Peter Zhang Grade 11

Pegasus "Prince of Golf"

At the age of 9 he went to the United States for professional golf training and won the championship in many competitions in the United States. After returning to China last year, with a period of training, he won the championship in the "2021 Maiyue Junior Golf Open" and built the goal of becoming a professional player.

 

01 8 years of life experience in the United States

Just to pursue his "golf dream"

Hello everyone! I’m Peter, a grade- 11 student at Pegasus School, because in order for better training, I went to the United States when I was 9 years old and lived there for 8 years and spent the first three years in California. Because the atmosphere and coaches of California golf were not particularly good at the time, I went to Florida for another three years, and then returned to California as the atmosphere of California golf recovered and  actually California is geographically closer to China, making it easier to be back home.

 

02 Family Impact

"Indissoluble Bond" with Golf

If I want to describe myself, I feel that I will be taken as introverted, but in fact, if I get acquainted, everyone will find that I am actually very lively. I prefer sports like most common sports like football, golf and swimming.

 

Fall interested with golf under the influence of family

I have got to know golf when I was 3-4 years old when I was a child, but I didn’t start training at the time. Because my father and his friends met each other when they were playing. I followed them off the court and watched them play. I remember that my family bought me a golf toy, and I waved it around at convenient time. Because of the experiences in childhood, golf has gradually become a part of my life. A professional golfer has also become a dream when I was young.

 

When I was 7 years old, I started training, but I was not very serious at the time; I didn’t start formal training until I went to the United States at the age of 9. I remember looking for a lot of coaches at the time; When I turn to 10 years old. At that time, I started to insist on playing some small games every week

 

I thought of giving up

The reason why I went to study in the United States was entirely because of golf, and for a while I also thought of giving up. Because during those days of practice, I missed my mother and sister very much. At that time, I could only see each other once in 2-3 months, and reunion was very short. I felt very sad, and I especially wanted to go back with my mother together. At that time, my mother always encouraged me and asked me to bravely persevere for my dreams. My elder sister also accompanied me from England to the United States during that period. She gave me great advice on both studies and golf competitions and helped me through hard time.

 

Especially my father, he was the one who took me to the United States at the beginning. In order to let me practice well, he didn’t care about the company he ran in China. The first two years of arriving in the United States were really very difficult, because there are only two of us. Both of us are not good at English, so we have encountered great setbacks in communication and living habits. Fortunately, with the care and company of my father all the way, I not only feel the love of family, but also make me firm up the dream of golf.

 

03 I chose to study here because Pegasus is more like a California school

Because of the epidemic, my mother and sister had expected that I would have to return to China to study. At that time, they visited many other international schools in Qingdao, because I had been in California for a long time. Pegasus works in a California pattern in teaching, curriculum, the textbooks used, and the teachers who teach the lessons. Many details are really similar to those in American schools.

 

To ensure high-intensity practice, I will return to the city every day after finishing the morning classes at school to practice golf and physical fitness training in the golf center run by my father. Usually I go back to eat around 12 o’clock, and after lunch I concentrate on practicing golf at the golf simulator in the center, or I go to the field for field training, and then I will return to school at about 6 pm to do some more learning. . My dad was also an athlete when he was a teenager. During his eight years with me in the United States, he learned the advanced knowledge of American golf coaches. He brought this knowledge back to China and set up a golf training center to provide advanced golf training for golf dreamers like me. The equipment field allows more people to realize their golf dreams.

 

Here I want to thank the teachers of Pegasus. They not only understand me, but also give me a lot of support, because the rhythm of schoolwork and practice is very tight. When the schedule is tight, the teachers will tolerate me and postpone the due time of homework, such as English teacher Mr. Matthew, if I have a particularly important and urgent training task, I can tell him, no points will be deducted if I hand in the homework late and finished what should be done.

 

04 Golf is a competition of skills

More tests of the players' psychological quality

After returning to China, I have been playing domestic golf competitions, and recently won the championship of the "2021 Mai Yue Junior Golf Open" competition. The whole process of the game was actually okay. I felt that my state of playing the game in these two days was a little bit ups and downs. I played some shots very well. For example, I caught an eagle in the same hole in two days. Only the eagle, but some shots are very bad, because I know that the fluctuations are relatively large, so I try to minimize the damage to avoid worse situations.

 

Playing golf is also a "psychological war"

Playing golf is a comprehensive test for a player, because you have to play a full 18 shots in a game, of which the first three shots are easy to make people nervous, the last three holes are easy to lose concentration, and when you play those shots in the middle,  it’s also easy to be unable to stay focused, and I have to work hard to overcome the mistakes that need to be attended with caution. 95% of the reasons for determining the outcome of a golf game are due to mentality.

 

Playing golf is not only a sport, but also a psychological competition. Golf sports tests a person's explosive power, endurance, the ability to shift the center of gravity, muscle memory, and psychological quality. For example, explosive power, as the name suggests, is to have strength at the moment of playing, or you can't play far; if the center of gravity is not well shifted, the accuracy of playing ball will be poor if you fail to develop professional and correct muscle memory, the ball will also be crooked. Once the movement is deformed, there is no guarantee that every ball can move at your command until you want it, where to go, but the most important factor that can determine the final outcome is the mentality. The game goes between the masters in a way where psychological confrontation dominates.

 

A memorable game

I clearly remember that when I was 15 years old, I participated in a game in Florida. I met an opponent who was the same age as me. That was his home court. He trained there every day and was very familiar with the court. I hit 76 (+4) one day, and 75 (+3) the next day. Our results were the same at the time. According to the rules of golf,  we need to add holes. Once this time comes, Add holes, whoever leads means who is the ultimate winner, this time is the time to completely test the mentality. What I did at the time was to calm down and sway every shot calmly. Compared to me, the opponent could clearly see that his mood swings were greater. He did not play stable during the game. He made a big mistake. It was his abnormal performance on this hole that made me take the lead and finally won the game.

 

it's hard to do it

There are some things that can only be understood after experiencing it by yourself. In terms of mentality, I understand when I play more games. It is useless to be nervous, or in a hurry, because you play when you are in a hurry, certainly not playing well in a stable state of mind, everyone should understand the truth, but whether it can be practiced is a question. This requires a lot of games to gain experience, and experiencing the right things can allow us to grow quickly.

 

05 University of California targeted

Because they have an excellent golf team

Looking forward to the university in the future, I would like to go to the University of California at San Diego, Irvine, Riverside, or Washington State University. They all have excellent golf teams, but the school I want to go to is the South At the University of California or University of California, Los Angeles, I still participate in relatively few particularly big games. I wanted to go to the United States to play some games this year but the epidemic allows the possibility to be zero, I need to redouble my efforts in China.

 

After going to college in the future, I want to join the school golf team, and then I want to go out to play some amateur tournaments, and strive to play professional games as soon as possible, such as professional admissions games, promotion tournaments and championships, and finally move towards becoming a professional golf Players go hard!