South Korean Golfer Jenny Shin Ends 10-Year LPGA Drought with Scottish Open Win

By Yoo Jee-ho SEUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- A former teen prodigy who won a prestigious junior title at 13, South Korean golfer Jenny Shin went a little over 10 years between her LPGA Tour victories. After ending the drought in Scotland on Sunday by winning the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open, Shin, now 33, reflected on "a pretty rough patch in my career," saying how lost she felt on the top women's golf tour in recent years. But then she managed to find her spark again, as she realized she still loved the game. "The competition," Shin responded at her press conference when asked what she loves the most about golf. Shin held off fellow South Korean Kim A-lim by two strokes to win the tournament at nine-under 279 at Dundonald Links in North Ayrshire. It was Shin's first title since the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout in May 2016. "I kept looking at the leaderboard, and I hate being chased, but at the same time, I think I love adrenaline. I am definitely a junky. So I just love competing," Shin added. Shin started the final round with a five-shot lead over Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand, and the Thai player, after a bogey-double bogey start, put some pressure on the South Korean by making four birdies on the front nine. Shin committed three straight bogeys in one stretch. "She was making a bunch of birdies and I was making bogeys, and I could feel her breath right next to me," Shin said. "It was fun. That was exhilarating. We are all lunatics out here, and I am one of them." It had not always been this fun for Shin, the former U.S. Girls' Junior champion now in her 16th year on the LPGA Tour. She recalled she "really struggled out here" from her eighth season to her 12th season. "I didn't know what my goal was or motivation. So I spent a lot of my prime years searching for who I am," she said. "And I don't regret spending that time at all, but I learned a lot about who I am and what I want." Shin said the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped out several LPGA tournaments from 2020 to 2022, changed her perspective. "I think being jobless for six months really kind of gave me an idea what it is like to not golf professionally. I still golfed every day, but it sucked not being able to do what I am really good at," she said. "That was a very important turning point in my life. I feel like the last four years, I have found a spark again to really love golf. It is just this job is so hard. And to find love and to continue to love this job is incredibly difficult. So I found that spark after COVID, and I am really glad I did because my No. 1 goal was to win again. I can't believe it happened this week." Shin admitted things were "quite grim" after her third bogey in a row on the front nine, and she nearly had a fourth one on the par-4 ninth, where her second shot rolled off the green and a mediocre chip left her with a nervy par attempt that she drained. Shin then birdied two of the next three holes to settle down. "To see the ball go off the green on No. 9, I was about to cry there. I was really happy to see that I sunk that 7-footer," she said. "And then to come back with a birdie on No. 10, I felt pretty comfortable. I felt like I was ready to really take on anything." Shin said she felt proud of herself for hanging tough when her final round could have spiraled out of control. "My first win didn't really feel like a win at the time. I didn't feel like I deserved it," she said. "But this one definitely feels a lot different. This one feels like I earned it. I worked hard for it.