The name Jason Kok has been popping up frequently in the past few years in Malaysia. No wonder since his game has been turning heads among Malaysian long drive fans and those following the Malaysian long drive scene. Kok was born Jason Kok Chin Hwa on Feb 10, 1990 in Kuala Lumpur. The former soccer and badminton player has been around since 2018 when he decided to swap a soccer ball for a golf club. Yes, you read that correctly: the 32 year old long drive golfer used to be a soccer and badminton player, and a very successful one for that matter.
Kok used to compete at state and international tournaments, and even played a match at Old Trafford in Manchester. This fact combined with his achievements in long drive prove that undoubtedly we have a top notch player in making. A person who’s been successful in different fields and hasn’t been afraid of change in order to be the best there is is a person who will definitely not disappoint.
When asked about what drove him to golf and long drive, Kok said:
“I like to be competitive and to ensure that if I do something, I do it to the best of my ability. In 2018 I hurt myself playing soccer during a friendly match. I had to stop playing high impact sports for about 6 months. I was very frustrated because I couldn’t play badminton nor soccer. While watching some golf videos on YouTube, I came across a long drive tournament. I found the format interesting – every person gets to hit 6-8 balls as far as they can. My wife encouraged my newly found interest.. At first it was hard as I could barely hit the ball, but finding and connecting with some friends who also just started playing made the whole thing much more enjoyable.’’
His competitiveness and skill have been very clear since he started playing sports,but in January this year when he hit his longest ball: a monstrous 321m shot with 198 MPH ball speed, he reinforced his image as a player of many strengths. His main goal right now is to reach 200+ MPH ball speed!How crazy is that?!And completely doable for someone like Kok. With a 45.5 inch driver not specifically designed for long drive, he’s got a lot of room for increasing his driving distance. And that would definitely get him closer to achieving his 5 year plan – getting into top 10 in Asia.
So who’s making him push himself more, do even better? Who does he look up to? His answer to this question was straight forward: Bryson DeChambeau.”During the lock down, I changed all my grips to the same jumbomax grips he used in order to try to decrease the amount of wrist movement in his shots. He’s the perfect example of how one can be good at golf and compete in long drive’’.
When asked about the best moment of his career so far: “The best moment of my career was when I got an Albatross at my home club, hole 17. I hit a drive which had to carry a lake of about 300m. I was left with about 150m to the pin and had a go with my 9 iron. I knew the shot was good but I was not sure how close it was to the pin. When I got to the green, I couldn’t see my ball there so I thought that it probably rolled off the green. My friend told me to check the pin, and there it was – my ball in the hole, 2 shots on a Par 5”.
As a CEO of an Oil and Gas Service and Consulting company, a married man with two children, and a successful sportsman, Jason Kok is living a full life. He rose up against obstacles and continues to race forward so we’re sure he’ll be around for a long time.
