How the mother of all cheats got Chen kicked out
A helping foot for the struggling golfer reveals the family pressure to earn sporting success, writes James Corrigan
According to the caddie, she pointed at Chen’s mum and said: ‘That person kicked your ball’
The European Tour’s Q-school tees off in Spain this weekend and if anybody still wonders why the players refer to it as “Cruel School”, they need only look at last weekend’s pitiful case of Doris Chen and the mother who took being an “overly-involved parent” to the extreme.
Chen, a former US Junior Girls champion, was playing in the eight-round LPGA Tour qualifying series in North Carolina trying to make it to the promised land her potential had once guaranteed.
After six rounds, the 25-year-old was in a tie for 74th and six shots off the top 45 she required for a card.
Time was running out and Chen was pushing hard when she reached the 17th hole at the Pinehurst resort. It was then that the desperation became unbearable and Chen’s mother, Yuh-guey Lin, joined golf ’s hall of infamy. Chen sliced her drive and with the big league disappearing from sight, she marched up the hole in the company of Alex Valer, an experienced Tour caddie who had been hired for the week, and began the frantic search.
The minutes ticked by towards the allotted time until they heard someone behind shouting, “found it”. Alas, it was a familiar voice.
The ball was in the pine needles, but was playable and suddenly there was renewed hope. Until the neighbour intervened, that is. Striding out from her property on to the course, the homeowner revealed that the ball had been out-of-bounds, but was moved back in.
According to Valer, she pointed at Chen’s mother and said: “That person right there kicked your ball.” Valer says he pleaded with Chen to go back and play three off the tee. Chen refused. Repeatedly. She played the shot and instructed Valer to “keep quiet about the details of what happened”. He informed the LPGA Tour exactly what he saw and heard. Chen was kicked out and soon the story was in media outlets varying from Sports Illustrated to the New York Post.
What has made Chen’s situation seem all the more pathetic is, after initially accepting the LPGA’S ruling, she has since tried to turn it into a “he-said, she-said” debate, insisting that her mother is innocent. The Tour is adamant, declaring: “There is no ambiguity.” Further punishment is being considered.
“Doris did the wrong thing,” Valer told the Golf Channel. “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
Of course, this misdemeanour cannot be condoned. Yet it can be understood, if only at a humane level. Here was a girl prodigy who went on to win the NCAA, the highest honour in college golf, and competed in two majors as an amateur. Chen was considered a sure-fire thing when she moved into the pro ranks in 2015.
In three years she has won less than £10,000. Her biggest cheque this year has been for a little under £500 for finishing 35th in something called the PHC Classic. In fact, that has been her only cheque this year.
Now imagine being Chen’s mother, imagine watching your child suffering, witnessing all that effort, all that family sacrifice adding up to nothing. The mother could stand it no more.
What she did was inexcusable and will forever be referenced, mainly in comical terms. It is anything but humorous. These are people’s lives and essentially this is the relationship between a mother and daughter. How do they move forward together? This is what happens when a game is deemed to mean everything. Sport’s cruelest lesson of all.