Indiana University Athletics
Kong Having Fun Again After Rocky Start
4/14/2016 10:44:00 AM | Women's Golf
By: Sam Beishuizen, IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana - This time last year, golf wasn't fun for Alix Kong. It hadn't been for a while.
Then a freshman, Kong was in the midst of what she called the worst slump of her amateur golf career, and her confidence was suffering because of it. Nothing she tried to do on the golf course worked the way she wanted it to, and the frustrating part was not being able to understand why she suddenly labored through rounds on the types of courses she used to thrive on.
Kong was fighting every day to maintain what was left of her swing and her mental composure. After months of trying and failing to snap out of whatever funk she was in, she made a career-altering decision to take a few steps back and start reconstructing the golf swing she once trusted without hesitation.
"I had to start all over," Kong said. "I had to learn to golf again."
Kong's decision to retool her golf swing came after one of the more polarizing starts to a golf career a freshman could have.
Kong arrived in Bloomington out of British Columbia, Canada, as an already accomplished junior player with noticeable potential from the beginning. As a freshman, she immediately started turning in qualifying scores low enough to jump into the starting lineup.
Though she had mixed success in the 11 college tournaments she played—her best round was a 72 but her stroke average was just over 79—Kong's transition into collegiate golf seemed to be going as well as she could have expected.
Then without warning, her swing went away.
"Just out of nowhere," Kong said. "At this point last semester, my swing kind of went out the door and I didn't really know how to go about clawing my way back because I'd never been at that low of a point in my golf game or played as bad as I was playing in my entire life. I don't think I knew how to deal with it."
Kong, who said her confidence was as low as it could get by then, turned to head coach Clint Wallman for help. The two of them started working one-on-one to figure out first and foremost what was technically wrong with Kong's swing, but then, perhaps more importantly, they started working on what was going awry mentally.
"It was more than just helping her find her swing," Wallman said. "She had to find herself. I always tell the girls I'm a life coach. I just work in golf. You're going to come across times in life where it's going to be tough. You're going to doubt yourself. Hopefully, you'll be able to suck it up and someone will be there to help you out."
Naturally, Wallman was there for Kong as she turned her focus to the basics of her golf swing. Everything ranging from her posture, takeaway and balance were analyzed in hopes of finding a few fundamental flaws that could be corrected.
As she worked, Wallman offered almost exclusively positive encouragement. His thought process was that as Kong started to believe in her swing again, it would come back the way she remembered it.
With time, it did.
"Kudos for her for being able to regroup and take a relaxed tone to what she was doing," Wallman said. "She worked hard and saw signs of getting there. Then she snapped out of it."
Kong came back for her sophomore season and led Indiana through two rounds of qualifying before trailing off at the end.
Whenever her swing started working against her, Kong said she made a point to not let herself return to the mental place she was the year before knowing she couldn't afford to throw away all the progress she made.
"The thing I learned the hardest was just how much of a difference my mental game makes," Kong said. "People kept telling me it would make me play better, but I never believed it until you're there. But I stopped looking at tournaments as something to be nervous about. I've been less anxious and enjoying everything."
Kong's commitment and patience started paying dividends midway through the spring when she was unexpectedly brought to the Westbrook Invitational as an individual only to shoot the fourth best tournament total among the six Hoosiers competing.
Wallman added Kong into the starting lineup again at the Bay Area Intercollegiate only to see Kong follow an opening-round 80 with a 68 that pushed her into 16th place in the tournament.
Wallman followed Kong through her last five holes only to see her drive into the weeds on 17, get out of trouble, hit a wedge to 25 feet and then hit a downhill, double-breaker putt to save par in some of the best scrambling Wallman said he's seen this year.
"It was like, wow," Wallman said. "That's growth."
Kong agreed, saying she probably wouldn't have been able to follow up an 80 with a 68 a year ago. But she's not the same player anymore, and that's probably for the better. Her scores certainly show that much.
But it's even more obvious in her body language.
"I'm just enjoying it," she said. "I love golf again."
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana - This time last year, golf wasn't fun for Alix Kong. It hadn't been for a while.
Then a freshman, Kong was in the midst of what she called the worst slump of her amateur golf career, and her confidence was suffering because of it. Nothing she tried to do on the golf course worked the way she wanted it to, and the frustrating part was not being able to understand why she suddenly labored through rounds on the types of courses she used to thrive on.
Kong was fighting every day to maintain what was left of her swing and her mental composure. After months of trying and failing to snap out of whatever funk she was in, she made a career-altering decision to take a few steps back and start reconstructing the golf swing she once trusted without hesitation.
"I had to start all over," Kong said. "I had to learn to golf again."
Kong's decision to retool her golf swing came after one of the more polarizing starts to a golf career a freshman could have.
Kong arrived in Bloomington out of British Columbia, Canada, as an already accomplished junior player with noticeable potential from the beginning. As a freshman, she immediately started turning in qualifying scores low enough to jump into the starting lineup.
Though she had mixed success in the 11 college tournaments she played—her best round was a 72 but her stroke average was just over 79—Kong's transition into collegiate golf seemed to be going as well as she could have expected.
Then without warning, her swing went away.
"Just out of nowhere," Kong said. "At this point last semester, my swing kind of went out the door and I didn't really know how to go about clawing my way back because I'd never been at that low of a point in my golf game or played as bad as I was playing in my entire life. I don't think I knew how to deal with it."
Kong, who said her confidence was as low as it could get by then, turned to head coach Clint Wallman for help. The two of them started working one-on-one to figure out first and foremost what was technically wrong with Kong's swing, but then, perhaps more importantly, they started working on what was going awry mentally.
"It was more than just helping her find her swing," Wallman said. "She had to find herself. I always tell the girls I'm a life coach. I just work in golf. You're going to come across times in life where it's going to be tough. You're going to doubt yourself. Hopefully, you'll be able to suck it up and someone will be there to help you out."
Naturally, Wallman was there for Kong as she turned her focus to the basics of her golf swing. Everything ranging from her posture, takeaway and balance were analyzed in hopes of finding a few fundamental flaws that could be corrected.
As she worked, Wallman offered almost exclusively positive encouragement. His thought process was that as Kong started to believe in her swing again, it would come back the way she remembered it.
With time, it did.
"Kudos for her for being able to regroup and take a relaxed tone to what she was doing," Wallman said. "She worked hard and saw signs of getting there. Then she snapped out of it."
Kong came back for her sophomore season and led Indiana through two rounds of qualifying before trailing off at the end.
Whenever her swing started working against her, Kong said she made a point to not let herself return to the mental place she was the year before knowing she couldn't afford to throw away all the progress she made.
"The thing I learned the hardest was just how much of a difference my mental game makes," Kong said. "People kept telling me it would make me play better, but I never believed it until you're there. But I stopped looking at tournaments as something to be nervous about. I've been less anxious and enjoying everything."
Kong's commitment and patience started paying dividends midway through the spring when she was unexpectedly brought to the Westbrook Invitational as an individual only to shoot the fourth best tournament total among the six Hoosiers competing.
Wallman added Kong into the starting lineup again at the Bay Area Intercollegiate only to see Kong follow an opening-round 80 with a 68 that pushed her into 16th place in the tournament.
Wallman followed Kong through her last five holes only to see her drive into the weeds on 17, get out of trouble, hit a wedge to 25 feet and then hit a downhill, double-breaker putt to save par in some of the best scrambling Wallman said he's seen this year.
"It was like, wow," Wallman said. "That's growth."
Kong agreed, saying she probably wouldn't have been able to follow up an 80 with a 68 a year ago. But she's not the same player anymore, and that's probably for the better. Her scores certainly show that much.
But it's even more obvious in her body language.
"I'm just enjoying it," she said. "I love golf again."
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
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