The Professionals: Eking out a career in sports - Choo Tze Huang

Living with a life of misses

What does it mean to be a professional athlete in Singapore? The Straits Times takes a hard look at the lives of some of the country's sportsmen who earn a living doing what they love in this weekly series. Golfer plods on in pursuit of dream, despite disappointments and meagre earnings

Singaporean pro golfer Choo Tze Huang in action on the Asian Development Tour at Tiara Melaka Golf and Country Club in June. He missed the cut by one stroke.
Singaporean pro golfer Choo Tze Huang in action on the Asian Development Tour at Tiara Melaka Golf and Country Club in June. He missed the cut by one stroke. ST PHOTO: AZIM AZMAN
AZIM AZMAN Choo with his father Kok Chung at the 2019 Singapore Open, in which he missed the cut by seven shots.
AZIM AZMAN Choo with his father Kok Chung at the 2019 Singapore Open, in which he missed the cut by seven shots. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHOO TZE HUANG
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Everyone misses in professional golf. There are missed fairways, missed greens, missed putts. Too many of these eventually lead to missed cuts, missed pay cheques and missed opportunities.

Choo Tze Huang is in the midst of his eighth season as a touring professional and knows about missing. Because he's here in Malaysia on a muggy Wednesday afternoon in June, shaking his head in disbelief after seeing his white Srixon Z-Star XV ball veer slightly off line inches away from the cup.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 31, 2019, with the headline Living with a life of misses . Subscribe