From Mom’s Injury to Selling Family Business: In-Gee Chun Reveals Her Saddening Past Before LPGA
In-Gee Chun needs no introduction to the golf world! Hailing from South Korea, her prowess on the green is undeniable. With a remarkable track record boasting four LPGA Tour victories, three of them are major championships! Now the professional golfer will be looking to secure more top-spot finishes this year. However, her journey to become a professional golfer has not been filled with flowers and petals.
Chun faced a lot of hardships in her junior golfing days to finally reach the position she is in today. The LPGA Tour player recently shed light on a few of them, talking primarily about her parents’ sacrifices.
In a recent interview with Handicap 54, the South Korean golfer shared her motivation to succeed as a pro golfer. She turned pro quite early in 2012, at the age of seventeen. However, there were other reasons for her decision. Talking about how she grew up in Korea, she shared, “In Korea, it’s common for one parent from home to give up their full-time job so that their child can pursue their dream of becoming a golfer.” In her family, it was her father who decided to stay home.
내 피드에도 #핑크 추가하기
Adding the #color #pink to my feed
#LA#엘에이 pic.twitter.com/zCB6014fZF— 전인지 • In Gee Chun (@ingeechun_dumbo) April 18, 2022
Chun’s father supported her in following her full-time golf schedule, leaving her mom to support the entire family financially. Unfortunately, her mom hurt her ankle while working at her restaurant. At this point, In-Gee Chun was focusing completely on junior golf. But the injury to her mom’s ankle worsened day by day. This led to their family selling her mom’s restaurant, as she was not able to continue working there. This whole instance motivated her to do best, and become a professional soon, so she could support her parents financially.
“It was a difficult situation back then, but I gained motivation to succeed as a golfer in order to support my parents later on,” said Chun. Facing these hardships early on in her career became a driving factor for the South Korean golfer.
The success story of the South Korean golfer
Now she has flipped the whole situation around as her yearly earnings land between $2.7 million and $3 million! She was nineteenth on Forbes’ list of the highest-paid female athletes in 2022. Furthermore, with sponsors like Nike, Deloitte, Tag Heuer, and many more under her belt, she earns $3 million a year from endorsements alone.
