Swing to the future

Watching her hit: Kelly Tan in action during the Maybank Championship at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club last week. — GLENN GUAN/The Star

PETALING JAYA: Kelly Tan may have called time on her career with the conclusion of the Maybank Championship but she is not done yet with golf.

The two-time Olympian brought the curtain down on a 13-year professional career by tying for 75th spot on six-over 294 in the 78-player, no cut LPGA tournament last Sunday.

But retirement from full-time competitive golf does not mean a complete departure from the sport as Kelly shifts her focus to nurturing young talent through the establishment of the Kelly Tan Golf Academy and grassroots development clinics.

“Golf shaped who I am today. In my first interview, I could not speak a word of English and I was terrified of winning because of dealing with the media,” she said in a posting yesterday.

“The game taught me to be brave enough to fail. It feels like a full circle but the circle is not done. My next task is to help produce more champions for Malaysia.

“I do not think I could have asked for a better event to retire off. Thank you to Maybank for the invite and the sponsorship supporting me these past three years, and to everyone who has backed my career since day one.”

Over 13 seasons, Kelly wore the nation’s flag on her sleeves at golf’s highest level, representing Malaysia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

On the LPGA stage, Kelly recorded a runner-up finish once at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in 2022.

Kelly’s ultimate dream to become the first Malaysian to win an LPGA Tour title may have eluded her but she is not disheartened, knowing she had helped pave the way for the next generation.

“Being the first Malaysian to win on the LPGA Tour was always my ultimate target. I fell just shy of what I really wanted to achieve but maybe I wasn’t the person supposed to win it,” she said.

“Maybe it will be Mirabel (Ting) or somebody else.

“Being the person who paved the path is just as important as the first person to win and hopefully they saw that I went down this road so they can do it too.”