Being compared to Hong Kong’s golf megastar Tiffany Chan can add a lot of pressure, but 14-year-old Chloe Chan sees it as motivation
Chloe Chan's golf idol is Tiger Woods and she hopes to be number one in the world one day.Fourteen-year-old golf sensation Chloe Chan is supremely talented and remarkably mature for her age, and seen as one of the young players ensuring Hong Kong’s future in the sport.
She is frequently touted as “the next Tiffany”, referring to Tiffany Chan, the first Hongkonger to earn a full scholarship to an American university for golf, and the first to make it onto the LPGA tour.
But rather than letting the pressure of living up to Chan get to her, Chloe is both flattered and inspired by the comparison.
“I hear people compare me to her and I’m really happy about it,” the KGV student said. “There are things I need to improve on, of course, but just seeing what she’s doing right now is making me believe I can do it. I know I can be on her level one day.”
Another reason that Chloe isn’t fazed by people’s high expectations of her is that she has placed them on herself ever since she fell in love with the sport at a very early age.
“I was always watching Tiger back then, and I really wanted to be like him,” she says of her idol, golf legend Tiger Woods.
“I really wanted to become world number one and play on TV. That was really what kick-started my dreams and aspirations to become a golfer.
“I remember when I was a little girl, I would go to the driving range with my parents and think to myself ‘Wow, that is so cool’,” said Chloe.
“I figured out early on that I wanted to play golf for a living.”
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This certainty doesn’t mean Chloe is immune to pressure, though. She definitely felt it when she played at the EFG Hong Kong Ladies Open in May – where she was by far the youngest person in the tournament.
She had just won a HK$250,000 grant from the EFG Young Athletes Foundation for her outstanding achievements; suddenly, she was competing as a hometown hero, up against grown women in front of a home crowd. This led to a somewhat lacklustre performance.
“For sure I felt a lot of nerves, especially on my tee shot and 18th hole,” she admitted.
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“On those shots, there were so many people cheering for me, I felt the pressure get to me a little bit, and I think that sort of affected my performance.”
But she understands that she’s achieved a lot for her age and called the tournament “a huge learning experience”.
Chloe will be putting the EFG stumble behind her as she heads to the US this summer to compete in a series of junior tournaments.
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“My goal now is to achieve even better results in junior amateur events overseas, and hopefully in the coming months, get a scholarship to a university and play college golf in the US.”
Her advice to young golfers is to just “continue to do it”.
“It’ll be a long journey, and it’ll be tough,” she said. “But if you love the sport and you commit to it, it will be worth it.”