Diverse & Together: Brian Choe (Men's Golf)

After redshirting his freshman year at K-State, Brian Choe has found his way into the Wildcats' scoring lineup, emerging from a grueling series of qualifying rounds as one of the team's five contributors during the first two tournaments. In his season and K-State career debut, Choe shot the second-lowest tally (1-under 71) for the Cats in the opening round of the Golfweek Conference Challenge. A finance major who was the No. 55 player in Golfweek's Junior Amateur rankings when he signed with K-State, Choe is a Coppell, Texas native, Korean-American, a first generation American and a valued member of the K-State Wildcats - a family that is Diverse & Together.

You're the only Asian-American on the men's golf team, but also one of three Texans - how much of that is part of your identity and what you're proud to represent?
"I take a lot of pride in that. I think we're the best state. Texas is obviously more of a cult-type of thing, it's Texas or die type of situation. I'm a big state of Texas fan. I grew up in Dallas, but I enjoy every part of Texas, it's so different. From East Texas to South Texas to West Texas, it's all different. You get the deserts in West Texas and the plains, you go to East Texas and you get the pine trees, then you go to South Texas and you get more of the hills and southern desert style. It's just so different and culturally in Texas it's really diverse - lot of good food and things you can learn about other people."

Choe, that's a Korean family name right? What can you tell us about your family heritage and history?
"I'm a first generation American. My mom and dad came about 30 years ago. I was born in Texas and lived in Texas my whole life, so I've grown up with an American culture, but with a Korean background as well - from food to cultural things that we do that are a little bit different. It's something that's obviously different, but I've embraced it, it's not a big deal. When people ask, I answer their questions straight up, not like I'm trying to hide anything. I embrace my culture.

"My parents met in high school, have had a relationship throughout their life. In Korea, males have to serve mandatory military time and that's what my dad did straight out of high school. By the time he was 20, he decided to move to America, just to start fresh and get something new going. He wanted to go make a career and a better life for the family. My dad came by himself, he worked hard, worked as a janitor and worked two jobs coming up in America - that's the only way he could make a living and afford to stay.

"Eventually, my mom joined him and they moved to Dallas from Los Angeles and started up their own business, really my mom. She started growing her business and has stuck with it and adapted over time. My mom is big into fashion, she sells women's apparel, but she used to sell men's apparel and children's apparel when it was popular, but not she's strictly women's apparel. They've got two stores, both in Dallas not far from each other. My mom runs the business and my dad takes care of the corporate stuff. He doesn't work as much anymore - he was diagnosed with Leukemia in his 30s, when he was in America, and had to go through chemotherapy and a bunch of other stuff for blood cancer. He's healthy now, but there's still some effects from it all, but he's cancer free."

When people identify you as Asian-American that's kind of a misnomer, right? Does that sell your identity a little short based on the number of different countries and cultures generalized in one label?
"Technically they're correct, but that's not who I am culturally. I'm Korean-American. My family is Korean but I've grown up in America my whole life. If they say Asian, obviously it's hard for some to tell exactly what part of Asia - there are little variances culturally and how people look. I can understand it, but you're only half right."

Stereotypes exist, positive and negative, what's been your experience with stereotypes as a Korean-American?
"There's always that stereotype of Asian people being smarter than anyone else, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. We're maybe more disciplined in anything we do, that's just the culture and how people grew up. We're not any smarter than any other culture, just more disciplined to study a little harder, practice a little harder. Disciplined and focused more on the task we have ahead of us."

Does that discipline come from your dad's experience?
"I think so. He knows what it takes to be successful because he started from rock bottom and he's had to work his way up to where he is now. You can't just not work hard and expect to succeed. You have to be very disciplined and very focused to be successful in anything that you do. He's helped me because he's ingrained that a lot. I wouldn't say that's necessarily a cultural thing, more of what he's experienced. He knows everyone starts down here and it's how hard are you willing to work to get up here. My dad has really ingrained that in me."

Hard work. Discipline. Focus. pic.twitter.com/PyV2Y8itJg
— K-State Athletics (@kstatesports) October 2, 2018

Have you ever had to deal with assumptions or felt negatively impacted by others perception of yourself?
"I am who I am, I don't try to make a judgement of myself based on what people think I'm supposed to be. That's the same way I think other people should think of me - I talk to people and don't make assumptions of them. There's obviously stereotypes and assumptions people make, but you never really know who they are until you meet them. You're only basing your opinion off of what they look like or what you think of them. I haven't really had any issues. I'm light-hearted about that stuff, I don't take it seriously. I'm light-hearted about most stuff."

Have you always been interested in golf? How did you get started and was there a family connection there?
"My cousin introduced the game to me. He had probably played for a year or two - I was never really interested in it. My dad played golf, but I didn't care for it. Then my cousin played and we were very close when we were young, we'd always do the same thing. Eventually he started playing golf and I didn't really latch on, but I tried it when I was 11 or 12 and started playing, started slow - maybe taking lessons every so often or practice every so often. Then I grew a liking for it and realized I had decent talent and if I actually put some work into it, I could be pretty successful at it. I decided to work hard and put my efforts into playing golf more than anything else. I stopped playing other sports and focused on golf and school."

When did the idea of playing college golf kind of enter your mind or start to become a goal?
"College became a goal when I was a freshman in high school. In middle school I knew I could play for my age, and I knew I was good, but freshman year was the year I knew I could go on and play college golf. I was playing kids that were juniors or seniors in high school, committed to schools, and I was beating them. I knew I had a chance to play college golf somewhere, that was probably when I first realized it."

How did K-State enter the picture and what were some of the reasons you picked Manhattan for college?
"Recruiting for me, I wouldn't say that it was slow, but I had a few offers from some big schools but I wasn't really interested in them, they weren't what I was looking for. The summer of my junior year, I played the Under Armour Jordan Spieth event in Austin with Jake (Eklund) who's on the team now and (former K-State golfer) Levi (Valadez). The coaches followed them around and I got to see them for three days in a row, that's how they saw me play and how I met them. I talked to them in the clubhouse after my final round, introduced myself, kind of chatted up with them, then came up for an unofficial visit a few weeks later. I really enjoyed it. It was in the summer time, so everything was slow, but I got to see the business building under construction, all the parts of campus, got to see Colbert Hills. I thought this was a place that I could grow and develop into a good player for my future.

"I could've gone to the West Coast and played in perfect weather all year, but that only does so much. I think you have to go to a place like Kansas where you can toughen up and not be scared of situations - it gets windy here, it rains here, it snows here, it's hot, it's cold. It doesn't matter, you can play through anything and that's going to help you long-term a lot more than going somewhere it's perfect all year long, there you'll only get so good. You might as well be prepared for anything, rather than be unprepared."

You're roommates with Kyle Vance and seem to get along great, but seems like everybody on the squad gets along - seems like a pretty healthy clubhouse. Is that accurate?
"Yeah, everybody does. Obviously we're going to argue as a team, but we like to consider each other brothers. We're going to argue a little bit, that's what family is, but there's nothing ever serious. We always enjoy each other's company, hang out together on the weekends, play golf together whenever we have free time. We spend the majority of our time together and never really have any problems as a team. We've always gotten along with everyone."

After arriving on campus, you redshirted last year - how did that impact you?
"I played a lot of good golf my junior year of high school. My senior year I kind of hit a wall, hit a slump, and that carried on throughout the summer and by the time I got here I wasn't ready. My game just declined, I hit a slump. There were a lot of technical issues in my swing. A lot of it had to do with confidence too - my confidence went down and I wasn't shooting scores that I was used to shooting. Looking back, that redshirt year has helped a lot to where I can develop my game to play at a high level and compete. I fixed the technical issues, got my confidence up - now I'm ready to play. I don't have any issues with confidence or just going out there and playing golf, I'm just ready."

You've had a pretty great run of golf recently, including a win in the Resorters Golf Tournament to close the summer and earning a spot in the lineup for K-State's first tournament. What's been different for your game in the last couple months?
"Obviously everyone's going to have good days and everyone's going to have bad days, but I've gotten to where my good days are still the same, but my bad days are just a little bit better than what they used to be. My bad days, if I had something go bad I would keep rolling with it, now I can punch it in reverse and get some strokes back, keep myself in it rather than just fall off. Obviously a lot of the technical stuff I've worked on has helped out a lot. Like I was saying, it's just confidence. I'm ready to play, I'm capable of beating anyone out here and all the guys out here feel the same way."

The game of golf feels kind of like an exclusive game at times, but seems like it's making some headway with diversity and inclusion, particularly on the pro tours, right? How should the game be grown or made more diverse?
"I think it's getting there. I wouldn't say it's fully diverse yet, but it's getting there. It's more on the West Coast and in the Southeast. It's starting to get there, more cultures and different races are starting to play the game, it's on the come up I would say."

Tiger Woods and Kevin Na are a couple of guys with Asian-American heritage that are both on the PGA Tour and ranked in the top-75 in the world, do you look up to them in any special way?
"I'm a big Tiger (Woods) fan, I've always enjoyed watching him play growing up. He's been so dominant, the way he wins and the intensity he brings is unrivaled and something I want to copy. I haven't really thought of him in a way race-wise, just admired him for his performance on the golf course. Kevin Na, he's Korean-American as well, he brings a lot to the game. There's obviously other Korean players on Tour that have been successful, but he's part of growing the game. You see a Korean-American guy out there playing well, winning tournaments, I could see how younger kids can look up to him. They might see he's not the only one that's doing it, he can do it, I can grow up in his shoes and grow the game. For me, I've always been a Tiger fan, and obviously missed a lot of him playing because he was hurt all the time, but watching him and seeing how successful he's been, it's exciting."

You mentioned the word brothers when talking about your teammates earlier and even said family, which is kind of a buzz-word at K-State. As a Texan, Korean-American, first generation American, among other things you identify with, do you think it fits?
"I feel like a family. The guys treat me like family, I treat them like they're my family. I may be ethnically different than them, but I'm culturally the same as them. I haven't had any problems being in Manhattan. People are always nice and super courteous. I have never had a problem with anything here."

Brothers. pic.twitter.com/IfPVJ0JEXP
— K-State Athletics (@kstatesports) October 2, 2018

K-State Athletics views diversity and inclusion as a critical element to its mission of solidifying its status as a top-tier Division I Intercollegiate Athletics program. The K-State Athletics FAMILY consists of individuals with a vast range of experiences, beliefs, values, intellectual capabilities and cultural views. Respect for these unique characteristics allows for our student-athletes to achieve their full potential while enjoying the benefits of a rich learning environment. K-State Athletics seeks to achieve sustained championship levels of success by providing resources from both within the department and across campus to promote respect, inclusiveness and the sense of FAMILY we all enjoy as K-Staters.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brian Choe

Kyle Vance

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