Travelling the world and being able to play golf is something special and Genevieve Ling knows what it’s like to play on Tours all across the globe.
The 27-year-old has been playing in her rookie season on the Ladies European Tour (LET) in 2022, but has previously played on the KLPGA, China LPGA, Taiwan LPGA, PGM Tour and Women’s All Pro Tour.
Ling, who hails from Malaysia, began her golfing journey when she was 12 years old but despite being a little bit older than others that didn’t stop her pursuing golf as a career.
“I began playing at the age of 12,” she said. “I was always into sports and after achieving a black belt in Taekwondo, I wanted to pursue something else.
“My dad ended up picking up golf at that time and decided to take both my sister and I to the driving range and I never looked back since! I was always keen to go to the golf course. When I was younger, going to play golf was one of the few things that could make me get out of bed at 5am in the morning without any complaints!
“Because I started quite late, I had to juggle going to school, extra-curricular activities and wanting to excel at a new sport and I found a self determination to want to get better and pursue this sport and I think that’s how I knew that I loved the sport and wanted to pursue it as a career once I was done with school.”
The Malaysian golfer represented her nation in amateur tournaments including at the South East Asia Games and soon went to the United States.
Ling attended Boise State University where she played collegiate golf and during her time there, she had ten top-10s and 23 top-25s, as well as a victory and being able to have that college experience is something that the LET rookie relished.
“I think that the idea of being able to go to college in the USA on a scholarship and being able to play golf while going to school made it seem like a dream,” she continued.
“Over here in Malaysia, as an athlete going to a national school, we did not get much support as athletes. When you missed school, you had to schedule your own tuition or made the extra effort to catch up on studies by yourself.
“Therefore, the experience that I had playing college golf was amazing. To be able to focus on playing golf, all-expenses paid and still pursue a degree, was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world.”
After finishing her degree and graduating, the Boise State alumna participated in and won the Cinderella Story – a reality TV programme – which enabled her to compete on the KLPGA Tour.
And having also played on other Tours in Asia, as well as the USA, and now the LET and LET Access Series, Ling has experienced many different cultures all over the world.
She explained: “I have loved playing on Tour, and have been lucky to be able to experience various tours all over the world. I think that every single tour has its own “character”. Playing in various countries, I think I faced different challenges in each tour.
“For instance, playing in Korea, I had to learn to speak enough Korean to get by as not many people speak English in Korea so even going out to order food would be difficult if you could not speak Korean whereas in the US, I found the travel to be very difficult as I was there alone and driving hours across the country to go from one tournament to another.
“I’ve had a great experience so far playing on the LET and LETAS. I think one of my favourite things about being on the LET so far has been meeting and experiencing new cultures. I love that the LET is so diverse and that you can hear three to four languages just by sitting at the clubhouse for five minutes during a tournament week.
“I personally love languages and culture, so I think that the LET is a very inclusive tour. The biggest challenge I’ve faced is definitely all the traveling that we have to do. The European tour is different as we not only travel to different places but every week, we are traveling to different countries! While this is amazing, as a foreigner, it’s definitely not the easiest!”
Ling has played in 11 LET events and five LETAS events in 2022 with her best results on the LET coming in Sweden with T26 at the Skafto Open and Australia with T27 at the Women’s NSW Open.
And adapting to the different playing conditions across the different venues on the LET has been something the Malaysian player has had to get used to.
“I have learned so much from playing on the LET this season,” she added. “Most importantly, I think that I have learned to adapt better to different conditions.
“We travel to different countries every week and with every country having their own kind of golf courses, I think that the LET players are able to adapt very quickly to different grass, weather and conditions and I think that this is an important skill to have in golf.
“I am always trying to get better. In terms of results, I think that I could’ve performed a lot better than I did this year and therefore, I would like to get better performances on the LET; a top-10, a top-5 and eventually, hopefully a win.
“I think that a win on the LET would be substantial to show the younger girls in Malaysia that we are able to compete with golfers from all over the world and to prove to myself that I can do it as well.”
