DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It’s the ultimate case of the grass is always greener on the other side.
Kelly Shon’s friends want her career, her passion for her work. She sometimes wants theirs and the stability and guaranteed paycheck that comes with it.
While the bulk of Shon’s fellow Princeton graduates work in “consulting or finance” jobs, Shon teed it up Wednesday at the LPGA’s Final Qualifying Tournament as the only Ivy League graduate in the field.
“We talk about it all the time when I see my friends up north. They think I’m living the life, whereas I kind of just want to instead of living out of my suitcase, stay in one place, make friends and whatever,” Shon said. “There’s pros and cons, right?”
Shon, who graduated with a degree in Sociology in June, takes a time to ponder the question of what she’d be doing if it weren’t for golf as if she hasn’t thought about it in years.
“Umm…,” Shon says with a pause. “Probably working for a non-profit somewhere. I don’t really know. I was thinking about Teach for America for a while before graduating. I’m still thinking about joining the Peace Corps after this, this as in my golf career whenever that ends.”
Shon first started considering attempting to become the first Ivy League graduate – and first ever from Princeton – to play on the LPGA Tour since Jeehae Lee (Yale) in 2009 when she was a freshman at Princeton. The 2014 Ivy League Player of the Year said she knew, though, two years ago as a junior at NCAA Regionals that she for sure had the game when she finished second there. She didn’t play well at Nationals that year but there’s a reason for that.
“Bad excuse but it was during my finals,” Shon said with a laugh. “I had a lot to do.”
That regionals performance, though, as well as qualifying for the 2011 and 2012 U.S. Women’s Open, proved the path she wanted to take. There have been doubts along the way but with a game as fickle as golf, that’s inevitable.
After graduating in May, she immediately began playing Epson Tour events and finished 67th on the money list in only four months on Tour, missing only one cut in 12 starts.
But her hope is that the Epson Tour won’t come calling in 2015, and she’ll instead get her LPGA card this week. She got off to a solid start Thursday, sitting in a tie for 24th at 1-under-par 71. More impressive than the 71, though, was how she rebounded. She was 3-over through seven holes but never freaked out, pouring in four birdies on the final 11 holes to post a solid number heading into the second round.
“It was easy for me to get discouraged, but I just knew there was so much golf yet and I needed to capitalize on what I can coming in,” Shon said.
Her biggest challenge this week, she says, is “just wanting it too bad.” That’s not impossible to overcome but she’s asked what it’s going to take? Avoid one bad round?
“Avoid one bad hole, maybe?” Shon said, laughing. “I have to keep myself in it for a while.”
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