‘My experience was unforgettable’

Editor’s note: Editor’s Note: Raymond Jin is a First Tee of Greater Trenton participant. He wrote an essay for the Wells Fargo Succeeding Together contest. Raymond found out he was the winner for 2020 from 2019 Wells Fargo Championship winner Max Homa. On Wednesday of the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship, Raymond had the opportunity to play in the pro-am with the PGA TOUR player of his choosing, Rory McIlroy. I would first like to give my utmost thanks to Wells Fargo, First Tee, and the PGA TOUR for the opportunity to play in Wednesday’s Pro-Am with Rory McIlroy and Zhang Xinjun. The event and the Wells Fargo Championship in general are very well-run. I recognize that this event is possible only because of all the people behind the scenes working to make my experience amazing, and for that, I’m very grateful. Words cannot even begin to describe the joy I had while playing. By applying the First Tee’s Nine Core Values — honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, respect, confidence, responsibility, perseverance, courtesy, and judgement — I was able to have an excellent round. For example, on a 60-yard approach shot, I was going uphill and into the wind. I exhibited good judgment and quickly pulled out my 59-degree while the wind was still fairly calm. With these conditions, I hit a high shot that landed 6 feet from the hole and rolled very little, positioning myself for a nice easy putt for par. Overall, my experience was unforgettable because I learned so much from playing with two great pros. Rory and I read putts together on one hole, and he gave me great pointers on how to line up the shot. Afterwards, I made birdie, and he joked that we should always read putts together. Rory also gave me a great piece of advice: “you don’t have to try to make friends; rather, you naturally resonate with certain people and communities; find your people, and you’ll feel right at home no matter where you go.” As I’m heading to Yale in the fall, I’ll definitely take that advice with me in order to find my niche on campus while continuing to make an impact in the community around me. Zhang was also a wonderful guy to play and interact with. While waiting on the tee box, Zhang remarked how my Mandarin was very good for somebody who grew up in the United States. He also asked about what it was like growing up in New Jersey and about my future studies at Yale. It was also really interesting to get to know his life growing up in China and his introduction to the game of golf. In the end, I came away from this experience with what I had come for: a deeper perspective and understanding of playing professional golf. Waking up at 5:30 for a 7:10 AM tee time, getting mic’d up, hitting my shot off the first tee with an entire gallery watching, and playing 18 holes at Quail Hollow under the North Carolina heat made me really appreciate the dedication, grit, and tenacity of professional golfers. Now, I can fully comprehend their ability to perform under pressure and incredible amounts of stress, where a shot could mean the difference between over a million dollars or a couple hundred thousand. I feel incredibly lucky being able to get this up-close exposure at a young age. I’ll take the lessons I learned from the Pro-Am, both golf and life-related, and apply them to my everyday life, on and off the golf course.

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