TAN Kelly

General
RETIREMENT THOUGHTS
She says she considered retiring from the sport in 2018 after losing a major sponsor and her LPGA status in 2017. "I was waking up every day feeling defeated. Thoughts like, 'What am I doing all of this for when nobody believes in me', or moving on to get a 'real' job flashed through my mind. Nothing was going right and for the whole of 2018, I had only played five to six LPGA events, which didn't bode well for me. But with all of these emotions, I still felt fortunate because of all the people I had around me. They told me that life is full of ups and downs. It was only when I finished with a tied-20 at the LPGA Q-Series and the Symetra Tour in 2019 that I finally picked myself up." (my.asiatatler.com, 11 Mar 2021; lpga.com, 27 Sep 2020; optionstheedge.com, 14 Feb 2020)

RIO EXPERIENCE
She says she enjoyed her experience at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro despite arriving in Brazil without her golf bag. "I was horrified when the last bag was taken off the carousel [at the airport] and my golf bag hadn't shown up yet. Someone working in the baggage area didn't scan my bag and so they didn't know where it was at all. Could there be a worse time to lose my golf bag? A week went by. I hadn't swung a club in seven days. It was the day before the tournament and I finally got a call from the airline saying they found my bag and [would] send it to the Olympic village. I couldn't [have been] happier seeing my clubs. I gave the club bag a big hug. Malaysia only had about 33 athletes in 2016 in Rio. It was a really nice-sized family, to hang out with the greatest athletes from my country. Being able to stay at the Olympic village was really cool. It's just a different environment. I don't really even know how to explain it, but I would love to be living with the best athletes in the world every day. You are just so motivated." (lpga.com, 27 Sep 2020; calgarysun.com, 01 Jun 2020)

EDUCATION
After leaving school at age 16 to focus on her golf career, she received a scholarship offer one year later from the Malaysian company Sime Darby to attend the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, United States of America. "Sime Darby contacted my parents and offered me a scholarship. They had one request, which was that I finish high school so that, later on, if I wanted to go back to college, I could. So, I graduated from high school and they sent me to IMG Academy, a highly ranked junior academy in Florida. It was like a boarding school. I went there for my year 12. It was a big learning experience for me." (optionstheedge.com, 14 Feb 2020; Golfing World YouTube channel, 24 Oct 2014)

TV APPEARANCE
In 2018 she featured on the Asian reality television show 'Cinderella Story', where 10 professional female golfers from eight nations competed in a number of golfing challenges to win the opportunity to compete on the LPGA of Korea Tour. She won the show but turned down the opportunity to compete on the LPGA of Korea Tour because she had set her sights on competing on the LPGA Tour. "I thought it would be fun and was good exposure. Winning that gave me confidence." (optionstheedge.com, 14 Feb 2020)

Alongside national teammate Michelle Koh, the pair became the first female Malaysian golfers to compete at the Olympic Games when they participated at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. "As a professional golfer, you don't really wake up and be like, 'I want to be an Olympian one day'. It was just something that happened in my career. But I'm really glad that they decided to put golf in the Olympics because I think it's a great sport." (calgarysun.com, 01 Jun 2020; SportsDeskOnline, 03 Jul 2018; simedarbylpgamalaysia.com, 18 Sep 2017)