The Story of Golfer Mini

Welcome to my website and blog, Golfer Mini!

I thought about getting into blogging for a couple of years now and during quarantine in Japan one day, I finally had the courage to do it. This is my story ❤️

Where it all began

My first blogging experience started in 2014 when my University of Kansas (KU) golf team took a 10-day golf trip to Ireland and I was the official blogger for the team (mainly because no one else wanted to do it). The daily blogs were uploaded onto the KU athletics website and I actually enjoyed documenting our adventures and highlighting the incredible courses we got to play on.

I ended up pursuing Journalism, but after graduating KU in 2016, I felt burned out from writing so many articles under tight deadlines that I decided to give writing a break and just focus on my golf career for the next four years. It wasn’t until 2020 during the stay-at-home order (thanks COVID-19) that I decided to revisit my passion for writing and share my experiences as a professional golfer.

Now, before I talk about my vision for this blog, I should share a little bit more about myself.

Who I am

The name “Minami” was difficult for my American friends to say and I was tired of being called “Mini-me” from Austin Powers (to this day, I refuse to watch the movies haha) so my teammates in college started nicknaming me Mini, hence Golfer Mini. I’ve also marketed myself as Anna Minami because I thought that it would be easier to remember and say universally than my real name which is Minami (Ann) Levonowich.

Golf has always been a part of my life, literally! I started when I was three years old and I don’t even remember swinging my first club. I just remember that I would play golf with my parents all the time. I grew up playing golf in Europe (London, Moscow, and Geneva to be exact) and maybe that’s why I love the links and enjoy hitting low shots.

My family moved to the U.S. after I started getting more serious in golf. I was 13 years old at the time and went to the IJGA golf academy in Hilton Head Island, SC. It was there that I met some of my life-long friends who I still keep in touch with and are still playing professionally.

I went to Kansas because I wanted to go to a big-name school and also because my high school swing coach lived in the area so I thought that having my coach nearby was an added bonus. There’s so much I could write about college golf and after my time as a Division 1 student-athlete, I want to help more players get a golf scholarship!

After graduating college, I moved to Japan and established a career for myself. I became part of a very supportive management company called FT Entertainment. I obtained my tour license card and competed in tournaments all around Asia. When I wasn’t competing, I was busy with my round lessons and pro am events. I also got the occasional offers such as tv shows, magazines, podcasts, etc. To this day, I’ve been on five tv shows (two in South Korea and three in Japan), talked on one radio station and three podcasts, appeared in several magazines, and I’ve been a model for a Japanese golf brand called WINWIN STYLE since 2016. I almost forgot, I represented Japan in the Wide Angle Extreme Golf World Championship and won. I can’t wait to show you how fun speedgolf is!

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, that was when I started to feel burned out from competing. Traveling became a pain with all the restrictions and my golf felt like it was getting worse. I was losing the drive to keep fighting and was constantly stressing over how I was going to make money. That’s when I realized that there’s so much more to life than just competing and I felt like I was meant to do more.

Which leads me to now.

Today and the future

Golfer Mini is about more than just golf. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s a way of life. I think what makes golf such a great sport is that anyone can pick up the game and it’s becoming more popular and more easily accessible (think Top Golf). Plus, we get to be surrounded by beautiful nature! Golf has provided me with so much and that’s why I want to share with you all my experiences and knowledge of the sport. I hope that by reading my blogs, you too will enjoy golf more, find success through golf, and maybe even learn some Japanese or English along the way.