University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Celeste Dao
March 04, 2020 | Women's Golf, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Celeste Dao first swung a golf club at age three. The Georgia freshman from Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, Quebec, Canada, near Montreal, has pretty much been swinging it ever since.
In her most recent event, last month's The Gold Rush out in Seal Beach, Calif., she earned her first medalist honor while helping the Bulldogs to their first win of the season. She shot 7-under in the event and earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the first time.
On Tuesday, Dao sat down for a Quick Chat to discuss golf back home, seeing the world through the sport that she loves, the wonder that is poutine and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: How old were you when you first started playing and what initially got you interested in the game?
Dao: I have a video of me at three years old swinging for the first time. My dad was really passionate about golf — he used to be a tennis teaching pro and then he got into golf. He showed me the game and that was how I got started.
Frierson: Looking back, how was that first swing?
Dao: Pretty solid! In the video, my dad — we live in Canada so he had a (practice) net inside — he positioned the ball and tried to show me what to do while standing in front of me, and I almost hit him. It was pretty funny.
Frierson: Living in Quebec, how much of the year are you able to play outdoors?
Dao: Usually, I started hitting balls outside two weeks after Augusta (The Masters), and then it depends on when the snow starts in Canada. I'll play outside until the first snow. If it's really cold but not snowing, I'll play outside.
Frierson: Have you ever played on a snow-covered course, like with a pink ball?
Dao: Not with a pink ball but I have been playing when it started snowing a lot and I finished my round. It was pretty funny.
Frierson: Golf has taken you around the world, so what are some of the places that stand out to you?
Dao: The past two years I've been really lucky because I was on the Canadian National Team and I went to Asia, to Japan, twice to Argentina and Chile, twice to Ireland and to Mexico. I basically went everywhere except Africa and Australia and I'm really looking forward to going there. I've been really lucky.
Frierson: What's the one place you can't wait to go back to, just to see more of it and experience more of it?
Dao: I really want to go back to Japan. I love the food and the culture and I really didn't have time to visit when I was there, so I'd definitely go back to Tokyo.
Frierson: When you think of your home or hometown, what comes to mind?
Dao: I would say snow. It's pretty random but I grew up not only playing golf but every weekend I would go snowboarding with my whole family. I have a little brother and we've been taking snowboarding lessons since I was seven years old. It's like a family activity and every weekend we'd go to the mountains and have a hour road trip and sing in the car. That's what home is for me.
Frierson: Golf and snowboarding, those seem like two very different sports.
Dao: Snowboarding helped me, it's a lot of stability and it helps with my golf swing, like when the course is not always flat and you're in different positions on the golf course.
Frierson: How was your first Georgia football game?
Dao: It was so fun. I didn't understand the rules and one of my roommates is from Italy (Caterina Don) and she didn't understand either, so it was pretty funny. But we loved how everybody knew every song and we were like, we need to know all of the songs by the end of four years.
We went to see the Dawg Walk and seeing players on the football field that treated as kings but then they're also in our classes, it was really interesting.
Frierson: I've been to Canada a couple of times in the past few years and love everything about it. This past summer, in Vancouver, I had poutine for the first time. Now what I had was vegan poutine [Dao wrinkles her nose a bit] and it was really good. Do you like poutine and can you explain why it's such a big thing in Canada?
Dao: I love poutine. I think it's just because we invented it so we make it a big deal. It's just fries with gravy sauce and then extra cheese, and it melts. Sometimes I'll put sausage in it which is really good, and I have a poutine restaurant near my town so after a really cold round of golf in the fall, me and my brother would go eat there.
It's not healthy but it's good and it's really Canadian.
Frierson: I love how even though our countries are so similar in so many ways, there are these distinct differences. They're part of what make traveling and experiencing different places so interesting. If you had to recommend one Canadian thing for somebody going to Canada, what should they try? It probably won't be a vegan routine.
Dao: No, not vegan, you ruined it [laughs]. I'd say a really Canadian thing is to go get a coffee at Tim Horton's. I don't drink coffee but I love their white hot chocolates. I strongly recommend a hot chocolate at Tim Horton's.
What else? Oh, start saying the expression "eh" at the end of your sentences.
Frierson: What's funny is I kind of got in the habit of doing that before and after my last two trips to Vancouver. I don't do it up there but when I'm talking to people around here I'll find myself throwing an "eh" on at the end. Very strange, I know.
Dao: It's funny, I don't say "eh" when I speak French but when I speak English I say it, it's super strange.
Frierson: At home, what is the French-English ratio? I assume you speak a lot more French than you do English.
Dao: The province where I'm from, it's all French. In school it was all in French, so (at Georgia) it was hard for me at first, in classes, to not understand but I had to translate it all in my head. I was lucky because the two years I spent on the national team, all of my team was from English-speaking provinces. I also lived on the west coast during the winter, for the golf program, because there's less snow, and all of that helped my English.
My friends back home, their English is not really good and they have a thicker accent than mine.
Frierson: Have you been to France? How is your French compared to somebody from France?
Dao: I've been twice, and one of my other roommates on the team, Candice Mahe, is from France. Also, there's a player on the tennis team from France, Baptiste Anselmo, and they always make fun of my because of my accent and because we have different expressions. We understand each other the same way the American and England accents are different but it's basically the same language.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Celeste Dao first swung a golf club at age three. The Georgia freshman from Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, Quebec, Canada, near Montreal, has pretty much been swinging it ever since.
In her most recent event, last month's The Gold Rush out in Seal Beach, Calif., she earned her first medalist honor while helping the Bulldogs to their first win of the season. She shot 7-under in the event and earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the first time.
On Tuesday, Dao sat down for a Quick Chat to discuss golf back home, seeing the world through the sport that she loves, the wonder that is poutine and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: How old were you when you first started playing and what initially got you interested in the game?
Dao: I have a video of me at three years old swinging for the first time. My dad was really passionate about golf — he used to be a tennis teaching pro and then he got into golf. He showed me the game and that was how I got started.
Frierson: Looking back, how was that first swing?
Dao: Pretty solid! In the video, my dad — we live in Canada so he had a (practice) net inside — he positioned the ball and tried to show me what to do while standing in front of me, and I almost hit him. It was pretty funny.
Frierson: Living in Quebec, how much of the year are you able to play outdoors?
Dao: Usually, I started hitting balls outside two weeks after Augusta (The Masters), and then it depends on when the snow starts in Canada. I'll play outside until the first snow. If it's really cold but not snowing, I'll play outside.
Frierson: Have you ever played on a snow-covered course, like with a pink ball?
Dao: Not with a pink ball but I have been playing when it started snowing a lot and I finished my round. It was pretty funny.
Frierson: Golf has taken you around the world, so what are some of the places that stand out to you?
Dao: The past two years I've been really lucky because I was on the Canadian National Team and I went to Asia, to Japan, twice to Argentina and Chile, twice to Ireland and to Mexico. I basically went everywhere except Africa and Australia and I'm really looking forward to going there. I've been really lucky.
Frierson: What's the one place you can't wait to go back to, just to see more of it and experience more of it?
Dao: I really want to go back to Japan. I love the food and the culture and I really didn't have time to visit when I was there, so I'd definitely go back to Tokyo.
Frierson: When you think of your home or hometown, what comes to mind?
Dao: I would say snow. It's pretty random but I grew up not only playing golf but every weekend I would go snowboarding with my whole family. I have a little brother and we've been taking snowboarding lessons since I was seven years old. It's like a family activity and every weekend we'd go to the mountains and have a hour road trip and sing in the car. That's what home is for me.
Frierson: Golf and snowboarding, those seem like two very different sports.
Dao: Snowboarding helped me, it's a lot of stability and it helps with my golf swing, like when the course is not always flat and you're in different positions on the golf course.
Frierson: How was your first Georgia football game?
Dao: It was so fun. I didn't understand the rules and one of my roommates is from Italy (Caterina Don) and she didn't understand either, so it was pretty funny. But we loved how everybody knew every song and we were like, we need to know all of the songs by the end of four years.
We went to see the Dawg Walk and seeing players on the football field that treated as kings but then they're also in our classes, it was really interesting.
Frierson: I've been to Canada a couple of times in the past few years and love everything about it. This past summer, in Vancouver, I had poutine for the first time. Now what I had was vegan poutine [Dao wrinkles her nose a bit] and it was really good. Do you like poutine and can you explain why it's such a big thing in Canada?
Dao: I love poutine. I think it's just because we invented it so we make it a big deal. It's just fries with gravy sauce and then extra cheese, and it melts. Sometimes I'll put sausage in it which is really good, and I have a poutine restaurant near my town so after a really cold round of golf in the fall, me and my brother would go eat there.
It's not healthy but it's good and it's really Canadian.
Frierson: I love how even though our countries are so similar in so many ways, there are these distinct differences. They're part of what make traveling and experiencing different places so interesting. If you had to recommend one Canadian thing for somebody going to Canada, what should they try? It probably won't be a vegan routine.
Dao: No, not vegan, you ruined it [laughs]. I'd say a really Canadian thing is to go get a coffee at Tim Horton's. I don't drink coffee but I love their white hot chocolates. I strongly recommend a hot chocolate at Tim Horton's.
What else? Oh, start saying the expression "eh" at the end of your sentences.
Frierson: What's funny is I kind of got in the habit of doing that before and after my last two trips to Vancouver. I don't do it up there but when I'm talking to people around here I'll find myself throwing an "eh" on at the end. Very strange, I know.
Dao: It's funny, I don't say "eh" when I speak French but when I speak English I say it, it's super strange.
Frierson: At home, what is the French-English ratio? I assume you speak a lot more French than you do English.
Dao: The province where I'm from, it's all French. In school it was all in French, so (at Georgia) it was hard for me at first, in classes, to not understand but I had to translate it all in my head. I was lucky because the two years I spent on the national team, all of my team was from English-speaking provinces. I also lived on the west coast during the winter, for the golf program, because there's less snow, and all of that helped my English.
My friends back home, their English is not really good and they have a thicker accent than mine.
Frierson: Have you been to France? How is your French compared to somebody from France?
Dao: I've been twice, and one of my other roommates on the team, Candice Mahe, is from France. Also, there's a player on the tennis team from France, Baptiste Anselmo, and they always make fun of my because of my accent and because we have different expressions. We understand each other the same way the American and England accents are different but it's basically the same language.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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