What intrigues you about Mai Dachathipat when you first meet her is the journey and the extraordinary challenges that have been navigated in such a young life. The miles, you tell yourself, they have produced such wisdom.

Then you indulge in conversation with this 28-year-old from Thailand and you are enlightened to the aura of cultural upbringing and the uncanny charm that is at the heart of her persona. The smiles, you tell yourself, they are a testament to an irrepressible spirit.

“She is an unbelievable human,” said Iain Highfield, Academy Director and Mental Performance Coach at KOHR Golf in Natick, Mass. “Mai has this ability to talk, to be curious, not judgmental.”

Hers is a remarkable golf adventure and while it had all the dangerous trappings that come with being thrust into the fast lane of elite junior competition, the Mai Dachathipat story has layers of flavor. Her maturity. Her perspective. Her supporting cast.

From being that young girl who came to the U.S. at age 12 with dreams of making the LPGA, to being that teenager with immense talent who was good enough to be recruited by Auburn before transferring to Wake Forest, to being that young adult who had the strength to reorganize her big picture.

Pro golf was not going to be in her future. Mai assessed that by late in her junior year at Wake Forest. “The (competitive) game,” she said, “wasn’t fun.” It was a relief to admit that to herself, but at a point where the story could have gone sideways, Mai Dachathipat’s character took things to another level.

“I got more focused on education,” she said. Should we all not offer cheers to that?

Then there was this. Mai Dachathipat had succumbed to the burnout of about eight years of competitive golf “but I had not quit the golf industry,” she said. Nor had she quit her team.

To the contrary, “Mai still gave a 100 percent work ethic,” said Wake Forest coach Kim Lewellen, who made the decision to bring the senior to the NCAA Championships even though she wouldn’t be in the lineup and had only played in a handful of tournaments that season.

Why?

“Because of the energy she provided, because she was always the voice of calmness and reason,” said Lewellen.

In the spring of 2019, the Deacons lost in an epic final match to powerhouse Duke, which won three of the final five singles matches, two of them going extra holes. “I’m not sure we would have gone to the championship if not for Mai’s presence,” said Lewellen, a rare compliment pointed toward a team member who didn’t tee it up. But that’s the wondrous side of Mai Dachathipat.

“Such a soft demeanor, such a cool, cool story,” said Lewellen.

Where her game was on a steep trajectory as a junior, Mai Dachathipat earned the chance to play elite Division 1 college golf before the competitive fires waned. Fortunately, though, her passion to be involved in golf, specifically teaching and mentoring young players, is a huge benefit to the game.

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OK, so which part of the cool, cool story to introduce first?

It’s inviting to ask about being 12 and coming to the U.S. with your 10-year-old sister (Parinda) to attend the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy in Howley in the Hills, Fla., and the nearby Montverde Academy. While your parents remained in Thailand, by the way.

That Mai joined KOHR in 2024 – hired by Highfield who had been her sports psychologist at the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy years earlier – is a win-win because she has been inspired to develop her own unique method of teaching and mentoring and dozens of young golfers have benefited.

When the opportunity to move to Key Largo, Fla., and teach for the winter at the famed Ocean Reef Club came her way, Mai Dachathipat knew her horizons would be broadened. So, too, did Bill McInerney, CEO and co-founder of the KOHR Academy, who viewed this winter job as further validation of what this young Thai woman brings to the game.

“I genuinely believe she’s going to become one of the top coaches in the industry,” said McInerney.

But let all that percolate while we add this to the mix: Mai Dachathipat – she of the sweet, charming, and forever pleasant demeanor – morphs into something a little different when challenged to hit a golf ball with a ferocity that one must witness to believe.

“One year at the PGA Show, Mai took part in Demo Day and hit some 7-irons,” laughed Highfield. “She was hitting it 175 to 180 yards, but the sound, the compression . . . the whole demo area stopped.”

Able to generate massive numbers, about 187 mph ball speed, 125-126 clubhead speed, Mai Dachathipat can hit it 380 yards or more, so if you’re thinking she should be in some long driver, guess what? She is. In fact, Mai Dachathipat has twice finished second in the World Long Drive Championship (2021, 2024) and on five occasions she has won a professional long drive competition.

“She was always so strong, such an unbelievable athlete,” said Lewellen, whose husband, John Lewellen is a swing coach and fitness instructor for LPGA standout Lauren Coughlin, among others. When COVID hit in 2020 and Mai was living in Winston Salem, N.C., with the Lewellens, there was loads of time to work out, do speed training, and hit golf balls.

“One day we were out on our boat, brainstorming with Mai about her future. She was so good with people, very interested (in different businesses and met often with entrepreneurs). But she was so strong and I asked her, ‘Have you ever thought about getting into Long Drive?’ ”

So another path was opened and Mai went down it with the determination and commitment that has always buoyed her. In her early teens she had been expected to focus strictly on golf and the results came – Mia made the Round of 16 at the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior; she was eighth in the 2013 ANNIKA; played in the 2013 Wyndham Cup; qualified in 2015 for the U.S. Publinx.

But she wanted academics, she wanted to learn more than just golf. “I did like the academy,” she says now, “but five years was too long. I wanted a balance.”

Wake Forest offered her the academics she craved. The Lewellens pointed her in a direction that helped change her life. In Mai Dachathipat, Highfield envisioned a unique instructor who could offer junior golfers at KOHR “with a more holistic (perspective) and help them guard against burnout.” The staff at Ocean Reef afforded Mai yet another learning experience, one that she has embraced wholeheartedly.

A remarkable series of positive experiences, for sure, but here is proof that what sits at the heart of Mai Dachathipat is an unending desire to learn, to explore.

Consider that the day before the 2024 World Long Drive was to begin, Mai Dachathipat went skydiving for the first time.

Consider, too, that this young woman who credits “Long Drive for getting me back into knowing my swing because I studied how the body moves,” has not stopped at that little nugget of knowledge. Instead, in vintage Mai fashion, she is currently taking classes on line to get a Master’s degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology.

“She’s smart and has a passion for learning that is very philosophical, very spiritual,” said Lewellen. “There’s a beauty in that and it resonates when you meet her.”