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Lindy Duncan, the 208th-ranked participant on this planet, thought of 2023 to be a make-or-break yr. She started the season with no standing, and instructed herself, I’m both going to get higher at golf, or I’m going to do one thing else.
Final November at The Annika, the penultimate occasion of the LPGA season, Duncan emerged from the scoring tent on Sunday in a jolly good temper. She’d completed the season 92nd on the CME factors checklist, her card secured for an additional yr.
“I really feel like I’m enjoying among the greatest that I’ve performed,” she stated, “ever.”
Whereas Duncan wasn’t within the headlines this season, her comeback story is considered one of many. Lilia Vu thought of going to regulation faculty not way back, after a 2019 rookie season on the LPGA left her feeling “destroyed.” Vu’s mom satisfied her to maintain going.
“I simply bear in mind being depressing,” stated Vu. “That is just like the dream, every part we ever labored for was to be out right here, and I used to be simply not in the fitting mindset for it.”
However Vu dug deep, used her late grandfather’s energy as motivation and soared to No. 1 on this planet after profitable 4 instances in 2023, together with two majors.
Lilia Vu celebrates on the 18th inexperienced after profitable the 2023 AIG Girls’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Membership in Surrey, England. (Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Photos)
Ruoning Yin missed the reduce in seven of her first 9 begins as a rookie final yr. She, too, known as house and instructed her mother she wished to stop. She was hitting it poorly, which led her to apply even tougher, ballooning from 100 balls per vary session to 500.
Now she was fed up and in ache.
“My mother instructed me, in case you can not swing simply don’t swing,” recalled Yin, “simply do your placing drills, apply placing and chipping – you’ll be nice. It doesn’t matter what, we nonetheless love you.”
That message gave Yin the peace she wanted to energy by way of. She tied for fourth on the Dana Open in Toledo and by no means seemed again. Now a significant champion and budding star in China, Yin ranks No. 2 on this planet behind Vu.
Getting back from maternity go away proved extra anxious than Azahara Munoz imagined. The battle to maintain her tour card made her really feel like throwing up all week at The Annika. Munoz got here into the occasion a centesimal on the CME factors checklist. The highest 100 hold full standing for 2024. Munoz stated she was so stressed she didn’t even need to tee it up.
“I used to be like, if that is how anxious it’s, I don’t know if I need to play golf,” she stated. “It’s no enjoyable in any respect.”
Azahara Munoz of Spain performs a shot on the sixteenth gap throughout the ultimate spherical of The ANNIKA pushed by Gainbridge at Pelican on Nov. 12, 2023, in Belleair, Florida. (Picture by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photos)
Munoz in the end performed effectively sufficient to contend that occasion, vaulting as much as sixty fourth on the factors checklist after taking a share of second at Pelican Golf Membership.
Gamers in all phases of life and profession face turning factors, and there have been tales of triumph round each nook this season.
Alison Lee has been open about her all-time low. After her dad and mom satisfied her in 2019 to provide it yet one more attempt, Lee Monday-qualified to get into an early-season occasion in 2020 and knew that if she performed effectively, she’d transfer up the precedence checklist on the following reshuffle and get into extra fields.
However then she had a panic assault on the drive to the golf course.
“Each mile I obtained nearer to the course,” Lee wrote on lpga.com, “the extra anxiousness overcame my physique. I couldn’t breathe, and I may hardly see with all of the tears streaming down my face. The emotions grew to become so overwhelming that I started to take a look at the concrete barrier on the interstate and thought of crashing my automotive into it, as a result of I might fairly have been within the hospital than must tee off and compete. In that second, anyplace else apart from the golf course felt protected.”
The strain to win on the LPGA took Lee to a darkish place.
In 2023, Lee got here nearer than ever to lastly reaching that lifelong purpose. And whereas she didn’t get there, ending runner-up in her final three occasions left her feeling rejuvenated. All indicators level to Lee’s greatest golf being forward of her.
“All of the desires I had once I turned professional 9 years in the past, I haven’t been in a position to accomplish any of them,” stated Lee.
“If my profession begins now on the age of 28, in fact I need to hold going. I nonetheless have loads of targets I need to obtain that 19-year-old Alison, when she turned professional, all of the issues she wished to perform.”
Alison Lee of the US performs her shot from the third tee throughout the third spherical of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Membership on November 18, 2023, in Naples, Florida. (Picture by Michael Reaves/Getty Photos)
Duncan, 32, was the NGCA Nationwide Participant of the 12 months as a junior at Duke. She was a first-team All-American all 4 seasons and earned LPGA standing quickly after commencement.
If Duncan may return 10 years and provides her youthful self some recommendation, she’d say to search out pleasure within the pursuit fairly than the vacation spot.
“And he or she wouldn’t perceive it,” Duncan stated with fun.
Duncan nonetheless will get a mighty thrill from competitors. She loves touring to Asia for tournaments. She’s hitting it farther than ever and feels wholesome sufficient to maintain up the grind.
When Duncan began 2023 with no standing and no sponsors, she thought of what her subsequent chapter would possibly appear to be, ought to the season not go as deliberate. Whereas she didn’t get far sufficient in that thought train to have the main points deliberate out, she got here to this conclusion: “I’m going to be OK.”
Lindy Duncan of the US hits her tee shot on the tenth gap throughout the second spherical of the TOTO Japan Traditional on the Taiheiyo Membership’s Minori Course on November 3, 2023, in Omitama, Ibaraki, Japan. (Picture by Yoshimasa Nakano/Getty Photos)
That gave her the peace and the readability to place all of it on the road as soon as extra.
Comebacks are available in all styles and sizes, however the emotions of pleasure and satisfaction are common.
Could the journeys of those that triumphed in 2023 be a supply of inspiration to these on the verge of calling it quits.
Simply assume, Lilia Vu could possibly be almost accomplished with regulation faculty by now.
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