GHIN
I know that by now it’s well-worn territory around these parts, but it’s hard not to start with and reiterate what it’s been like to watch Lauren Coughlin over the past month as she’s proven that she is one of the best women in the entire world at the game of golf. It’s a very heady claim and a conversation that she has every right to insert herself into right now.
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It’s funny how these ten-year overnight sensations tend to work. Of course, there are technical things that have clicked – her putting has improved, she’s been more comfortable in final-round situations, the partnership with Terry McNamara seems to be a grand slam, and so on. But my favorite part has been seeing how her confidence in herself and her abilities has improved on and off the course over the past few months and years. Along with Max Homa’s similar journey, Lauren’s is one of the things that has filled me with the most joy I’ve experienced since I started following pro golf.
As anyone who has followed NLU stuff for a while (or anyone lucky enough to meet LC or John at a Refuge event or elsewhere) already knows: She is one of the most genuine people in the game and has been that way as long as we’ve known her. But like Max, her openness publicly and privately about the peaks and valleys of confidence just makes you even more emotional when the inevitable dam breaks and her talent wins out.
She doesn’t like being the center of attention. I was friends with her for two years before she finally corrected me on how to actually pronounce her last name. (I had always defaulted to the pronunciation employed by TC’s boy Tom Coughlin and I was in the middle of caddying for her in an actual pro tournament before she finally said “Hey I have to tell you something.”) Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago: After winning her first event in Canada, she showed up to a virtual video shoot wearing the goalie mask she got as a makeshift trophy, still beaming days after the W. You can hear in her voice that she’s ready to go grab some more. It’s the best.
I can’t imagine what the mind f*** of grinding through a professional golf career must be like. Spending years trying to find little moral victories while watching someone else walk away with the trophy and then driving to the airport to go do it again in another city. Then throw in the pressures of making a career’s worth of money inside the financial realities of the women’s game.
But LC just got two shiny, physical representations of her supreme talent to put up on the shelf (right next to her prestigious NIT trophy). This week, she walked into one of the most famous pubs in golf and the bar stopped and sang “We Are the Champions” to her.
From the outside looking in, it’s always been easy for us to watch her hit a golf ball and know that she’s one of the best in the world at doing it. Now, I think she knows it too, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what happens next.
Last month, I took a trip to Colorado with Randy and two other friends for a buddies’ golf trip.
I bring this up for two reasons: 1) For as much as I love talking about golf courses (and for as much as social media can become an arms race to s
Source: https://nolayingup.com/blog/ghin-and-tonic-vol-16-dj
