Avocados and a younger Australian making good cash should not alleged to go collectively.
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However Grace Kim does issues her personal method.
The 23-year-old LPGA participant has made a mark on girls’s golf’s premier tour virtually as a lot for her bubbly character as for her spectacular outcomes.
Kim will tee it up within the LPGA’s Tour Championship for the second consecutive yr in Florida on Friday morning Australian time buoyed by the cult following she has gathered from her affection for the fruit which works nicely on toast.
“I identical to avocados. I like consuming them and the emoji,” she mentioned with fun.
“So as a substitute of getting my title or initials on my golf ball, I’m at a stage the place I can design my very own golf ball, and I put an avocado emoji on my golf ball.”
Avocado mania actually started on the non secular dwelling of golf throughout this yr’s Girls’s Open Championship.
Followers of Kim’s greeted her at St Andrews with an indication that mentioned, ‘Go Gracie’ and ‘Go Avocado’, and issues took off from there.
“I’ve been given key rings as items to placed on my bag and this couple rocked up, and mentioned ‘go avocado energy’ or one thing like that,” Kim recalled.
“It’s actually cute and healthful.”
Kim shouldn’t be solely gaining followers for her love of avocados, nevertheless.
The Sydneysider is in her second season on the LPGA and has registered three top-ten finishes for the yr.
She turned skilled three years in the past after a stellar novice profession that included successful gold on the 2018 Youth Olympic Video games in Argentina as nicely claiming the Australian Junior and Australian Beginner titles.
Kim has taken to skilled life like a duck to water because it solely took one season on the secondary Epson Tour to earn promotion to the LPGA as her consistency has held her in good stead.
Wild fluctuations should not sometimes a part of her sport as she has made the lower in 21 of the 27 occasions she has performed thus far this season to maintain the cash rolling in, and to sit down forty sixth on the cash checklist heading into the season-ending event.
She has banked roughly $1.1 million for the yr after taking dwelling greater than $1.4 million final yr with a powerful debut LPGA season that included a breakthrough victory on the Lotte Championship in Hawaii which got here with a prize test of virtually $500,000.
A self-confessed “shopaholic”, Kim purchased herself a hoop with the date of the triumph – 12 April 2023 – engraved on it, and she or he admitted that since she has stepped into the intense lights of the USA, the prize purses can weigh in your thoughts.
“It’s nuts to consider. You miss a putt and it’s arduous not to consider the cash you simply blew off,” she mentioned.
“Nevertheless it doesn’t matter to me as a lot anymore. It’s extra about my composure and the way I play on the golf course, and cash is after.”
What has been on Kim’s thoughts this yr is her health.
In recent times, she has been on the flawed facet of a number of heartbreaking moments.
She was crushed in a playoff in Michigan earlier this yr after beginning the ultimate spherical with a five-shot lead, whereas two years in the past she had an opportunity at successful the Australian Open however she took two out of a fairway bunker and three-putted on the last gap to blow her hopes with a double bogey.
These close to misses would result in many golfers digging deep into the psyche for the answer, however Kim insists her points have been all bodily moderately than psychological.
“What we discovered final yr as a rookie was that bodily I wasn’t lasting very nicely all through the entire yr. Being a reasonably lean individual, I fatigue fairly simply,” she mentioned.
“I additionally typically don’t have the accountability to correctly take care of myself. I simply need to be a sofa potato more often than not. I wanted somebody to push me.”
To get that push, Kim introduced on board osteopath Aaron Bond who travels on the LPGA full-time from ‘Osteo on Course’ – three osteopaths from Melbourne who take care of many of the tour’s Australian contingent with Kim, Steph Kyriacou, Hannah Inexperienced and Minjee Lee all on their books.
In addition to coping with restoration and any niggles, Bond is liable for taking care of Kim within the health club.
She and her fellow Australians usually hit the health club collectively as they journey throughout the USA.
What makes the coaching regime extra spectacular is that Kim doesn’t have a everlasting dwelling in America but.
She intends to purchase in Dallas however spends time on the Golf Australia home in Florida when she shouldn’t be on the street.
Her schedule typically means utilizing a lodge health club or discovering someplace close by her Airbnb for the week to coach.
“This yr I’ve undoubtedly been extra constant off the golf course. I’ve been in a routine of creating certain I’m going to the health club, even throughout event weeks,” she mentioned.
“I’m probably not a health club lover. Aaron’s making an attempt to vary that for me. Typically, there’s one arduous session, one medium and one gentle one. The arduous ones are typically at the beginning of the week, so Mondays appear worse than they usually are.
“We attempt to get it executed (even straight after a event) and I’m not the one one which’s doing that. A number of the women on tour are. It includes squats and deadlifts. It’s undoubtedly totally different to what I’m used to, however you’ve acquired to get to executed if you wish to be the perfect on the planet.”
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The approaching weeks might be an excellent check of the impression of that work.
Kim will fly straight to Melbourne for the Australian Open at Kingston Heath and Victoria golf golf equipment from the LPGA finale in Florida.
That schedule makes for a gruelling two weeks, however she is set to change into the primary Australian since seven-time main champion Karrie Webb in 2014 to win the nationwide open.
“It will be a lie if I mentioned I don’t really feel pressured or nervous, nevertheless it’s all the time a privilege so I ensure that comes first,” she mentioned.
“Clearly, lots of people are going to return watch the perfect Aussies and internationals so I’m tremendous excited and can’t wait to be again dwelling quickly.”
When she returns to Sydney, Kim additionally has some enterprise to handle at her dwelling membership, Avondale Golf Membership.
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She managed to go dwelling for eight days earlier than the LPGA’s Asian Swing in October and bettered the likes of PGA Tour of Australasia participant James Grierson in cash matches at Avondale.
Grierson and others are eager for a rematch.
“I’ve acquired a few members I’d wish to play with, and a few cash matches I’d wish to play with the boys as nicely,” she mentioned.
“I performed with James whereas I used to be dwelling and received a pineapple off him. In order that was good.
“I identical to stealing cash off them. They’re all the time like ‘you’re enjoying on the LPGA, what more cash would you like from us?’, however I purchase them meals afterwards.”