlackWolf Run Golf Club, Kohler, Wis, the event, U.S. Women’s Open. The final changed the lives of both the players, Jenny Chuasiriporn and Se Ri Pak.
Both players had to play 20 extra holes after a tie. Pak won and ended Chuasiriporn’s dream of winning the event.
The event influenced the careers of both the players in a drastic manner. Pak went on to become a well known player while Chuasiriporn lost her touch.
This year, Pak will return to Blackwolf Run while Chuasiriporn will see the event on TV. Chuasiriporn, now 34, has no regrets about that day or her defeat.
She said, “That tournament changed my life in one respect, but it would have changed my life entirely had I won it”.
Chuasiriporn had a brilliant amateur career before the event. She was a star on the amateur golf circuit and well known to fans all over the world. Pak was in her rookie year. The contrast could not have been greater.
Chuasiriporn’s defeat signalled the end of her career. She went pro but failed to recover her form again. She burst on the golf scene as a talented amateur and proved her mettle against some of the top players of her time.
Doubting on her game was her undoing. She started to question her pro career and began looking for a life beyond the golf course.
Many say that it was her ability of enjoying life that made her the superstar she was. Once golf lost its appeal, Chuasiriporn began to look for something else.
One of her former teammates said, “The joy of playing golf was why Jenny was so good, and when you take that away, it wasn’t fun anymore”.
Chuasiriporn spent some time on the pro circuit but never found the satisfaction of her amateur days. When her close friend Lewis Chitengwa died in 2001, Chuasiriporn re-evaluated her goals and decided to go into nursing.
These days, Chuasiriporn works as a nurse with chronically sick patients. She is still a golf fan and follows the game closely.
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