“Long hitter Jeong Chan-min, pro. Please be quiet.” Jung Chan-min (24) grabbed the driver while a colleague who was going around the practice round introduced them like an official competition while ‘giggling’. It seems to be swinging softly, but the ball he hit flew away with a “ground” sound. The ball flicked over a bunker at 300 yards and landed at 350 yards. Jeong Chan-min was 188cm tall, weighing over 100kg, and had a strong beard, but he was delighted like a child at his colleague’s prank, saying, “If this is the case, I’ll give up.”
On the morning of the 10th, the day before the opening of the Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Korean Tour Woori Financial Championship, Ferrum Country Club in Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do. On this day, his official practice day, Jeong Chan-min, who won the GS Caltex Maekyung Open two years after his debut last week, received congratulations from many people. The appearance of a super long hitter, which was rare in Korea, is drawing a lot of fan attention to the KPGA tour.
The organizers of the tournament decided to take Chan-min Jeong to the 1st and 2nd rounds along with Seong-jae Lim (25), who is participating in this tournament after finishing in the top 10 in the last 3 consecutive tournaments on the PGA Tour, and Sang-hyun Park (40), a veteran representing the KPGA tour. to play together.
There was someone watching Chan-min Jeong with a proud expression. Coach Park Joon-seong (46), who has been coaching the national team, has watched closely since middle school and nurtured his dreams. He is coaching about 10 men and women professional golfers and amateur players, including Jung Chan-min, at Asiad Country Club in Busan. Jeong Chan-min, who wore the Taegeuk mark in high school, has been working with coach Park until now after finishing his amateur national team.
Coach Park also received congratulations from many players and parents. He said, “I am really impressed. Jung Pro starts now.” We listened to the story of coach Park, who has been with Jeong Chan-min, who has started to equip his long hitting ability with delicate short game and putting ability that is comparable to that of the US PGA Tour. I was most curious about Chan-min Jung’s secret to sending his ball straight even while hitting a huge long hit. Coach Park explained: “There are not many places where a long hitter like Pro Chung can catch a driver on domestic courses with many OB zones. But if you don’t hold the screwdriver, you’re not using the most powerful weapon. I did a lot of training to use various pitches depending on the course so that I could hit the driver to my heart’s content. When I was playing in the second part of the tour, I struggled mainly with a hook that quickly bent the ball to the left. So I changed my driver shot to a low fade pitch that flies low and curves slightly to the right. The flight distance is reduced by about 20m, but balls that curve to the left are completely excluded. The left side was closed so that it could be played. In the first part of the tour, I increased the trajectory to get more distance so that I could hit a high fade or close the club a little and hit a push ball that pushes to the right.”
스포츠토토 It is said that the secret to hitting the ball straight lies in the secret of 30 cm. It is to keep the club head facing the target direction from 20cm behind the ball in the impact area to 10cm after the ball is hit. If you turn your wrist early, long hitters wind the ball very badly to the left.
The relationship between Jeong Chan-min and coach Park goes back 10 years. Coach Park said, “I first saw Jeong Chan-min, who competed in Song-Am Bae when he was the leader of the National Team Standing Army. He has a soft body and hits the ball far,” he said. He remembered that while coaching the national team, he was happy to meet great players like Lim Seong-jae and Jeong Chan-min.”
Coach Park once played a round with Tiger Woods when he was in high school studying in the United States. He served as a national representative in Korea in the late 1990s, but he wanted to play on the PGA Tour, so he went to the United States and learned from top leaders such as Butch Harmon, David Leadbetter, and Hank Haney. However, he only made a few appearances on the second division tour. That’s why he says he walked the path of a coach helping more Korean players play on the world’s best stage.
Jeong Chan-min started growing a beard before participating in the US PGA 2nd Tour held in Chile in March, and coach Park said he had advised. Jeong Chan-min said, “The coach’s words that a professional golfer must have a personality touched my heart, so I started cultivating it right away.” Jung Chan-min, who was called the ‘Korean Hulk’, was nicknamed ‘Jeong-ram’, a reference to Yon-ram, the world’s No. 1 with a beard.
Coach Park said, “I want to realize Chan-min’s dream of winning on the PGA Tour together.”