A few years ago, Jonesboro’s Lacey Agnew was an athlete who could hit a golf ball fairly well.
But she would obsess over the bad shots, letting her frustration boil into round-spoiling moods.
Today, Lacey Agnew is a professional golfer who can split fairways 280 yards away and has opportunities to play on the LPGA Tour.
The bad shots are just that: disappointing moments that no longer percolate.
The difference in her first three years at Florida State, when golf wasn’t much fun, and the bright future that possibly awaits her can be traced to Leigh Ann Mills, a then-volunteer assistant coach at FSU and a long-time pro golfer who recognized a bit of Agnew in herself.
“The biggest thing she did was give me confidence,” Agnew said. “For whatever reason, I didn’t have it in golf. She made me believe in myself.”
Agnew is eligible to play in LPGA Tour events by virtue of her finish at the Tour’s qualifying school, but she’s not guaranteed entry. Her place depends on whether players ranked ahead of her decide to play.
While she waits, she will compete on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s version of the Nationwide Tour. The LPGA begins with the Australian Open on Feb. 9. The first U.S. event will be the Founders Cup on March 15-18 in Tempe, Ariz.
Possibly competing in the U.S. Open in Kohler, Wis., is a long way from a driving range in Tallahassee. Agnew struggled in college. She didn’t finish under par in a tournament her first three years.
That’s when Mills began to work with Agnew in 2009. She started by changing her physical fundamentals. Agnew’s 10-finger grip, picked up from her days swinging a bat, became a more traditional golf grip.
“She was just kind of lost at that time,” Mills said. “It wasn’t a magic trick. Ingraining just practice habits and fundamentals was the main focus.”
And then they began to work on the mental fundamentals.
“Lacey was her own worst enemy when things started going wrong,” Mills said. “We all don’t like bad shots, but she has learned to make a few mistakes and manage her attitude and get on to the next shot, which is most important.”
In the first tournament of her 2009 senior year, Agnew shot 1 under in the opening round. She topped that later in the day with a 7 under in the second round, tying a school record for best single-round score. She closed the event with a 1 over, finishing in second.
“That tournament, she walked with me that whole day,” Agnew said. “She didn’t do club selection, she was just out there talking to me.”
She added four more top-10 finishes, including a victory at the Pinehurst Challenge. She established her career best for single-season stroke average at 75.06 to captain the Seminoles to a 10th-place finish in the NCAA championships.
More important, she had a new lease on her golf life.
“She made me see it wasn’t life or death to hit a bad shot,” Agnew said. “You just need to enjoy yourself.”
She turned pro and carried that attitude onto the mini-tour in Canada, as well as some Futures Tour (now the Symetra) events.
She tied for 20th after the fifth and final round of the qualifying tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla., in December, necessitating a nine-person, three-hole playoff. She would have finished in the top 20, guaranteeing her exempt status on the LPGA Tour, if not for a bogey on the final hole.
However, she didn’t let the bogey consume her. She parred the first two holes in the playoff and eagled No. 18, losing by one stroke to the winner.
Had she achieved exempt status on the LPGA Tour, she said she would have been restricted to three Symetra Tour events. Now, she can play on the Symetra Tour and on the LPGA Tour.
“It worked out better for me,” she said. “I’m excited. It allows me to get a little more experience, get into the grind so that when I do get to the LPGA Tour I’ll be ready.”
She has a new coach, Sea Island’s Todd Anderson, who continues to stress the fundamentals, course management and a healthy outlook.
She says she needs to improve her short game as she works toward her goal of earning fully-exempt LPGA Tour status.
Until then, with a smile on her face, she’ll be putting more miles on her Lexus traveling to tournaments and trying to line up sponsors to help her financially.
“It’s not yet scary. It’s still exciting,” she said. “When I start playing and getting into competition it’ll be more real and scary. I’m excited about the way I’m playing, and hopefully I’ll be with the world’s best pretty soon.”
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