A bold approach

Ina Kim-Schaad’s Instagram handle @fearlessgolfcoach is a tribute to her mentor Gio Valiante, a sports psychologist who steered her toward mental-performance coaching.
“I am a full-time mental-performance coach with Fearless Golf,” said Kim-Schaad, who played collegiately at Northwestern and won the 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. “I am so blessed to have this opportunity through Dr. Gio, who is my mentor. It’s not just a business. It is more like a passion. It’s something I never knew I needed in my life, but it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I’m super lucky and am loving every minute of it.”
For Kim-Schaad, 40, this burgeoning ingredient in the success of competitive golfers is a long way from her previous lucrative career in finance that included stops in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and Hong Kong. The Los Angeles native was the runner-up at the 2000 U.S. Girls’ Junior and a quarterfinalist in 1998 but never wanted to follow in her older sister Hana’s footsteps in professional golf. In fact...