Hong Kong Open: local prodigy Ben Wong steels himself after brutal initiation to professional golf
- The 19-year-old’s response to a tough opening day at Fanling suggests he’s got the mental armoury required to forge a career
- He bounces back from a nine-over-par 79 with a much-improved performance on Friday
You have got to be mentally bulletproof to survive in the golfing world and if Ben Wong Shuai-ming’s response – both on and off the course – to his brutal debut round at the Honma Hong Kong Open is anything to go by, the 19-year-old is on his way to building the required armoury.
Wong is Hong Kong’s top-ranked amateur golfer at 89 in the world but his first round in a professional tournament was the mother of all wake-up calls, with the teenager shooting a nine-over-par 79 on Thursday.
“The course kicked my arse and there’s a lot to learn,” he said of his opening round. “Coming in, I knew this was more of a mental test than it is physically. I was just mentally prepping myself out there but obviously I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
“Even though I told myself ‘just stay in the zone and play your own game’ I think it all definitely got to me at one point.
“But I recognise that and I think moving forward that’s a huge experience for me and I think the worse thing I can do is to not learn anything.
“I think it’s a lot just for me to get comfortable with being on the biggest stage in the world. I think that’s a process and I definitely learned a lot.”
