Q. How do you spend your time off?
"I'm flying to Australia today. I'm going to Australia, and I'm going to play a match, but I think of it more like a training camp. Personally, I think it would be nice to practice on grass and play a match at the same time, so
I practiced a lot for three weeks, but I've come back. After I come back, I'll have to go back to Japan to make some adjustments, and then I'll be in Okinawa right away, so I don't have much time.
Q. What do you focus on when interacting and communicating with your fans?
"I can't really reply to comments on Instagram, so I just read them. I guess the venue is the best place for me. I can talk to fans I meet at the venue, sign autographs, and things like that, so it's not a burden at all."
── Yuna-chan is quite talkative, so I wonder if that will be okay.
" I'm totally fine with it. I can decline at my own convenience. But all my fans are also being considerate and thinking about the timing to talk to me, so if they talk to me, I want to respond with all my might. But when I see someone wearing ZOY at a golf course, I want to talk to them. On the contrary! At expensive golf courses, there are sometimes people wearing it, right?
But when I go to the golf course with friends and see someone wearing ZOY, I'm like, "Wow!" "Hey, this guy's wearing ZOY!" (laughs) "He's got money!" (laughs) I think about saying "He's a cool, handsome guy!" but I always refrain from doing so (laughs) But, the truth is, I really want to say "Wow!" "Hey, he's wearing ZOY!" "I'm wearing ZOY!" I think about saying "Hey, he's wearing ZOY!" (laughs) I'm refraining for now, but maybe I'll try it next time (laughs)."
Q: What are your future goals?
"At the very least, I want to get a seed right. We are still in the re-ranking stage, so I need to pass the re-ranking to get the minimum seed right. Next is to win the championship, and my goal is to win a certain number of races this year, and I am going into the off-season with the feeling that I want to achieve around three wins. That is the feeling I have during the off-season. However, once the race starts, I will surely feel that it will be even tougher, and I will probably find areas where I am lacking, but I think that I can improve very well throughout the year, so I would like to continue to improve while finding issues throughout the year.
My final goal is to improve my overall ability. When I say a result, it's the same as passing the pro test. The year I was trying to pass the pro test was tougher, so I just want to keep on thinking about how I want to get better, how I want to get better, and keep concentrating on myself and keep fighting like this all year. It might be good to win or get in the top ten.
I'm probably not that good, so if I think that if I put this in I'll be in the top ten, I'll definitely miss the mark. So if I think more about what kind of practice I need to really improve, and what kind of mindset I should have when putting this putter, I think I'll probably end the year with good results, so I want to keep that in mind. That's how I feel.
── All of us at ZOY are rooting for you.