I first started playing golf when I was 11. Before then, I used to ride horses and was involved in cheerleading and dance. I did the all-around sports thing. When I was 11, I actually broke my shoulder playing on the monkey bars. I was trying to do a gymnastics move and found out that gymnastics was not in my future. The doctors suggested that I start playing golf or tennis for rehab. I had gone out to hit a few balls with my dad and played some golf with him. It just clicked and I fell in love with it. And so there came golf. A bad thing turned into an unbelievable adventure for me.
 I lived in Colorado before I moved to Georgia. When I lived in Colorado, I rode horses and had my own horse named Chief. He was an excellent horse and I actually won him in a free drawing. I used to ride barrels and did a lot of western, never did much equestrian. My sister and I did it competitively. My sister even took Chief to the national finals because I wasn't old enough at the time. It was really exciting to be able to compete at such a high level in two different sports.
My parents have always pushed me to succeed and excel in whatever I put my mind to. When I first started playing  golf, I started at a little par three course. The first time I went there, I knew they had tournaments on Saturdays. The man who ran it was Coach Godwin. The first thing he said to me was, "What are you doing here?" I said, "Well, it is Saturday and I would really, really like to play golf today in your tournament." He said, "Well, you are not welcome here; you are a girl." I just kind of looked at him and said, "Excuse me?" He said, "You're a girl, why would you want to play golf?" Of course that pushed a couple of my buttons. I was not exactly thrilled with that answer.
 He said, "If you are really serious and you want to do this, I want you to come back after you chip 500 balls, putt 500 balls and hit 500 balls." So I came back the next week and just dedicated myself from then on. He instilled that dedication in me about how hard you have to work. He kind of became a grandfather figure to me. He was an amazing man and now his son is my swing coach. It's just kind of all in the family.
 Throughout my golf career I have gone through basically every level you are supposed to go through, including the local level, state, and then national tournaments through the AJGA. I met some of my really close friends through these tournaments, someare now out here on Tour, which is really exciting. Some of the people I played with are Beth Bauer, Cristie Kerr and Grace Park--I guess kind of the young crowd you would say on the LPGA. I've talked to Beth since getting my card and I am extremely thrilled to get out there and spend time with them, because we had a lot of fun in junior golf.
From there, I went to the University of Georgia where I once again played against Beth and Grace. They decided to come and play on the LPGA. I finished up in December 2002 and graduated, which was a thrill. It took four long years, but hopefully it will pay off in the future.
Attending the University of Georgia was probably the most amazing four and half years of my life. Of course that is when you meet all your best friends. I also won a team national championship there, which was just thrilling. We weren't supposed to win. We came from behind and shocked Duke as the national champs.
 I received my degree in marketing, which I am hoping to use at some point on the LPGA tour. I hope I do everything correctly on the communications forum, which is one of the reasons I am doing the diary. Overall, the University of Georgia treated me unbelievably well.
I decided I wanted to turn pro basically since I was 15 and just knew this was my dream. But, I did want to finish college and get my degree. It was really one of my prerequisites before I could get out here--I wanted to accomplish the college goal first. At the end of playing the Curtis Cup this past summer to then playing in the U.S. Amateur, I decide to go ahead and turn pro.
 As some people in the golfing community might know, I had a little bit of a mishap with the application process for LPGA Q-school. I sent it in to the main office but somehow it got lost in the mail. Ty Votaw was generous enough to lend me a nice reprieve from the stipulations of the application process and allowed me to attend the second site for the first round of qualifying school in California to give me the opportunity to get to the final stage in Daytona Beach. That was actually the most nervous I was throughout the whole qualifying tournament. I didn't play well the first day and it got me a little bit out of my norm. But the third day I had a very strong round and I felt very confident going into the final day. I came away from there with a seventh place finish which was very exciting for me. I got a lot of confidence from that going into the final stage, which was just a week and a half later.
So I went to Daytona and played. I probably had one of the best weeks hitting wise that I had had the entire summer. Overall, I played very conservative and hit it to the middle of the greens, took my pars and walked away. I tried to make the least amount of mistakes as possible because that was the number one thing people told me going into Q-school. When I walked off the last green, I kind of knew I had made it. So we walked over to the car and opened a bottle of champagne and said, "Ok, I made it!" I ended up finishing the final stage in seventh place; looks like seven is my lucky number right now.
In looking at this first year, I have looked at the schedule and realized it is going to be a lot of traveling. Thankfully, I will be able have a family member travel with me basically the whole year. To me, that is very comforting as I love my family and we are a very tight family. To have someone always there to support me should be a big asset for me.
 I am going to take the first trip out to the west coast driving a new car that I bought for it. It is a new Explorer and I am quite excited about it. It will definitely have a lot of miles by the end of summer. I think we counted about 40,000 miles which means it is going to be a long trip. After we get back to east coast, one of the first tournaments there is just about five minutes from my sister's house in Atlanta. It will be so great to be around all of my family and think about all of my friends coming out to see me.
My family is an integral part of my success. My sister, who is about four years older than me, doesn't like the game of golf at all. She doesn't understand the concept of chasing a little white ball 100 yards away from you. She and her husband, Bob, have a little girl named LeAnn, who at this point is 18 months old. They also have another one on the way that is actually due a week before my first tournament out west. I hope she has it before I leave so I can see her. It is going to be another little girl; they will name Angelina. I can't wait! I never realized how much a little girl can bring into your life.
Then there is my mom and dad who have been married 27 years--they were high school sweethearts. So it is just a success story all the way around--a good American family.
Looking into this year, the thing I fear the most is not allowing the game to be fun, because that is what has made it successful for me. I look at golf as a sport that I am blessed to have some talent in. I don't ever want to get to the point where it is all about the money. Granted it is nice, but it is not what drives me to be competitive out here on Tour.
The thing I am looking forward to the most is getting to know everybody out on Tour. I have met a few people like Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel and they are so nice. Vickie Goetz-Ackerman is a fellow Georgia alumni as well as Nancy Bowen. I am just really excited to get out there and play golf with all these people who have basically been my idols. These are people I have always looked up to and tried to shape my game after.
I am also looking forward to meeting all the kids who come out to the tournaments. Just the other day I had a little girl I met at the U.S. Open send me an email. She said she just wanted to get in touch with me just to say hi.It is just amazing how much that makes me understand that golf is just a game and you just need to make it fun and enjoy it for what it is worth. |
