Juniors winter training at Choi Kyung-ju’s house

Korean men’s golf is seeing the light. It is not uncommon to see Korean players making it to the top 10 on the PGA Tour, where the strongest players are gathered. From the beginning of the new year, the news of Kim Si-woo’s Sony Open victory came in, bringing great joy to golf fans during the winter season when there was no domestic tour. PGA Tour star Jordan Spieth also said at the CJ Cup that the future of Korean men’s golf looks bright. The spearhead of all of that is Kyung-Joo Choi, the first Korean to enter the PGA Tour.

Kyung-Joo Choi, who has been active on the PGA Tour with the Champions Tour as a base for two years, started the year with a winter camp by inviting junior players from the Choi Kyung-Joo Foundation to his home. This winter training with a total of 13 junior players is still ongoing as a 6-week course. Waiting for Choi Kyung-ju, who returned home after playing on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, has become a campground full of children, not a house where you can enjoy a quiet rest. The amount of meat he eats every evening, including the staff, is 15 jin. It is said that it only takes 20 minutes from the moment the first runner opens the rice to the moment the rice is finished. If you are a professional, self-management comes first and conditioning is the most important thing, but Choi Kyung-ju turned his house into a junior winter training ground.

As with all field training, the winter training here continues with a forced march from morning to evening. Strength training and practice ball hitting and rounds. In addition, to teach them how to exercise happily and happily, they also take mental and life coaching lectures online at night through a specialized institution, the HD Happiness Research Institute.

Here, there is the signature training of Kyung-Joo Choi, which is already widely known. It is a clay driving range and bunker shot practice that makes good contact with the ball. Even well-trained pros struggle to make contact when the ball is placed in a tight lie or odd stance. Clay training grounds are bare ground made of mud. The feeling of hitting the ball accurately and the result come out clearly. In particular, the grass in Korea is easier to hit because the ball floats slightly on the grass. That’s why golfers think their contact is good, but a shot from the ground shows their true skill. If you put a ball on the hardened mud and hit it, Choi Kyung-ju, who has won 8 wins on the PGA Tour, will give you advice. It is a fantastic winter camp. 스포츠토토

Choi Kyung-ju, who is called a bunker shot genius, says bunker shots are the basis of swing. You can tell if you hit a shot right by hitting a bunker shot and seeing how much spin it eats. The sense of distance learned in the bunker is also clear. Mastering the bunker shot, which requires free use of the wrist and arm from a variety of lies, can make iron shots sharper and more aggressive, as well as confidence. Foundation children are practicing with sand so that their mouths smell sweet. It is an opportunity that is not easily available in Korea.

A tightly packed day where everyone eats, sleeps and trains without privacy is difficult, but Choi Kyung-ju always says that he gets more energy from the juniors. The challenges and sense of achievement received from each other piled up over the winter, so if one day among these juniors a player on the PGA Tour appeared, it would be a great joy for Choi Kyung-ju.