Kiwi’s year swings in different direction
Laura Hoskin thought she had 2020 mapped out just nicely. The 24-year-old Queenstownbased golfer was due to depart for China shortly for another tilt on the China LPGA (CLPGA) tour, which she cut her teeth on as a rookie last year.
But the on-going coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 1300 people, has forced officials to scrap all CLPGA tournaments until at least the end of May.
‘‘Everyone is in the same boat, you don’t have a job unless you’re on tour . . . with the rate that it’s going now, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t travel back to China this year,’’ Hoskin said.
‘‘To suddenly not be able to go into the country, it makes you think, ‘OK, well, where can I go from here?’.’’
She’ll travel to Australia next week for the Australian Ladies Classic – the penultimate event of the Australian LPG season – in New South Wales, but is otherwise preparing for a vastly different year as she pursues starts on the lucrative LPGA Tour.
Hoskin, a former gun at US college Ole Miss, plans to travel to Canada late next month to work with new coach Brian Jung, who she recruited while competing at a Korean LPGA Tour event in December.
Jung quickly set about compacting her swing and the results were almost immediate.
With mother Sally carrying her bags, Hoskin recorded her best finish as a pro last month, when she finished in a share of 10th in the Yamba Pro-Am across the ditch.
All arrows now point to LPGA Qualifying School in the US in August.
‘‘If you look at the positives [of not being able to go to China], it’s probably put more emphasis on going to the LPGA Q School.
‘‘[Jung] and I will be working closely and have more of an emphasis on preparing for that, instead of having all the China events.’’
Including exploring Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, China was an eye-popping experience for first-year pro Hoskin last year – from adjusting to the intense heat tournaments are played in to managing to eat sufficiently.
‘‘I found it so hard ordering food in China. Even ordering room service was tough because they wouldn’t speak English, so I would be like ‘how am I going to order food?’.
‘‘I hung up the phone and just didn’t know what to do about dinner. Then I got a knock at my door and the waiter was there with the food menu saying ‘just point something out on the menu’.’’
Results didn’t go her way either, prompting dreaded self-doubt to creep in and distort her frame of mind.
Hoskin, the daughter of former Otago cricketer Richard Hoskin, doubted she belonged on tour, which wasn’t helped by ‘‘some people’’ suggesting her lack of success during her first year as a
Laura Hoskin pro was proof she was wasting her time.
‘‘But then I started to play a little better and have improved scores. You can’t put a price on experience and I definitely dove into the deep end, going straight on tour and getting a tour card after turning professional at my first Q School attempt,’’ Hoskin said.
‘‘Not many people get cards as quickly as I did and I discovered I was one of the younger players on tour, which made me feel better about where I was in my career and how much I had to learn, and not to be pressured by not performing, but to soak in all the learning experiences I was having and apply it all in this year’s season.’’
Life sure can be difficult for pros in their first few years, as they fight for tour status and deal with the expenditure which comes with everyday life as a travelling professional.
When the top-10 places and prizemoney don’t follow, it can get difficult, even though Hoskin labelled the cost of playing on the CLPGA, which organises buses for players to travel to tournaments together, as ‘‘pretty cheap’’.
‘‘It’s hard because it’s a tough thing to talk about. You hate asking people for money, I hate people thinking ‘she just wants money’. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to be genuine and results speak for themselves and people want to be part of someone who is successful.
‘‘But to be successful, you have to have the opportunity, and to have the opportunity you have to have money.’’
Hoskin is working as a nanny while back in Queenstown, and plans to put her journalism degree to use when she works in the social media team at the New Zealand Open in Arrowtown later this month. ‘‘I will be putting a lot more of my own personal money into expenses this year,’’ she said.
Hoskin will also be better for the difficult first year on tour.
She now has a clear idea how different professional golf is the amateur game, and how hard she has to work – which dawned on her after seeing the diligent work ethic of the Korean and Japanese players on tour – if she’s going to thrive. Then there’s her actual game. ‘‘I learned, technically, I need to be more consistent. My putting is awesome, my putting would be the strongest point of my game,’’ Hoskin said. ‘‘But, I’m learning to be competitive on the international stage, I need to gain another 20 metres off the tee.
‘‘I think managing my game, I’m getting better at being able to plot my way around the golf course, and think logically and clearly.’’
Despite battling demons along the way, and the coronavirus spanner in the works, one thing hasn’t changed since a bright-eyed Hoskin bit the bullet and turned pro last year.
‘‘It’s my dream. I’m living my dream.’’