Allisen Corpuz is an American professional golfer and member of the LPGA Tour. She won the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, but before that, she was a student-athlete at the University of Southern California (just like Vic!) on the USC Women’s Golf team. In today’s conversation, Vic and Allisen talk candidly about the moments in their sports careers where they almost walked away, and what it took for Allisen to move past her doubts and fears to achieve her dream of becoming a title-winning professional golfer. They also get real about the mental work and mindset shifts required to compete at that level and beyond, and how she gracefully deals with stress and pressure. Allisen’s outlook is not only inspiring but impressive, highlighting how putting in consistent work (she’s played golf for 17 years!) is just one piece of finding success as a professional athlete. Whether you want to be best in your craft like Allisen, are grappling with the fear of not being good enough, or simply want to be able to show up at an elite level in life, she’s sharing her recipe for success in this episode. We are rooting for Allisen and can’t wait to watch her professional journey!
Instagram: @allysoncorpuz
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/allisen-corpuz
Called at my parents and I was just I’m done with golf why have I worked so hard for this it just feels like nothing has really paid off the US Women’s Open champ Alison corpo Allison Coro Allison corpo the first American in over two decades to make the US Women’s Open her
First LPGA title first major win is also the biggest women’s prize in the history of women’s golf every athlete has the what comes next you can always go work after but you can’t really rewind the clock and go back to being 22 23 and say
Oh by the way like 10 years after I put down my club I want to turn pro now and really expect to be as good as you used to be how did you deal with the result of making that choice Allison I’m so happy to have you
This has been like such a fun full circle I feel like we need to rehash for everyone how we first met and then I was watching the US Open and I tagged you and then I saw the DMs I was like wait oh my God I know Allison and I was
Piecing it together so the first time we met 2018 what was the speech I did at SC so it was a body image it was I think it was just maybe for athletes was it really small it was yep yep so my best friend diaa has been obsessed with you shout out Divia
She’s also the one who like arranged this entire thing today um and she was just like hey there’s this YouTuber and she did like a TED Talk there’s this girl who goes to SC and she’s doing the session tonight like do you want to go
And I was like sure like that was kind of my yes year like I said yes to everything um went and I mean you gave such a great speech like I’ve been following you ever since um and yeah like that’s that’s that’s when I first met you and then yeah just been tuning
In oh my gosh I’m I’m so touched that you know Divia brought you and that you enjoyed it and wanted to kind of keep up with everything online and then I was watching the women’s Us open at Pebble and I was like oh my gosh there’s this
USC golfer this is so cool and it had been 18 192 it had been a like many years since we had met in person so I don’t know why I didn’t connect the dots and then I you won it was insane we’re going to talk all about that and then I
I went to tag you just to be like fight on and then I was like oh my God we’ve messaged like in 2018 I know her and so then like we got back in touch and then that’s why we’re here congratulations thank you I mean just that’s the dream
For not only all athletes who play at the D1 level but for golfers and I have a love for golf because I of a golf family my brother golfed at UCLA and played professionally for a bit and so I know how like firsthand from watching that like how mentally intense it is so
I cannot wait to talk about how your brain works I’m really excited for today thanks for having me on of course so I would love to hear about when you were when you first fell in love with golf and then started to realize that you
Were really really good at it yeah so my dad’s actually a really big golfer and then I have an older brother who’s 2 years older than me so we live on a golf course and my dad would just kind of bring us there on the weekends um and I
Started pretty young I started when I was like four four or five years old and kind of it was just kind of an instant thing I mean I’m sure you’ve tried to hit the ball before it’s a bit frustrating at first when you start um
Yeah and it was just more okay like how can I get better like from from the start um just really enjoyed trying to get better um and then started playing junior tournaments when I was 7 8 years old and I think that made it even more
Fun for me I was meeting other girls my age I was you know we would travel to different islands for junior tournaments um and then just just having the family time and spending time with my dad my brother and then now my mom travels with
Me on the road it’s really become like a family thing for us as well I love it and then when you were deciding to play in college obviously at the D1 level how did you choose SC yeah SC is like the perfect golf school um I mean I’m from Hawaii originally so it
Was kind of like far enough away but also the closest I could get while still leaving the island um that and then my dad actually went to SC as well so he was like I loved it there like I think you’ll like it there and then I committed in I believe
2014 my sophomore year and they had just won the National Championship in 2013 so it was like the coach the program and then I visited the school and I was just like this is really somewhere where I could see myself you know spending four years wow I love that the recruitment
Phase is so exciting especially when you do visit and fall in love with a program and then that’s the program you get to play at we both have that experience and it and then when you show up you’re like oh my God like I get my um sweatshirt
And I’m getting my shoes and I’m wearing the red and the yellow and you know it just feels so great I know I had a jarring transition from you know my high school volleyball experience and Club experience to the intensity at the D1 level did you have
That with golf yeah I mean like I said like our team was really really good when I came on um and I think just the first month or two of college was really tough um you go from you know having your parents helping you out kind of
Being able to do your own thing and you know take days off when you want them and stuff like that to you know having your schedule set and having practices I mean working out was fairly new to me at least that consistently um and came on
To the team where it was I was the only freshman we had one sophomore and five seniors so I was kind of seeing like at the time I didn’t realize but I’m seeing a lot of these girls at the end of their college career right like they’re way
Better than me like they’ve had three four years to improve and I was just kind of like wow like I’m I’m not good enough um so that was a bit different kind of learning to reset expectations and just kind of say like hey like you
Know I’m here to grow like it’s okay to like not be at my best right now mhm so what was your biggest struggle than freshman year like self-confidence I would say it’s more it was more just learning to balance everything um just being fully responsible for myself for the first
Time in my life and yeah just having the independence um that and like I mean you’re schedul so busy as an athlete that I think making friends was really hard um I mean until I met di I kind of felt like yeah like I have a few friends
But no one that I was really seeing like you know weekly and like scheduling like fun events outside of practice it was really just like practice is taking up my entire life like how I don’t know how people do anything else it’s so true and then you’re thinking well I’m friends
With my team but then you’re like am I or are we just always together for all these hours every day and so we feel like we’re friends or we’re using this term family but like I don’t feel that way you know what I’m saying I definitely relate to that looking back
On my time at USC and people be like how many great friends did you take away from college and I’m like a little part of me feels embarrassed like I don’t have that many but then I’m like but but you don’t get it I’m like I had to spend
Like 5 hours a day with my team and I didn’t have the time to like yeah do the things to make the friends and then when it volleyball ended for me I was you know tag teaming my high school friends friend group and like trying to fit in
But I don’t know if I was that’s definitely something I think a lot of female athletes experience yeah I mean like you said like it’s 20 hours mandate did but then really your coach expects you to practice more and then obviously the school like like
You’re there at the end of the day to get an education like that was always really important to me so there were definitely a few things that I turned down um and then I think just as you get used to everything like you get more energy right the more you work out the
Better like condition you’re in and I think the better you realize like how to balance like okay like maybe this assignment like I don’t have to try as hard as I would a freshman year like I can just make sure I’ve done the work and then go go do something else so how
Did you deal with the stress when you felt like you didn’t have the balance yet and there was so much to do and it was overwhelming yeah my family’s always been such a great support system for me um I mean my brother my older brother actually went to SC as well so we
Overlap for 2 years there um he was just really helpful I think we ended up eating out a lot together and then his suite was really really accommodating to me they were so sweet they were just like an older brother and sister to me um so having them my freshman year was
Definitely super helpful um and then I think just giving it time like eventually you will make friends like you’ll have a few group projects and classes or something and then you know find the people you click with and I think once I kind of started focusing on
Like okay like USC is giving me all of these opportunities and like not that I was ungrateful before that but it was more just kind of Shifting my perspective to focus on like all the good things that I had that I think was when I like really started toy enjoy it
So just in the way that you’re talking about everything I can tell you have this natural like shift to optimism or like the bright side or like that growth mindset have you always had that is that something that your current mental coach has helped instill in you I’m so
Fascinated with that Journey because I definitely wasn’t as self-aware of my thoughts and the way that they were working and framework and it’s clear you’ve done that work by the way you discuss things yeah it’s definitely something that like I mean I think it’s a constant Journey that I’ve worked on
And like still working on to this day um but I think like everyone goes through problems right so it really is just how you react and move forward from them that’s that’s always been really important to me is like okay like this thing has happened like now what um I
Mean I think everyone has had their days where you know you Suk you cry like totally you have your tough times and I think just knowing like there’s going to be something on the other side has always been the perspective that my parents have instilled in me I love that
And it’s always comforting to know you at least have like one person who will be on the other side of something for you if it’s not yourself um and I’m curious like obviously I talk a lot about the struggles that I’ve had and anxiety and depression body image issues
And like overcoming that and trying to still succeed at my Sport and my craft and I’d have to imagine like you might have been through something similar what’s maybe the biggest struggle that you’ve had to face because no one gets to be the best at their craft without
Having like you said those really intense trench moments yeah Um I think I mean I think just going through college I mean when Co hit everything kind of shut down but even before that um just just my junior year I had a pretty tough time on the team um it’s been mentioned like in a few
Articles and stuff but at one point I think think school was just so overwhelming and like the team environment and everything that I actually called up my parents and I was just like hey like after I’m done with SC like I’m done with golf um and so I
Miss Nationals my junior year I miss qualifying for Nationals um our team played but I didn’t and at that point I was just like like why have I worked so hard for this and it just feels like nothing has really paid off like I think there’s also the uncertainty of you know
Like College athletics like you go there on scholarship and you know that your four years are set and even for some sports it’s not but at least for me I signed a fouryear and I knew okay like college is covered but then I think every athlete has like the what comes
Next right and in that moment like in those few months like I was just not enjoying it so much that I was like maybe I would enjoy having a job after college more um and then I called my parents and they understandably freaked out um and then I think like I took some
Time off then and you know it was summer vacation I was just like okay like just take some time to reset and um then I kind of like you said like just shifted a bit and I was just like okay like if this is my last year of college golf and
Like golf like I just want it to be the best possible like I just want to have so much fun um I want to like you know connect with my teammates I want to do everything that I feel like I haven’t done yet at SC so had a really really
Good fall season and then I was just like maybe I should rethink this um and then Co hit um but was playing really well and then I was just like okay like I talked to a few of my older teammates who had turned Pro I actually have one
Teammate who turned Pro and then went to law school so she graduated from Duke Law after and now she’s practicing practicing law and I called her up and I was just like hey like what was your decision maker like what did you think about when you decided to turn pro like
What made you walk away and I think she gave me a lot of perspective just saying like you know like you can always go work right like everyone kind of told me you can always go work after but you can’t really rewind the clock and go
Back to being 22 23 and say like oh by the way like 10 years after I put down my clubs I want to turn pro now and really expect to be as good as you used to be um so I think with that perspective it was like okay like I’ll
Give it a chance see how it goes um and yeah like it’s turned out turned out really well so I did not know that did you know that I took a mental health leave after my junior year too I didn’t know that so I feel like we’re so
Similar in that I I also felt like I’m not my best self I’m not enjoying this we’re playing for a final four right now in the tournament in national television and I just want to be curled up in a ball in my hotel room and I’m like my
Inner child is so confused because this is everything I ever wanted and I realized I need to get myself back together because I’m just chug along and it’s not me and I’m and I’m not I’m not okay with ignoring what’s screaming me in the face
Which is you’re not okay right now so I also took took that break but it was hard I had to tell my team I had to talk to my parents my coaches what were those conversations like when you you know you said your parents were really shocked
You had to tell your team you’re not at championships are people worried like how did you deal with the result of making that choice making that choice is hard enough and then and then being in it is also hard yeah so I was lucky where it fell over summer
Break for me so I mean I miss Nationals because I didn’t qualify um so my coach decided like hey these are the people who are going to be exempt for Nationals like you’re going to be qualifying against this other girl and then I lost the qualifier and then I mean yeah so
Really the only hard conversation I had was with my parents um um I had kind of talked to a few friends I talked to dib about it like just cuz she was recruiting at that time for summer internships and I was just like hey like you know what is that process like like
I’ve never really done that I’ve played a lot of Summer Golf and um I mean it was tougher than I expected but it also felt so needed that it was like I can’t keep doing this like I just need to take some time off like I need to figure things out and like
Hopefully like just see see what ends up happening I mean I really didn’t know what was going to happen but I was just so unhappy after missing Nationals I was just like I like I look back and I think it was more just being unhappy with how
Busy I was and how you know how tough the College schedule was but at the time I think I just attributed to golf and was just like this is the reason why I’m unhappy and I don’t want to touch my golf clubs I don’t want to be out on a
Golf course like I just want a break so did you give yourself that break and how how long did you not touch your clubs when you went home for the summer yeah I I mean I put them away for like 2 and a half 3 weeks which for me
At the time was a very long time I mean I feel like I’ve always kind of felt like you you do lose it a bit I don’t know how it is with volleyball but you know you take a few days off and the next day at practice is a bit tougher
Just because you haven’t really been doing anything for a few days um so I never really taken off probably more than a week in row um so that was really the first time I had not touched my clubs for a long time and I think that
Was the first time it felt really nice just to just to not be worrying about like oh like what time am I going to go to practice today and really just be able to like make plans with my friends and and do other things I literally remember being like I’m going to put
Bracelets on I’m going to put jeans on like just feeling like the littlest things that when you’re going to practice and you’re showering you’re running to class like you’re never putting on an outfit you’re wearing your athletic gear I’m at least never wearing bracelets cuz I’m always diving and I
And I never have my nails long and I’m like doing all these like I don’t know these fun girly things I had missed doing when I was in the grind so it is true like just being like yeah I can go I can go hang out today to the mall or
Go to the movies because I’m not practicing and I don’t have you know um a match to play so that hits for sure when was the day you did pick up the clubs and what was that feeling like I think like during those two weeks was
Kind of when I made that decision of like you know I want this year to to be really good this next year um so I had I had already signed up for a few summer tournaments um I think I always tried to play like two or three tournaments
During the summer so when that time kind of started to come around I was like okay like maybe I should start practicing again and you know try to play well um and I I mean it’s always Rusty but at the same time I think that was
The like the first time in a long time that it felt like I was picking up the clubs for me right like it was like okay like I’m going out to practice because I want to play well at this next event um whereas you know you’re you’re with a
Team you’re practicing and it’s kind of like yeah like most of the days I want to be here there’s a few days where I maybe want to be doing something else or like you know you have a midterm coming up like you’re at practice but you’re
Really thinking about oh like I need to get back and study for this or you know like you’re not really fully focused on like getting better and while you’re at practice um so I think just being on summer vacation not really having school to worry about and just being able to
Get on the course by myself and kind of figure things out and just take it a little slower was definitely really helpful yeah it’s just refreshing to hear that like you have the same mindset and thought process and struggles and challenges that I mean so many other student athletes and then professional
Athletes experience that voice in our head can make us feel like we are the only one and the bests never have these thoughts and they never struggle to balance it and they never struggle to refocus and so you know I super appreciate you being like really candid about about that experience knowing what
You’ve been able to accomplish now to think you had that moment of like maybe I shouldn’t do this anymore and then you would have never accomplished what you did this past year and also be where you are it gives me the chills a little bit because we can’t really ever know what
The future holds and then there’s some people who are ready to move on to that new thing but then they don’t and they stay stuck and they stay miserable in that depressed place because of the maybe it’s next year maybe it’s next year and with something like golf there’s always another tournament
There’s players that are like well into their 50s can’t run a mile but kill it because it’s so skill oriented like so it is one of those specific Sports where like you can just convince yourself to never stop but but then are you staying stuck in that in that place you know
Yeah so that was I think something that I was always afraid of of just turning pro and I mean not making it but continuing to just keep pursuing it I mean like at the end of the day like I do have other dreams right like eventually like not anytime soon but
Long term like I want to be a mom like I want to have a family and just the thought of maybe turning pro and not being successful for 10 15 years and just continuing to grind at that and just not really knowing like if I’m ever
Going to make a ton of money or like how successful I’m going to be like that gave me a lot of anxiety like junior senior year because it was like is this really a viable career like how much money can I expect to make from this and
Still also enjoy it um and then when it comes to that time be able to walk away and like do the other things that I want to do um I never wanted to get stuck playing and just grinding and grinding and grinding and just kind of hoping for
It to resolve of itself and I feel like this experience for golf specifically is something that I think goes like pretty unspoken like this oh I’m blinking Who was the player was it Grayson Murray I’m blinking on the name but someone a there was a professional men’s golfer who had
Like a series of tweets where they were explaining like how low they had felt in the pursuit of like all the different tours that you can be on and how hard to keep your status and I mean could you kind of just share with us what some of
Those days grinding are like you know that that are the ugly ones maybe the end of that junior year yeah I mean just just going to practice every day so a typical practice week for us looked like three workouts an hour long um we’ play 18 holes three times in the
Morning and then the other two days we’d practice so 18 holes is generally around 3 and 1/2 hours maybe 4 workouts obviously an hour and then you have class on top of that and then on the weekends you know like I was like okay like my game doesn’t feel great so I’d
Go work another six six hours or so like on the weekends um but I mean even then like I think it was Grace and marray I think you’re correct on that but we so professional golf has qualifying school at the end of the year um and then that
Kind of determines her status for the next year Brut you got one day one tournament to place and if you don’t yeah so the men’s side is even tougher but I mean the women’s side follows a similar structure where so when I turned Pro I we actually had three stages I
Started at stage one people are exempt to second or third depending on like if they were on tour the year before and lost their status and stuff um and yeah it’s just top so many Advan to each stage and then at the end the top 20 get
Full status on the LPGA up to 45 in ties gets condition and then if you don’t make it it again depending on how low you finish you have status on the ENT tour which is like the corn fairy tour since you’re familiar with that it’s the tour like just below
The PJ tour and then other than that there’s a bunch of mini tour events so you really just have this one shot to get status for your entire year like that makes your your entire year so I remember going through stage one and just being like okay like this is the
Stage you need to make it out of or else you don’t have anything for next year so that was that was pretty stressful so much pressure what’s your routine or how do you cope going to bed the night before and knowing so much is writing on the next
Day yeah I always just like to think of all the practice that I’ve put in I think like in the moment in the night before just just kind of thinking like okay like I’ve prepared so much for this like everyone’s nervous everyone’s feeling it but I’ve done the work right
Like the work is there and just in the moment thinking you know I’m ready um whether I feel it or not like I’ve hit the shot a lot of times I’ve you know performed this under pressure I’ve done well in the past and I’m going to play
Well like I think the more you tell yourself like good things are going to happen good things are going to happen like the more you kind of manifest that and the more it happens you’ve been really open as well about having a mental coach which I love and thank you
For doing that because I think we need to be at a place where having an athletic trainer is just is viewed the exact same as having a mental coach or a therapist or a sports sake because I believe at the highest level more than half I think like 80% of winning is
Going to come down to your mindset like you can put the time in you can be amazing physically but if you don’t believe in yourself have the positive thoughts have the ability to focus and reset after a bad hole or a bad play you’re not going to be able to achieve
What you want so how long have you been working with a mental coach what led you to seek that how do you find one that you trust and how often are you working together yeah so I actually connected with Bill Nelson my freshman year and that was through the team um coach
Gaston hired him to work with the team and that was kind of the first time I mean I had done some work with a few other people but back in high school and like the beginning of college I was like okay like I I think it’s important but at the
Same time if I play well I’ll feel better like at the end of the day I thought it was more physical than mental and so yeah so I started working with Bill and I actually stopped working with him so we had a head coach change my junior year and we switched mental
Coaches um which is so hard yes it was just it was an adjustment but I stopped working with Bill for for about two years and then yeah I kind of went to through the that rough time and I was just like hey like I just feel like he
Always was able to put things into perspective for me and kind of give me something else to focus on and like move forward from and like working with him had always been something positive for me so I started working with him again I want to say right after Co hit and like
Right before I started going through Q School um I reached out and I was just hey like I’d like to continue the work I know it’s been you know a few years at this point but what we did was really helpful for me so we started working
Together and so yeah so we’ve been working together again ever since what’s one of the biggest things that you’ve you’ve taken from some of those sessions I know I have like core memories of certain like moments with my therapist or psychologist that you never forget yeah there’s been a bunch I mean
I think just the bigger realization of like everyone has all of these fears like and you’re not really special for having them I think that was kind of a game changer because you go out and you like perform for you volleyball right and you’re probably thinking like oh
Like all the other girls are playing so well like they probably have no anxiety like they probably feel great about everything and then you know you talk to other people you’re like okay like everyone else kind of feels this too like it’s very normal and like you don’t have to
Feel so ashamed about you know getting nervous like I think the biggest thing for me is like the nerves are good right like you want to be excited to go out and compete and with that comes nerves yeah it’s really wild how our anxious mind will convince us we’re the only one
And if anyone knows that’s going to reveal we’re not good enough and we shouldn’t be here but then like the reason the mental health conversation has taken off so much is because everyone’s like okay gay it’s like we’re all poking our heads out like okay you’re going to come out to amazing yeah
Like no like this is hard mentally you know we’re trying to do something that requires everything and you know when you also think about your identity and you’ve been playing since you were a little girl and I maybe that thought of like well what would I do if it wasn’t
Golf you’re like well I don’t even I haven’t really thought about what it would be so where is your identity at when it comes to viewing yourself as like Alice in the person or the champion golfer yeah I think it’s very important to kind of separate those like you said
I don’t think it’s it’s healthy to tie it all together and say like I am like the golfer I think it’s very healthy to you know have your own life and you know focus on other passions and then just say by the way like my job is to be an
Athlete and like go to work and I play golf for a living um and I don’t think that means that you love it any less for me like that’s been actually what helped me love it even more is just having that separation of like this isn’t everything
That I do mhm now when you won at Pebble Beach which was Unreal congratulations you were obviously on Cloud9 how did you come in clutch on that final Sunday because I think it’s relatable to everyone to be where you want to be in the position you want to
Be in you’ve worked so hard and then have that fear of what if I let it all Slip Away In This Moment yeah there’s there’s a few things I think I mean I had been in contention a few times earlier in the year and I don’t think I ever played bad but
I never quite finished it out um so I think just having those prior experiences and just kind of continuing to put myself into contention definitely prepared me to be in that final group to have you know so many people watching us and just feel like comfortable enough to
The shots that I needed to hit um I mean I called bill that morning and I think just just being grateful for where I was in that moment um I called him that morning and was just and he was just saying you know like not many people
Even get to be in the final group like okay like it’s great if you win but like just being at Pebble Beach I mean that was the first Women’s Open there so that’s the first time they’ve really hosted such a large women’s event so just being able to be part of that first
Field there and yeah being able to be in that position Sunday was really special um and he just kind of told me like enjoy it um just go out and have fun and for me like I’ve always played my best when I’m having fun and
Just yeah I mean I went out there and felt really calm for some reason like I haven’t really had that happen before but it just felt like a lot of things clicked into place where they had it before yeah it’s almost like you did put
In all that work and then you felt it pay off because you were different in this moment I feel like on a separate note not me playing in a Sund group and bubble but um like in my personal life recently I’ve had some things come up where I’ve just reacted differently I
Would have sent off this you know long text with my thoughts and I’m like I’ll do it tomorrow when I like sleep on it and think about it like you get to this place where you’re like oh wow this is what it means to put the work in and see
It payoff is I’m now in this moment that I’ve been in before but I’m feeling differently about it yeah for sure I mean one thing that me and Bill talked about is like every time the fear comes up like that’s actually your brain trying to protect you so like it might
Not feel like it when your brain’s just like oh like you might hit in the water right but it’s really just your brain like pointing out like danger like I’m afraid of that um so really just being able to say like okay like thanks for letting me know but that’s not an issue
Actually like I’m going to keep doing like what I need to do and like you know hit it on the green just little things like that um it really just felt like throughout the whole day like I mean even trying to keep my walk the same the
Talk the same like trying not to get any faster under the pressure um there was a lot just kind of racing um it isn’t super visible on TV I don’t think but there was actually a cameraman just walking like 10 ft in front of me the
Entire day no um and only the final round too because that’s that’s the final group they’re like great let’s throw in this extra factor that you can deal with yeah so that was different um I mean I was I was walking that round kind of like not
Really able to talk to Jay my caddy and you know just because we have a camera right in front of us so really just being able to yeah enjoy the moment and just not letting it overwhelm you I haven’t ever really thought about that when you’re watching a golf tournament
And like you want to have those personal conversations and you’re like oh is the mic picking this up like I can’t say that now yeah for sure it was cool too to hear you talk about how you were not check you were trying not to check the
Leaderboard it reminds me of this sick Olympic Meme and I think it’s Michael Phelps and some other person and it’s like losers focus on winners and winners focus on winning and it’s like Micha Phelps swimming and his head’s down and then there’s the person the lay next to
Him is up like looking to see where he is and I just I always used to think about that as an athlete and so why were you so adamant about playing my game and not checking the score and comparing myself to others yeah so starting Sunday
The only person I was behind was NASA I was one stroke back and everyone else was behind me so I believe it was she was 7 under I was six under and then the next people started at 4 four under and and higher so I mean I kind of went into
The final round thinking like okay the only person if I play my best that can beat me is NASA because she’s already ahead of me so if I can just go out there and play my best and assuming no one else really you know like if their
Best is the same as my best I’m going to come out ahead that was kind of how I went into the final round thinking so it was really just like keep my head down get the job done and see where I stand at the end of the day
Um I typically I think it is very like athlete dependent I mean I typically just don’t like lead looking at the leaderboards in general um I mean I know some athletes do they just like knowing where they are I just for me it hasn’t worked out very well in the past yeah
And that is important you know everyone it functions differently for some people it motivates them it lets them play more free but I admire that about you now would you say that your overall mindset like if I had to sum up kind of what I’ve been able to learn from you in just
This conversation it sounds like it’s these two things it’s being rooted in gratitude so like coming back to that Joy the appreciation the how lucky am I which then like maybe grants you some of this freedom to play and then the second part being like an intentional focus of knowing what I’m
Here to do executing my plan and when I catch myself wavering from that bringing it back would you say that those two are are a good some I ask because I know people are listening to this wanting to be the best at their craft and want to
Know like what’s your recipe and how can they maybe take something from this and apply it to themselves yeah um I mean I think that’s that’s exactly it the only thing I would add I think is really just being able to separate like work from everything else um I mean I’m pretty
Intentional and like okay like I’ll go today and you know put in my 3 hours of work and after that like no golf um for me I actually try to take a day off every week just to kind of reset the body give give myself some time to rest
I mean I know like you said the recipe is different for everyone else but that’s that’s been what’s worked the best for me um I’ve had times where you know I try to practice every day and then I end up going and I’m like another
Day of practice like and it just ends up not being as beneficial to me than you know really going out there and enjoying putting in the work so I think it’s really just being able to evaluate when things are and aren’t working for me and really being honest with myself even if
You know like you should you know people some some people do train every day like I get too tired when I do that you know it’s stuff like that just really finding something that works the best for me yeah um I appreciate you saying that you
Take a day off a week every week because I think there’s this false misconception of like the best don’t rest and every if you’re not getting better you’re getting worse and it’s like really toxic and it’s actually you realize no it’s so important to have recovery time because
Then you can properly replenish and recharge so you heard it here from the best take your days off people so where are you now approaching you know being on the LPGA obviously probably trying to chase your next win what’s what’s that like having this huge success under your belt has it
Changed things at all yeah I think I mean the biggest change is just the opportunities that it’s brought me um and just just been a lot busier since then which I’m very grateful for but I mean a lot more media every week when I’m on the road and you
Know a lot more people recognizing me just things that I never really considered before the win um you know just budgeting a little extra time just to sign sign more signatures and stuff like that um but are you liking that or are you like I wish I could go back to
Going to my practice round and know and knowing who I am I mean it’s a bit of both like I think it’s it’s awesome just getting people into women’s golf just getting the interest um I don’t think women’s sports gets enough attention so really just having people recognize me
And you know kind of feeling like I can be a better Ambassador for the game I think has been really special um but there’s definitely weeks where I’m like I kind of wish I could just you know do my own thing yeah but it’s true like
That was so historic and amazing and it is going to it like I said it it’s history and I love the way that women’s sports is really starting to I feel like just catapult into a new level over the past few years and like heading into
This new year so it’s amazing and it must feel unreal to be a part of that and be such a face for it like in your sport so congrats and I’m so glad you’re you know a former Trojan and I am just grateful to have had this conversation
With you and gone to pick your brain I was thinking this driving here I was like so Allison’s going to go on to be like the best female golfer of all time and like she’ll have been on real pad how sick is that not kid kid not to put
The pressure on you but it’s cool to have this conversation so early in your career right yeah no I mean it’s really exciting and I think it’s really good that I’m at a point in my life where you know like just really looking forward to everything that’s going to come yeah
Well I’m rooting for you Max and I rooting for you um I was actually at the game where Essie brought you on the field uh yeah with your trophy which was sick that must have felt amazing did it yeah I think I mean that was my first
Time back at SC like I kind of dropped by for a few minutes every now and then but that was my first time back at campus like since I graduated so yeah it was awesome yeah it looked insane that was so sick everyone hyping you up in
The Coliseum um but thanks again for coming on the show wishing you all the best this new year and I love chatting with you thanks for having me
