Young Daffodil Fulfilling American Dream

From Philippines To Arizona, 13-Year-Old Sanchez Has Enjoyed Quite a Journey

By David Shefter, USGA

Lakewood, Wash. – Sometimes Daffodil Sanchez will just close her eyes and wander 7,688 miles away to a completely different culture.

Far from the sun-splashed green fairways juxtaposed with cacti and other natural foliage that make up Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.

Far from the everyday conveniences of cell phones, high-definition television, fast food and modern plumbing that Americans take for granted.

Because in the throes of the jungle, such commodities don’t exist. Imagine not having such luxuries as air conditioning, warm showers and toilets that flush.

This was once Sanchez’s world. It’s not a lifestyle most of the other 155 competitors in this week’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at Tacoma Country and Golf Club can fathom. But for the local residents of Balamban, on the central Philippine island of Visayas, it’s par for the course.

Up until the age of 6, it’s all Sanchez knew. The 2007 U.S. Girls’ qualifier grew up in a tiny primitive three-sided house – the back was exposed to the jungle – with her mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle. She never knew her biological father and to this day has not met him.

Daffodil Sanchez (right) has found a new life and the American Dream since coming from the Philippines seven years ago. (Photo courtesy of Troy Koon)

The roof was made of nipa leaves (basically palm frommes) and the floor from dirt. The shower? It was a 5-foot cement block that was shared by several families. Nets were used to protect themselves from the mosquitoes. Outside in the wild ran caribou, water buffalo and the omnipresent chickens. Instead of Barbie dolls and video games, Sanchez and her friends often played with spiders. “They didn’t bite or anything,” she said.

It was a scene right out of the 1970s television show “Gilligan’s Island.”

That’s how Sanchez lived for the first six years of her life. That’s when her adopted father Troy Koon, a retired computer engineer, brought her to Mesa, Ariz. Koon had married Sanchez’s mother, Connie, four years earlier, in 1995, but Daffodil remained with her extended family until 1999.

When Sanchez got off the plane in Los Angeles, her first words back to her grandmother in the Philippines were “Mama, no mosquitoes.” When she saw a swimming pool for the first time, she wondered why there were no fish.

“She thought we would starve to death,” said Koon. “She thought everyone had eaten all the fish.”

Adapting to her new culture didn’t take long. Thanks to the Rosetta Stone Program, it took Sanchez a matter of three weeks to begin speaking English (she spoke Cebuano, one of 100 dialects used in the country). Her English is now better than many people who have lived their entire life in this country.

Even golf came quite naturally to this young lady, although she found the game by accident. During a family reunion in Indiana, Koon took Sanchez, then just 9, to a small nine-hole course where she rented a $2 set of clubs. By the eighth hole, Sanchez made her first par. A passion was born.

A few weeks later Koon purchased a $39 driver at a national chain discount department store. He then went to Goodwill and bought clubs at $2 apiece. Within five months, Sanchez was breaking par for nine holes. A month shy of her 12th birthday, her handicap at Apache Creek Golf Course in Apache Junction, Ariz., was down to scratch.

And she started winning national competitions as well. A day before she turned 13, she took the U.S. Kids Golf Teen World Championship in Naples, Fla., breaking par in each round of the 54-hole event at the Tournament Players Club at Twin Eagles. She also won the RE/Max Junior World Long Drive Championship in Roanoke, Texas for the Girls 10-12 Division (271 yards). Earlier this year, she won the International Golf Tour’s Tournament of Champions Girls 14-and-under division at Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Fla., by 10 strokes.

“Golf has given me a lot,” said Sanchez, who is competing in her second USGA event this week, having missed the match-play cut by one stroke at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links last month at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky. “It’s a wonderful sport and it’s opened a lot of doors. It’s given me a life.”

Return To The Past

In January, Sanchez made her first visit back to her native country since leaving seven years ago. She went back to compete in the Philippine Women’s Amateur, where she made the cut in a field of 100 players and finished 21st. But golf was the least important aspect of this trip.

Sanchez went back home, to the place of her early childhood, a place still without any modern amenities. She went back to the school she attended for four years – pre-school, two years of kindergarten and first grade – where her aunt still teaches. Some of the kids recognized her. A photo of her had been placed on the wall and it slowly became an inspirational image for every kid. It brought out emotional tears for Sanchez.

For those kids, though, Sanchez is a symbol of hope, that there’s a better life beyond the confines of the jungle. To them, she was almost a saint returning home.

“I wish I could help them more,” she said. “They are all incredible people.”

Instead of staying a hotel, Sanchez slept on the same bamboo floor of her young childhood home. Before going to bed, she took an incredibly cold shower and then put on long-sleeved pajamas. She did bring her own mosquito repellent, something the natives have yet to discover. Then she lit a coil that helps keep the bugs away before pulling over a mosquito net. All this while the temperature outside was 90 degrees with 100-percent humidity.

During the visit, she noticed some people living in houses, where the walls were made out of wire and socks. For some inhabitants, just having clothes was a good thing. Many children don’t finish school because they must work to financially support their families. If anything, the trip was eye-opening.

“They say hard times make you stronger,” said Sanchez. “I’m glad to have had that kind of hard life. I appreciate life more.

“You appreciate what you have here. I’m pretty lucky.”

Chance Meeting

Troy Koon was supposed to be buried by now. Doctors gave him virtually no chance to live after they found he had a rare blood disease known as hypereosinophillia. That was 16 years ago. Today, he travels around with a bag of pills, syringes (for his diabetes) and an oxygen contraption. Bald and devoid of eyebrows from the disease, the 54-year-old Koon takes around 30 pills a day to combat his various ailments. Then again, it beats the alternative.

Back in 1995, he was divorced from a previous marriage when a friend encouraged him to make a trip to the Philippines for a wedding. It was there that Koon first saw Connie Sanchez at a restaurant. The encounter turned into lunch the following day.

“I talked with her for about five minutes,” said Koon. We had fun at lunch. I changed my reservations [to go home] and tried to see if we could get along.”

Seven months later the two were married.

Once Connie and Koon settled in the U.S., they brought Daffodil over in 1999. Daffodil thrived immediately. She takes her classes via the Internet and owns straight-As. She was three grades ahead until she recently slowed down to give her more time to focus on golf, although she does plan to learn Chinese over the next few years.

While Koon travels from site to site with Daffodil – she has been home for one day since May 15 – he never ventures onto the course. Watching makes him too nervous and he doesn’t want to make his presence a distraction.

The two will discuss rounds after play is over and go over any mistakes. But Koon makes sure he isn’t doing Monday morning quarterbacking, either. In fact, he isn’t putting any pressure on Daffodil to make a career out of the game. All he wants is for his adopted daughter to be happy, no matter what venture she follows.

“I would be very disappointed if she wasn’t very happy,” said Koon.

Connie did not make the trip this week, but did watch Daffodil compete last week in San Diego at the Junior World Championship. About the same time Daffodil discovered golf, her mom began working in a floral shop, first as a driver and eventually as a floral designer, an appropriate occupation considering her daughter’s name. In fact, Connie wanted to name her daughter Heather Petunia, but couldn’t come up with the proper spelling, so she settled for Kristina Daffodil Sanchez.

“Thank you lord,” said Daffodil of not being named Petunia. “Daffodil is a little better. It fits me. It’s a little different.”

Just like her life.

David Shefter is a USGA staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.