Chuasiriporn at the 1998 US Women's Open, where she finished second.
For a brief few days in 1998, a 20-year-old amateur by the name of Jenny Chuasiriporn stood at the apex of women’s golf. In fact, she very nearly deprived Se Ri Pak of her first major championship, pushing the South Korean to the second hole of a sudden death playoff to decide the US Women’s Open
A career as a leading light of the LPGA Tour appeared inevitable.
And then nothing.
Golf, it turns out, has a curious way of confounding expectations.
It’s only now, on the eve of the US Open’s return to Blackwolf Run, the scene of her heroic near-miss, that Chuasiriporn makes a return to centre stage.
This time, however, she doesn’t stand apart as a paragon of sporting excellence, but as living testament to the impermanence of its rewards.
She rarely swings a club these days and played her last competitive round a little over six years ago.
Fans are conditioned to ask where it all went wrong, but for Chuasiriporn, professional golf never really felt right.
Financial insecurity, a deep-rooted aversion to the sacrifices required of the elite athlete, travel: her life on Tour soon degenerated into a feedback loop of anxiety and guilt.
“I got to a point where I didn’t feel good about it because of how hard [my parents] had worked to make a living and what they had sacrificed to help me,” she told Lisa D. Mickey of the New York Times. “I felt like I was just wasting their money.”
Formerly a player defined by her carefree demeanour and unencumbered, even naive, enthusiasm for the game, Chuasiriporn was soon lost to minitour ennui and a soul-sapping pattern of diminishing returns.
It was only on the sudden death of a close friend, the Zimbabwean golfer Lewis Chitenga, that she succeeded in placing her struggles within a broader context.
“I think that helped me realize how short life was and how I needed to do what I wanted to do to be happy… I had lost the balance in my life. I loved golf, but I didn’t love it that much for every decision I made to revolve around golf or around me, me, me.”
Chuasiriporn returned to university in 2005, where she earned the first of her two degrees in nursing. She now works as a nurse practitioner, providing care – often end-of-life care – to the chronically ill.
To those who contend she resorted to Plan B, the 34-year-old offers an inflexible, if polite, riposte:
“Sometimes I do wonder where my life would be now if I had won that Open… But I actually think I would be right where I am. It just might have taken me longer to get here.”
Conor Nagle
Sad she doesn’t play anymore. I wonder where Birdie Kim is these days???
Birdie Kim is playing on the Symetra Tour this year… trying to make a comeback after some injury problems. She played in the final stage of LPGA Q School last December, but did not qualify.
I just saw a replay of that 1998 Women’s Open. What a performance Jenny put on that week. I’m sorry she did not make it on the tour. She had a beautiful smile. Women’s golf could use more smiles like hers.
Mike
Great choice, Jenny! Thanks for the update, Steph.
I was at Blackwolf Run for the 1998 Women’s US Open. My wife and I got there early Sunday morning and got a seat on the grass in the first row behind the ropes at the 18th green. When Jenny made her putt, we were exactly opposite the hole from where she made the shot, right on the line of the putt. She hit the putt, and about halfway to the hole, you could see the reality of the situation hit her. She didn’t say anything, but she dropped her putter and both hands came up to her mouth. You could read her mind saying, “Oh my God I’m going to be the clubhouse leader in the US Open.”
I know whatever else I see in life, I will never see a moment like an amateur tying for the 72 hole lead of the US Open. I will never forget that moment.
Nice piece, Steph.
Sometimes I nice to get a reminder that there is so much more to life than just hitting a little white ball.
Well done to Jenny too.
no one would prefer slaving away as a nurse for very avg pay to being a multi millioniare star lpga golfer. her career never worked out and now shes making the best of her life but to say she would rather be working like a dog as a nurse is pure psychobabble spin to make herself feel good
False. Her cultural background (Thai Buddhism) gave her a world view far different from typical westerners. I have been visiting Thailand regularly since the 80′s, and spent two years as country manager for a Fortune 10 company in Bangkok, and I saw countless choices made like hers that don’t match what we would typically choose. Tiger Woods’ choices are not the typical ones you see from this culture.
you are a complete ass.
That was meant for J
Good writeup, Conor, except for the fact that the Open was not Se Ri’s first major win…that occured six weeks earlier at the LPGA Championship.
Kevin
J: How many LPGA players are multi-millionaires? I’m sure if she tore it up immediately after turning pro she would have remained in the game, but give her credit for realizing it wasn’t for her. Many of the 156 players feeing it up this week will take home far less than she will as a nurse at the end of the year. The current LPGA tour is a very tough place to make a living for the run of the mill player. Each year relatively young, once promising stars give up the dream. Jenny just realized it a lot sooner than others. None of the articles I read this week have made her come off as anything but content, so I don’t really think it is psycho-babble at all.
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[...] Wherefore art thou, Jenny Chuasiriporn? “Sometimes I do wonder where my life would be now if I had won that Open… But I actually think I would be right where I am. It just might have taken me longer to get here.” [...]