Lindsay Gahm was a wide-eyed eight year old roaming around her home course in Louisville, which happens to be Valhalla, at the 2000 PGA TOUR Championship. Gahm and her family witnessed a master performance by Tiger Woods, who captured his third major championship in the calendar year.
“Growing up, I got to see Tiger win at my home course which got me interested in golf,” said Gahm, who focused primarily on basketball and lacrosse in high school. “Now that I’ve started watching more women’s golf, I think Stacy Lewis is a great person to look up to.”
Gahm, who finished playing college golf at LSU in May and graduated in December of 2014, will now embark on a professional career of her own.
“I’m finally done with the whole school thing and I can finally focus on golf for once in my life,” said Gahm, who was Miss Golf in the state of Kentucky in 2009. “I’m excited I have full status and can play a full schedule and learn how to travel and see a bunch of different places.”
There is a learning curve on and off the course for any newly minted professional. The first order of business is learning how to travel.
“The travel part has been tough on me already, trying to figure out what is the best way to go about things,” said Gahm. “The travel is what I think will be the major learning curve.”
Gahm is relatively new to the game of golf. She played in her first tournament as a seventh grader, but didn’t focus on golf until her junior year of high school. It didn’t take long for her to catch up to the competition.
She spent her first year of college at Indiana and was the 2010-11 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. She made an immediate impact after her transfer from Indiana to LSU in order to get to warmer weather for her sophomore year. She helped the Tigers finish third at the NCAA Women’s Championships. This past year, she posted her first college win at The Alamo Invitational.
“Even in college, golf was kind of new to me,” said Gahm. “It’s crazy to think that I am in this position now because I thought I wanted to play basketball, but I switched and I am happy where I am now.”
Gahm was able to take her game to the next level in college.
“LSU is an incredible program, just the support they have down there is unbelievable,” said Gahm, who is still living in Baton Rouge. “Overall, I was very happy with the golf, the competition, the program, the coaches and everything.”
Other then a few prior commitments, like her brother’s wedding and a move back to Louisville in August, Gahm plans on playing a full schedule.
“I want to obviously win, I think everybody that goes out wants to do that and you have to believe you can win,” said Gahm. “As long as I stay committed and don’t think too much about the being professional deal, I can do it.”
Gahm is ready to showcase her athleticism on the course in 2015. She has a very similar mental approach to 2014 Volvik Race for the Card graduate Sadena Parks, who also played multiple sports growing up.
“I didn’t play golf like a lot of girls did when they were four years old and I see myself more as an athlete that plays golf,” explained Gahm. “I love watching basketball, I love playing sports and it doesn’t matter what it is. Golf just happened to be the one I fell in love with.”
Gahm grew up with three older brothers and they loved watching Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns. Although she doesn’t follow basketball religiously anymore with her busy schedule, she feels that playing other sports has shaped her golf game.
“I just know how to compete,” said Gahm. “It’s hard when you play golf because you can’t just run off a bad shot or go run after a ball, but playing other sports has helped me to be aggressive mentally."
She didn’t just learn how to compete from basketball and lacrosse. The Louisville native also rode horses competitively for eight years.
Sounds like she’s ready for year one on the Epson Tour.
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