the
WOMEN’S ISSUE
GINA KIM
Student and Golfer, Chapel Hill High School For the most part, Gina is your typical high school student – she’s studying for the ACT or shopping at Southpoint when she’s not doing her homework. What is atypical about Gina, however, is that on top of all the normal concerns of being a teenager, she is also worried about her golf game. Back in 2016, Gina clenched the Rolex Girls Junior Champion title in the tournament featuring competitors from as far away as Taiwan. Gina did better than even she expected. “[Winning] motivated me to keep on practicing hard and doing better during the whole summer, and I think that opened a lot more opportunities for me,” she says. Now the golf prodigy will participate in her first Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament this month in Texas, and after, she has her eyes on the Solheim Cup held this summer in Iowa. While Gina prefers to practice on her home course of Croasdaile Country Club, she also enjoys the courses at Governors Club and UNC Finley. “I
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pretty much started golf there with summer camp,” Gina says of Finley, “It holds a lot of memories for me.” Gina started golfing around age 6, when her dad took her and sister Hannah to the driving range. “He gave us these small clubs, and said, ‘Here, why don’t you swing it?’” Gina says of her dad. “We weren’t that interested at first. My sister just flat-out said, ‘Dad, I don’t think this is for me.’” “I could see that he was so heartbroken, because he loves
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Gina has lived in Chapel Hill all her life, attending Seawell Elementary, Smith Middle and now Chapel Hill High. She has been playing golf since age 6, and has competed seriously since age 8. In 2016, she won the Rolex Girls Junior Championship and plans to play golf for Duke in the fall of 2018.
golf so much,” Gina recalls, “I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I said, ‘Dad, I like it, I’ll keep trying it.’” After two years of playing as a hobby with her dad, Gina started competing in tournaments at age 8. “It became my passion,” she says. This fall she’ll sign a letter of intent to play for Duke (a contested choice, she says, as her parents, Hosun Kim and Sangsuk Kim, are Spanish professors at UNC). When asked about her future, Gina first says, “graduating high school peacefully,” but after, notes her dreams of setting up a foundation for others interested in the sport. “I feel like golf gave me so much,” she says. “It’s worth it and meaningful [to me] to give back and let other kids try it and actually stick with it.” –LZK