junior golfer, was in the headlines in major US sports channels and papers
Sunday as she tied third in The Nabisco Championship, this year's first
major tour of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) held in
Rancho Mirage, California. Aree is known by her Thai name following the
surname of her Thai mother, Wani Wongluekiet. Her father, Song In-jong,
went over to do business in Thailand in 1978 but as it took time for him to
get his residence permit in Thailand, his three children were registered in their
mother's name. Aree and her twin sister Naree, were born nine minutes
apart on May 1, 1986 in Thailand.
When the Song twins were six years old, they started learning golf with their
elder brother, Chan, who was then nine years old. The children showed a
talent for the sport and Song took them to the David Leadbetter Golf
Academy in Orlando, Florida in 1997, after which he cleared his business in
Thailand and moved to the States. Both Aree and Naree were invited to
play in the LPGA tour because of their outstanding performance in the US
amateur tours. Aree is currently the top girl's junior amateur winning 6
championships, Naree is third with 5 wins, and Chan is also third in the boy's
junior championship.
The three golf siblings have both Thai and Korean nationalities, though their
father regretted his children never formally learned how to speak Korean
because they attended foreign schools in Thailand. However, Song said "Just
as Tiger Woods, whose mother is Thai, is American, my kids are surely
Korean."
(Cho Chung-hoon, donjuan@chosun.com)
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