WINTER HAVEN, Fla. | Tough conditions breed strong people. That’s true if you’re driving a wagon train across the high sierras or pushing yourself to run a mile a second or two faster than last time. The easier you make things, the softer you tend to become. Train tough and you harden up. Train in ideal conditions and the first signs of stress will cause you to fall apart.
Min-G Kim did not understand that concept when she learned to play golf on perfect lies and in climate-controlled conditions in South Korea. That’s not unique in the Republic. Most golf is played on ranges and in simulators, especially around Seoul and other large cities where land is at a premium. So Yeon Ryu claims that she never hit a recovery shot until she was on tour. Kim, who grew up in Cheongju, in the center of the country, was not that bad. But she certainly didn’t understand the vagaries of wind.
Then she moved to Laughlin, Nevada, right in between Searchlight and Bullhead City and an hour from the Vegas strip. The wind hasn’t stopped blowing there since the icecaps receded and the wooly mammoth died out. Not long after the owners of Laughlin Ranch Golf Club chose to sponsor Kim and gave her privileges at the course, she learned how to play in tough conditions.
“Where I practice over at Laughlin Ranch, 20 miles an hour is baby wind,” Kim said after shooting 1-under par 71 on Saturday in a 25-mph west wind that inched closer to 30 on the exposed holes at Country Club of Winter Haven. Steady and secure in the work she’s done to get here, Kim enters the final round of the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic at 6-under and in contention for her first career Epson Tour title.
“Yeah, I practice in the wind all the time now,” she said. “It’s not like I’m trying to learn to flight these wind shots, but I do try to play and practice as much as I can when it gets windy because I know we’re going to play in those conditions. I can’t say, it’s windy so I’m not going to practice this or that shot today. No, you have to practice in those conditions so you’re prepared to play in those conditions.”
Challenging conditions steel the mind, sharpen focus, and test your patience at every step. In golf, you can guess wrong, catch a gust or two and walk away with some embarrassing numbers. Kim knows that. She made a bogey and a double after getting it to 8-under par early on Saturday morning. But she also knew that throwing up her hands was futile.
“You can’t fight the wind,” she said. “If you fight it, you lose, every time. You just have to play with the wind. Ride it. It’s tough at times. Sometimes you’re looking at a 30-yard pitch shot, which should be just this straightforward pitch, and the wind can blow it 10, 15 feet. So, you’re lined up at a bunker or something to hit this little shot, which is tough. But you have to trust that the wind is going to be your friend and blow you back on line. You just have to do your thing and let the conditions do their thing. Don’t fight it. Let the wind be your friend.”
That’s easier said than done. On the third hole (her 12th), Kim had a 70-yard shot on the most exposed part of the course. With a far-right hole location and a hard right-to-left wind, she could either line up at the fourth tee, bringing a large oak into play, or line up at the hole and take her chances. She chose the latter, and the wind blew the ball 65 feet left of the hole. But rather than dwell on a bad break, Kim stepped up and came within a whisker of making the bomb for birdie.
“Yeah, on that putt, I was just telling myself not to jam it too hard,” she said. “It worked out.”
She hit another deft short shot on her last hole, almost holing a delicate pitch for eagle. A tap-in birdie moved the six-year Epson Tour veteran within a shot of the lead.
“Just be patient,” she said. “That has to be the mindset on every shot in the wind, even the putts. I forgot that briefly on my first nine. I had it to 3-under par at one point on my first nine and then I had a bogey and a double because I forgot to keep that mindset and was trying to make everything.
“The thing I used to struggle with in the wind was short game because I couldn’t focus,” she said. “I think having a place where it’s really windy and forcing myself to work in those kinds of conditions has really helped. It’s made me conscious of my surroundings and all different types of conditions.”
Kim didn’t say that working in harsh conditions has hardened her up. She didn’t have to. Toughness is a trait that requires no words.
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