Jayden Piao turned boredom into his passion.
The Coquitlam teen was doing all the usual pursuits of an active adolescent like playing hockey, baseball and soccer, but still he was restless. So his dad, Song, brought him along to the driving range at Eagle Quest golf centre to hit a bucket of balls.
Something clicked.
The younger Piao loved striking the ball and watching it sail into the air and down the range. He loved the routine of plucking a ball from the green plastic basket, placing it on the rubbery tee and setting his stance; it calmed him. He loved the reward from arcing his backswing just right and hitting the ball squarely with the face of the club was all his, not reliant of passes from teammates or playing time from the coach.
That was just two years ago.
Last year Piao, 14, won the bantam division at the Canadian Junior Golf Associations Burnaby Junior Open tournament at the Burnaby Mountain golf club. In February he was the top Canadian when he finished seventh at the Skytrak Western States Cup in Menifee, Calif., a tournament for 160 young golfers aged 11-18 from six countries and eight U.S. states. And in March he finished second after a sudden death playoff at the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s 20th anniversary season opening tournament, the Humber College PGM Classic at the University Golf Club in Vancouver and the Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam.
This weekend Piao will compete at Swan-E-Set in Pitt Meadows to try to qualify for the IMG Academy Junior World Championships, to be held in San Diego, Calif., in July.
Of course, turning a kid who can really whack the ball at the range into a tournament winning golfer doesn’t happen overnight.
Piao said his first venture onto a proper golf course to play a full round was a bit of a reality check.
“I thought I would be pretty good,” he said, “but I was super bad.”
But his coach at the time, Kwan Woo, knew he had a diamond in the rough.
“He’s very dedicated and athletic,” Woo said. “He’s a very good listener.”
In his drive to master the sport, Piao upped his visits to the driving range and nine hole course at Eagle Quest from once a week to daily, where he put in at least two-and-a-half hours of practice after school. He connected with additional coaches to work on his chipping and putting. He had a fitness coach to improve his strength and flexibility.
Eventually it all got to be a bit much. Piao thought about quitting.
“Nothing was going right,” he said.
Piao’s coaches suggested he take some time off.
He stopped golfing altogether for a month, then had to spend some time regaining his game after that. When he did, Piao found his scores consistently in the 70’s.
“I was shooting in the 90’s last year,” he said. “I skipped the 80’s part.”
His hunger for golf reinvigorated, Piao wants to enter as many tournaments as he can. He watches the pros on TV to learn how they manage a course, like walking it beforehand to take notes of its topographical quirks, hazards and distances. He’s working on his mental fortitude to maintain an even keel even after a bad shot. He practises smarter.
“It’s about how your practise,” Piao said. “I’ve become a lot more calm.”
To maintain his edge and keep his game progressing forward, Piao said he sets up little internal competitions, challenging himself to improve the distance over his previous drive, sink a putt further from the hole, place a chip from the fairway closer to the pin.
Piao admits he still has a long way to go; mastering golf is a never-ending process. But the Grade 9 student at Dr. Charles Best secondary has time before he’ll start entertaining opportunities for post-secondary scholarships. And after that, who knows?
