Journey of a Young Golfer | 10min snip from No Laying Up

Speaker 2
Life has
Speaker 4
been pretty busy, especially in the spring. I think fall was so much fun. Like having that freedom, it's like no parents, you know, that was so new and so exciting. And then like you hit the spring and you're traveling so much and you have so much homework and you're like, all right, this is, this is life. So
Speaker 2
a little chaotic. You look like you've been handling it well though. And let's reflect on that last year. I mean, you had ever since Anwar 2024, it feels like everything has just gone zero to 100, so to speak. Low AM at Chevron, big run at the Girls' Junior, Curtis Cup, and now just this incredible year at USC. How have you processed all that success? I
Speaker 4
don't think I have processed it yet, honestly. When I go to a tournament, I don't go to the tournament thinking, oh, I'm the best player in the field. I don't really think that I still I still am that 16 year old girl playing AJGA opens deep down.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Can you define that? Like, are you just kind of entering it more in a chill mindset? What what does that mean? That
Speaker 4
means when I go to a tournament, I'm basically there to play golf. It's almost as if, like, somebody who wants to play a public course have a couple of beers on the course. Like, it's kind of that mindset, just, I guess, more intense. I just try to go out there and play, like, the best golf that I can, not really thinking. I mean, it's you obviously do think about like the competition, like where you want to win your ranking. It comes in your head, but I try not to think about it. I try to approach a tournament as it's just a golf course and it's golf and, you know, it's a sport. You're just trying to have fun. You
Speaker 2
seem to gel so well on teams like we saw in the Curtis Cup and now at USC. Does that relax you? Yeah,
Speaker 4
I think having a friend there, having someone by your side is definitely something that helps you. It just takes kind of like the rigor off of golf because it takes the individual part out. So
Speaker 2
before we dive further into the present day, I want to learn a little bit more about your golf story.
Speaker 4
Where does it start and who got you into
Speaker 2
it? Golf is, it's so
Speaker 4
random because my parents do not play golf. I don't even think they played any sports, but when we were younger, me and my brother, I have an older brother, they kind of, they put us through a bunch of sports and then a golf academy was one of them and so yeah we just thought it was like really fun and it was like a once a week every Saturday for an hour thing and I did competitive swimming growing up actually took swimming very very seriously and once swimming kind of hit like a plateau, obviously, because of like height and genetic issues, it was like, okay, maybe I'll play golf. Like golf is kind of fun, you know, like it's something I could do. And when I was like 11, 12, I've made the switch to golf and it's worked out pretty well, I would say. Why
Speaker 2
do you still play golf? Why
Speaker 4
do I still play golf? Because I don't want to sound cocky, but because I'm good at it. No,
Speaker 2
that's perfect. To substantiate that, you're the only other Trojan, aside from Annie Park, to win three consecutive tournaments. And then with your win at Meadow Club, you tied the program record for tournament wins. How do you continuously find ways to keep elevating your game?
Speaker 4
There's always going to be an issue with your game and you just keep working on it. You just keep finding like problems, I guess, in a healthy way. You just keep finding problems with your game. Like right now, my wedges aren't perfect. Right now, my putting speed isn't perfect. And I'm just going to keep working on that, keep working on bettering myself. And if I succeed in those, and that means I'll eventually win tournaments. Is
Speaker 2
there a satisfaction when you find the answer or is it more of just excitement from kind of discovering the problem? You're like, OK, I know I can fix this.
Speaker 4
don't think fix is very like I don't know if fix is the right word to use because I don't think you can ever fix it I don't think you can ever master any of the problems that you're going through golf-wise skill-wise and uh the satisfaction comes from knowing I did better knowing I, or even just winning a golf tournament, being like at the top of the leaderboard. It's satisfying.
Speaker 2
Totally. I think the general audience has kind of gotten to know you from some pretty viral shots, viral moments. The Chevron shot that bounced off the platform, that one exploded. Then when you hit driver off deck at the Curtis Cup, that also exploded. But I really want to know how Jasmine Koo defines her golf game.
Speaker 4
playing well in college is my coaches have helped me dial my wildness down. I like to shape shots. I like to hit fades. I like to hit big hooks around trees, kind of just be creative role model and golf is Tiger Woods. He's the same way. That's how I would define myself. Just pretty freelancer. really like to go for pins when sometimes I shouldn't. Okay.
Speaker 2
I'm going to touch on that a little bit more because that is really fascinating of an approach. But in terms of your time at USC and how you've kind of tamed that wild side, if you will, I heard from your coach, Justin Silverstein, that you especially admire Kathy, Catherine Park's game and just Kathy as a person. I would love to hear more about that and her influence on you.
Speaker 4
Oh, yeah. Kathy, a.k Kathy Barra. She's like the sunlight of our team. Like she's she's just a person that when you enter the room, like everything just becomes not boring. Like all the boredom just gets sucked away when she enters the room. And like person as a person, I don't I don't ever see a situation where someone can say anything negative about her. And as a golfer, I really respect her golf game because it's so different than mine. There's this thing we do called the line test. It's basically there's a straight line in the simulator room and you're just hitting balls as straight as you can. And when I do it, it's like usually draw or fade. When I hit it good, it's a draw or fade into the straight line. But hers is like every single shot is just on the white line on the white line like it's an arrow and like I just think that's so impressive how she can do
Speaker 2
that if I know a thing or two about USC it's that players come out tour ready what's your long-term plan my long-term plan
Speaker 4
it's to go pro hopefully um to be number one in the world hopefully just to dominate I just want to be like
Speaker 2
better and better did you always have a plan to go to college or was it something that you came around to how did that decision come about yeah
Speaker 4
I always planned on going to college because when I was a junior golfer, I wouldn't say I was like at the top of my class. So in junior golf, I was I always had college in mind because I never knew if I could go pro or not as like in as like a skill level. I didn't know if I was good enough or talented enough to go pro. And so college was always in my mind because I was like, oh, like I really want to do something that apart from golf that I could have a stable career in. And then I got recruited for, I got recruited, committed to USC. And then that's when I started playing better. And I was like, oh, wait, maybe I do have the talent to go pro but then like I started growing a relationship with Justin and that once it came time to enter there was just no thought of like I'm not going to go to college there was just no thought of that so
Speaker 2
it was more so later in your junior golf career where you became fully certain but then also certain of post-college plans
Speaker 4
Yes, yes, exactly. What
Speaker 2
has that relationship with Justin been like? Very,
Speaker 4
I can't find the word for it. It's very interesting. Justin and I have expectations for each other. And I got to be careful with what I say, because I know he's going to listen to this. But I think right now I'm focusing on just meeting his expectations, because I know that if I do meet his expectations, I'll be better. I'll be tour ready. And I'll just be the person, the golfer that I want to be. So a lot of trust in that. From me to him, a lot of trust in that relationship for sure. You're
Speaker 2
coming into your second, Anwar, your second Augusta National Women's Amateur, in a little bit of a different place in your career, being in college, having, you know, a little more experience under your belt. What are your expectations this time and where's your confidence level now? Much
Speaker 4
higher than last time. Last year was kind of me just going in and being like, all right, I just want to make a cut, you know, and then this year I'm kind of, I'm going in and I'm like, all right, let's win this thing. So that's the switch. That's the difference. difference is because last year uh I got fourth last year which was completely unexpected I was like wait like I actually kind of came close to winning even though the score was off like I was kind of close to number one on the leaderboard and I was like wow that's pretty cool so this year I'm definitely going in of a mindset like all right let's let's go to win it's not going to make the cut let's go to win do
Speaker 2
you

980: LPGA Check-In & ANWA Preview + Jasmine Koo Interview

No Laying Up - Golf Podcast

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts