Get to know LPGA rookie Tiffany Joh. She is defending champion of this week's LPGA Futures Tour ING New England Golf Classic. LPGAFuturesTour.com recently caught up with Joh to ask about her creative side, her passion for music and if she feels any added pressure being the defending champion this week. Be sure to check out a couple of her original videos, that she shared with the online readers, and her LPGA Futures Tour Unplugged.
You have a very creative side to you – the videos you create are always fun and entertaining. What inspires you?
I wouldn't say I'm very creative, but I definitely like to have fun, and I have a big appreciation for music. I think that's why, when I have time off, I find myself either listening to music or playing around with GarageBand. Usually melodies just come out of dumb luck from blindly pressing buttons and the rest is just from frantically thumbing though a rhyming dictionary. Haha
Have you always been this creative?
I've never thought of myself as very creative or artsy, and my stick figure drawings are a testament to that, but I love to play around. I think all golfers have a bit of this in their personality, since golf is all about creating shots and experimentation.
If a song was played on the first tee before you teed off what song would you want played for you?
You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall & Oates. It is physiologically impossible to listen to this song and NOT smile.
What would your top-10 play list be?
In no particular order: 1) MJ-Black and White 2) Tom Petty & Heartbreakers-Learning to Fly 3) Ben Folds & Regina Spektor-You Don't know me 4) Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic zeros-40 day dream 5) Hillsong-Hosanna 6) Taio Cruz-Dynamite 7) Bon Iver-Michicant 8) Ray Lamontagne-Hannah 9) Jonsi-Animal Arithmetic 10) Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony- Crossroads
Since you are a rookie on the LPGA this year you have been able to play both tours – how has that been this year?
I was such a brat after Q school when I missed getting my exempt card, but it's been one of the biggest blessings for me. Being able to compete on both tours has almost doubled my opportunities to play in tournaments, and although going back and forth can be tiring, I've learned so much this year, it's totally worth it.
With your recent win on the Futures Tour and moving into the top-5 on the money list, does that change your playing schedule?
I thought about changing my schedule a bit, but now I just don't think about it. I'll just play in everything that I can. Things always have a way of working out and if I try my best every week I play, regardless of where I am, I'll be better off than stressing out about "what ifs".
You are the defending champion of the ING New England Golf Classic – do you feel any added pressure to go in and play well and even repeat?
I think, if anything, all added pressure and expectation is external. I'm going into next week with no expectations. I mean things could change next week and you may find me breathing into a paper bag in the bathroom in Bloomfield, but that's at least how I try to think going into a tournament. I use to always tell my old teammates at UCLA that I like to "set my bar low and surprise myself." If I do that, I rarely end a week unhappy.
Topics: Joh, Tiffany, Get to know
