Sporting Life

How a golfer left a great tour, forgot about No. 1, and found happiness

Golfer Shin Ji-yai, the first Asian woman No. 1, walked away from the LPGA tour to return to the smaller tours in Korea and Japan. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
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Sanity is more important than greatness. Family more precious than fortune. Happiness more valuable than fame. And yet even though this is self-evident, athletes chase glory sometimes at great cost to themselves.

Athletes win Olympic gold and sink into depression. Now what, they ask? Others get eaten by the incessant pressure and are defeated by online abuse. Still they persist with one-dimensional lives where there is nothing beyond practice, travel, wins and losses. 

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