Muni He took an early-morning call from Golfweek on Tuesday on her way to practice at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. The 21-year-old LPGA player is gearing up for her first start of the 2021 season at the Gainbridge LPGA event in Orlando, Florida.
The former USC player has one of the largest social media followings on tour, but her boyfriend, Formula One driver Alex Albon, actually has a bigger one. Muni chatted with Golfweek about the race-car driving documentary that brought her out of a golf slump, the quest for distance and her adorable pet bunnies.
Here are excerpts from that conversation:
We’ll start with something I’ve been meaning to ask. Who calls you Muni and who calls you Lily, and which do you prefer?
Honestly, I’m OK with either. I feel like in golf, obviously if it’s on TV they always call me Muni but when I introduce myself, I tend to use Lily and all my friends and family call me Lily. I wish I had just gone with one or the other, and I really like Muni. But now it’s kind of like all complicated.
Does Muni mean anything?
It’s Buddhist. It’s actually the name of a temple and a Buddha, where my parents went to go pray for me. So I was kind of named after that temple/Buddha.
Oh, that’s beautiful. Speaking of family, how is your family in China? Have you been back since the 2019 holiday season?
No, I haven’t been back. You know my parents, they live in Los Angeles, so we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to be together. But my grandparents on my mom’s side are still in China and I think we FaceTime a lot more now. It seems like life is kind of back to normal for them, but at the beginning it was pretty tough.
You got a late start in 2020, playing in your first event in July. How would you describe last year and what positives can you take from it?
Last year was kind of a blur. It went by so quickly, it felt like a minute. It wasn’t my best year I would say, both mentally and physically. It probably wouldn’t have been for a lot of other people as well. Toward the end of 2019, I really started to realize that if you did want to perform, if you did want to be happy in life, you kind of have to put your mental health first. I think the thing that came out of last year was a lot of people realized that as well.
Are the rabbits part of your mental health?
I think so. I was quite lonely in quarantine. I was back at my parents’ house and my parents kind of lived in the middle of nowhere. I’ve always been a rabbit person. When I was young, I used to rescue rabbits from the market in China.
How many do you have?
I have two rabbits. They’re siblings. The boys is named Turbo and the girl is Birdie.
Did you pick up any new hobbies during the break?
In the beginning I tried everything. I picked up guitar again, I got a keyboard. Everything I did as a kid, I was like oh I have so much free time to pick back up. But toward the end of it, especially when we started to travel, I had less time. I wish I did take advantage a little bit more of the time, but I think most of the time I just watched a lot of Netflix.
You have a large Instagram audience with over 350,000 followers. But your boyfriend (Formula One driver Alex Albon) has nearly 1 million followers. How did you two meet and how do you two make it work traveling the world for work?
When we first met, I had more followers than him (laughs). Just seeing his growth, I’m so happy for him. It’s really incredible.
We met because, this is going to sound extremely bizarre but it makes me feel like the world is so small after all, back in 2019 I was in a slump. I was in a really bad place mentally. It was my rookie year and I wasn’t playing well at all. This was before I saw Lynn (Marriott) and Pia (Nilsson). A friend of mine convinced me to watch a (Formula One) documentary on Netflix called “Drive to Survive.” They said, ‘I think you’d really like it. It helps you to see another perspective of a sport that’s under so much pressure.’ So I watched the whole entire season in one day. I know as bizarre as this might sound, it got me really motivated in golf instantly.
Naturally I wanted to learn more about the sport … I started following (Alex) and really didn’t think that much of it. He said he had a pretty small following. Well, by small he meant around 190,000 to 200,000. But he saw me, and he was really getting into golf at the same time I was getting into his sport. He was watching a lot of YouTube videos and golf on TV, so then he followed me. I guess that’s how we technically met.
We started talking on the phone. We were both rookies in 2019 and I thought that was extremely cool. Eventually he had an event in the States and afterwards, he and his friend took a little break in LA and that’s how we properly met for the first time. I know it’s a long story, but everyone is always asking how in the world did you guys meet? Small world.
You guys are witty on Instagram. How much did your humor connect you two?
He’s a really funny person. I think when we first met, British humor is slightly different. It took me a while to catch on.
Have you tried race car driving at all?
I grew up with two godbrothers and a lot of my friends were guys. I was really into cars ever since high school and middle school. … We would watch ‘Top Gear’ growing up. We would go to car shows every week. But weirdly, Formula One, I was not aware of it at all. I think I was stuck on cars we drive versus motorsports.
When I was in high school, I went on one of those experience things but that’s about it. Not on track with Alex. But the way that Alex drives, sometimes I feel like I’m on a giant racetrack. So I think I’ve had enough.
When did you get cranking again for this season and what’s your main focus?
I started training toward the end of December. A part of me is a little bit intimidated, just by the whole COVID situation. As we now know, anything is possible. It just seems like looking at the schedule there are a lot of unknowns, for example our Asia swing is earlier in the year. … My goal is really just to find a balance of what I feel like I should be doing, what I think is best for my game and trusting my own instincts a lot more.
Do you have a mental coach?
I work with Vision54. They put a lot of emphasis on how you feel on the course. They think it should be positive and happy. It’s been a tremendous help for me for the past year or so. It’s aligned with everything I believe in.
We sometimes see Ariya Jutanugarn (another Vision54 student) smiling before she hits a shot. Do you have any triggers that remind you to get in that zone?
I actually write down encouragement on my green sheet or yardage book on every single hole. I used to write down, “you missed a left-to-right 5-footer,” or “you pushed that drive.” Now I would write down “that was really good speed on that putt.” I write down something positive on every hole and it actually cuts my memory shorter and makes me a little bit more focused and positive about what’s in front of me versus overthinking.
Muni He of China hits a tee shot during Round 3 of 2019 Buick LPGA Shanghai at Shanghai Qizhong Garden Golf Club. (Photo by Yifan Ding/Getty Images)
Who’s the most interesting person you’ve played with at your home club, Sherwood?
Oh, I feel like I play with so many interesting people … but if we were speaking of someone people might know more, (hip-hop artist) ScHoolboy Q, I would consider him a good friend at this point. He’s just one of the most interesting and nicest guys I’ve ever met. The fact that he loves golf and brings a very young and cool vibe into golf, that’s extremely cool and admirable.
Are you still trying to get length, or do you feel like you’re where you need to be now?
No, I think that’s another part of trusting myself more and believing in myself more. I’m not really chasing distance anymore. I think the good thing about spending the last two years chasing distance is that I’ve gained a bit of distance, although I might not be the longest hitter on tour, I feel like I could say I’m kind of average. That will do for me. Now it’s just more the consistency, the putting, the short game that I’m really trying to take to another level.
It is so tempting though because the courses on the LPGA are getting longer and longer.
