ESPNW Sports
Bill Fields 5y

American Megan Khang is hopeful her patience pays off, eventually

Golf, LPGA

NAPLES, Fla. -- In the library for displays of golf frustration -- shelves of tears, tirades, thrown clubs and torn-up scorecards -- Megan Khang's on the 18th hole at Tiburon Golf Club Saturday afternoon was hardly worth checking out.

As Khang walked from green to scoring tent after finishing the third round in the CME Group Tour Championship with a double-bogey 6, she twice thumped the netting on the side of a grandstand with the grip end of her putter with just enough force to rustle the fabric.

It was an understandable moment of pique following the sloppy conclusion that dropped Khang from a share of third place into a tie for eighth after 54 holes, nine strokes behind leader Lexi Thompson in the last tournament of 2018.

"I've been better," Khang said a few minutes later, an appraisal that fit both her 7-iron approach into the final green that went left into a lake and her mood.

But as a third-year LPGA player seeking her first victory, Khang, who turned 21 less than a month ago, knows waiting for a win requires the patience of Christmas Eve.

"You have to keep staying patient, keep giving yourself opportunities when you do have those great chances," Khang said. "You've got to make sure you don't lose your head in the middle of a round. Because once you do, it's kind of game over for the rest of the day. It's been very hard to learn.

"I've missed a couple of cuts because I couldn't hold myself together. Missing the cuts made the fire inside burn a little brighter. Those harsh lessons are definitely ones that I keep near and dear -- that way I won't do it again."

Khang's best finish was a tie for third at the 2017 Blue Bay LPGA, and this season she has four top-five finishes, most recently a tie for fourth at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Taiwan Championship. She was 35th on the LPGA money list and 68th on the Rolex Rankings entering the week.

"She's been in contention a few times this year and her name is up there again this week," said Khang's fellow 21-year-old and seven-time LPGA winner Brooke Henderson of Canada. "I think her first win is right around the corner. She's really consistent. Hits a lot of fairways. I feel like short game is probably her best thing. Even in junior golf, she seemed to make everything she looked at. In junior golf, it seemed we were neck and neck every single week, always playing in the final group together."

Those scenes might be repeated sooner rather than later. Khang stands 5-foot-1, most of it heart and the rest of it grit.

The determination comes naturally. Khang's father, Lee, and mother, Nou, are Hmong immigrants to the United States who fled the danger and turmoil of Laos as children in the mid-1970s.

"It is surreal to me, what Megan is doing," Nou told GolfChannel.com's Randall Mell, who detailed the Khang's journey in a 2017 story. "Coming from where we come from, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this."

Lee was unfamiliar with golf when he moved to America, and he didn't start playing golf until he was in his 30s and living in Massachusetts. But at 40, the self-taught golfer quit his job as an auto mechanic to immerse Megan, then 10, in the sport. Nou supported the family as a kindergarten teacher.

"I didn't really know that much about our family's history until Randall started going into it when he did that story," Khang said Saturday. "It amazes me that my parents came over to America at 7 or 8 under those circumstances. When I was that age, I was taking up golf. Our lives are completely different. The fact that my dad started golf late in life and was able to transfer his knowledge to me, it's definitely mind-boggling. He is still my only coach. I am very proud of him."

Khang qualified for the LPGA Tour after a junior career in which her game stacked up favorably against many of her peers, but her family's wealth did not.

"We'd have three tournaments in a row, and my friends would have plane tickets to them," Khang recalled, "but my dad and I would have 14 hours in the car to the next one. My parents tried to shelter a little bit at the time, but we really didn't have the money. I didn't know how tight things were."

Lee bought a pool float and put it in the backseat of their well-used sedan so Megan could rest on the long rides, but she stayed up front. They sang to pass the time.

"Our carpool karaoke," she said. "We bonded on those trips."

This is Khang's 29th event of the year, after having played in 28 as a rookie and 32 last season.

"She's grew up really fast," said Lizette Salas, another LPGA pro who doesn't have a country club background. "Megan is very independent, which you have to be out here. I'm really proud of her. She is very humble, super funny, has a lot of drive and definitely belongs out here. I know she definitely has Juli's [Inkster, U.S. captain] eye for next year's Solheim Cup team."

What a great American story that would be if Khang is able to be a member of the 2019 team.

"I'm definitely just trying to commit to every shot, play my own game," Khang said. "I don't want to look ahead or what should have or could happened. I'm trying to stay patient and know that my time will come one day."

What has happened already is no small thing.

^ Back to Top ^