Hak is Back!

How much are you looking forward to returning to Clearwater Bay - and this time as a pro?

Obviously I’m always excited to go back to Hong Kong and play golf. First of all, I love the city and Clearwater Bay is a great course. It’s really challenging, especially when the wind picks up. I actually still remember some of the great hole designs, so I think the other players will love it, too. I’m really, really looking forward to it.

You were part of Hong Kong’s Putra Cup team that finished second at Clearwater Bay in 2011. What memories do you have of that event and what’s your view on Clearwater Bay as a championship golf course?

I did have a couple of good rounds, but there were a couple of rounds that I didn’t play too well, especially the final round, but it played tough. A majority of the memories are good. Maybe back then the way I played golf was different. Throughout the years I learned a lot.

I’m really looking forward to playing it and maybe playing the course differently. I’m not sure yet. It depends on how my game will fit the course. I just remember the course as always in pretty good shape and they really spend a lot of time making sure the course is good.

Talk us through the transition from amateur to professional, and how tough has the journey been?

Obviously going from junior amateur, amateur to pro is a big step. I’m sure everybody feels the same way. Some of the big things to me are the travelling, not necessarily playing as well - and you got to take that and learn from it - playing in different conditions around in the world. I think there’s also some mental challenges. Throughout the last couple of years, I tried to get better with my game and worked a lot with my coach. In the past couple years, obviously it wasn’t the best I was hoping for, but I think for the future it was definitely a good thing for me to have all the experience I went through. I would like to take it as a positive way to get me better not just in golf but obviously in life, too.

What circuits did you mainly play on when you turned pro?

In my first year, I didn’t make it through Q-school so I played the NGA Tour and a couple of Monday qualifiers for Web.com Tour and then the second year I made it to the final qualifiers over in Europe, but I didn’t finish well so I decided to stay in the US and play a couple of NGA and tried to play a couple Canada. Last year I played a few events over in Canada mixed a little bit with NGA.