Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where Liz Sheppers
Speaker 1: scored the ot winner to lead the Minnesota Frost to
Speaker 1: a second straight walter Cup. We've asked the WNBA for comment,
Speaker 1: and if you don't get that joke, honestly, good for
Speaker 1: you out there. You're probably touching grass and feeling the
Speaker 1: sun instead of living.
Speaker 2: On the internet like us.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, May twenty eighth, and on today's show, we'll
Speaker 1: be bringing you my conversation with pro golfer and LPGA
Speaker 1: tour player Mariah Stackhouse ahead of this weekend's US Open.
Speaker 1: We talk about growing up a prodigy, the cost of
Speaker 1: life on tour, dealing with injuries, including the one keeping
Speaker 1: her out of this weekend's tourney.
Speaker 2: And more.
Speaker 1: Plus so many champions were crowned over the weekend, Caitlin
Speaker 1: Clark is sidelined, and the NWSL's next expansion squad has
Speaker 1: its head coach.
Speaker 2: It's all coming up right after this Welcome back slices.
Speaker 1: Here's what you need to know today. Let's start on
Speaker 1: the ice with the PWHL. The Minnesota Frost completed their
Speaker 1: title defense, securing a second straight walter Cup with their
Speaker 1: win on Monday, Entering Game four on home ice, the
Speaker 1: Frost r up two to one in the series and
Speaker 1: with eleven twenty four fans cheering them on inside Excel
Speaker 1: Energy Center, Minnesota found its first goal in the second
Speaker 1: period thanks to friend of the Show Kelly Panic. Ottawa's
Speaker 1: Teresa Venisheva answered in the third, setting up overtime for
Speaker 1: the fourth time in four games in the series.
Speaker 2: In the n Frost.
Speaker 1: Forward Liz Sheppers showed off her clutch gene once again,
Speaker 1: scoring the championship winning goal for the second year in
Speaker 1: a row. We also got a shout out front of
Speaker 1: the Show Matti Rooney, who made thirty three saves for
Speaker 1: Minnesota in the win. With the start and the win,
Speaker 1: she earned her fifth straight postseason victory, tying the PWHL
Speaker 1: record for most wins in a single postseason set by
Speaker 1: Boston's Aaron Frankel last year. Two seasons, two titles for
Speaker 1: the Frost, we got the beginnings of a little dynasty
Speaker 1: cook in here, folks. Crossfield, North Carolina put the cherry
Speaker 1: on top of its undefeated season on Sunday, beating Northwestern
Speaker 1: twelve to eight to earn the programme's fourth women's lacrosse title.
Speaker 1: A record fourteen thy four hundred and twenty three fans
Speaker 1: attended the twenty twenty five national Final, obliterating the previous
Speaker 1: record of eleven thousand and six sixty eight. The game
Speaker 1: was a grind, with both teams notatching their lowest point
Speaker 1: totals of the season. There were a couple of really
Speaker 1: cool family connections in this one. UNC head coach Jenny
Speaker 1: Levy and her daughter, freshman Kate Levy, became the first
Speaker 1: mother daughter combo to win the championship, and Kate scored
Speaker 1: UNC's second goal in the dub Grad student attacker Ashley
Speaker 1: Humphrey hit ninety assists on the season in the title game,
Speaker 1: breaking her own nc doublea single season assist record from
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, while her sister, freshman attacker Chloe Humphrey,
Speaker 1: recorded her ninetieth goal of the season and NCUBA freshman record.
Speaker 2: And there's more.
Speaker 1: The eldest sister of the three, Nicole, is also on
Speaker 1: the UNC roster this season, but she didn't play the
Speaker 1: championship game. You could say that lacrosse prowess runs in
Speaker 1: the family. Two more quick shoutouts from the Lacrosse Weekend.
Speaker 1: My friend Stu Gotts's daughter Rachel Wiener, whose Northwestern squad
Speaker 1: came up just short of the title, and my Cornell
Speaker 1: big Red who won the men's National championship, first title
Speaker 1: in lacrosse for Cornell since nineteen seventy seven. And getting
Speaker 1: to watch the game with my college friends on Monday
Speaker 1: at my friend's lake house was the perfect way to
Speaker 1: close out the perfect girls weekend. Some footy news congratulations
Speaker 1: are in order for Gotham FC. The NWSL club won
Speaker 1: the inaugural CONCACAFF W Champions Cup on Saturday, earning a
Speaker 1: one nail dub over Liga MX club Tigris uanl Feminil.
Speaker 1: No idea what the CONCACAFF W Champions Cup is. It's
Speaker 1: a tournament that brings together the top women's soccer clubs
Speaker 1: from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. And you
Speaker 1: remember we told you it actually started last season. Okay,
Speaker 1: back to the match. So after missing a penalty kick,
Speaker 1: Aster Gonzales controlled the rebound and bare married the game
Speaker 1: winning goal for Gotham in the eighty second minute. I mean,
Speaker 1: who else would it be that lady is on a heater.
Speaker 1: With the win, Gotham FC has secured a spot in
Speaker 1: both the inaugural FIFA Champions Cup in twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: and the inaugural FIFA Women's Club World Cup in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight. Also got to give a tip of the
Speaker 1: cap to the Portland Thorns, who defeated Club America three
Speaker 1: nil to take third place in the tournament. More soccer news.
Speaker 1: Boston Legacy FC has found its head woman per friend
Speaker 1: at the Show Jeff Casouf at ESPN. The club has
Speaker 1: agreed to terms with Felipa Pateau, who's been heading up
Speaker 1: Portuguese club Benfica's senior team since twenty twenty. Pateau led
Speaker 1: the squad to five consecutive league titles and helped Benfica
Speaker 1: become the first Portuguese club to reach the UEFA Women's
Speaker 1: Champions League quarterfinals in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. Now,
Speaker 1: the thirty six year old, who was nominated for the
Speaker 1: Ballon d'Or for Coach of the Year last year, will
Speaker 1: be under contract with Boston until twenty twenty seven and
Speaker 1: lead the side in its first NWSL season next year.
Speaker 2: A little more NWSL news.
Speaker 1: Huge kudos to Barbara Banda in the Orlando Pride three
Speaker 1: to one win over the Utah Royals. On Friday, Banda
Speaker 1: scored the fastest hat trick in NWSL history, completing it
Speaker 1: in the first thirty eight minutes of the match. She
Speaker 1: scored in the sixth thirty seventh, and thirty eighth minutes.
Speaker 1: It was also the first hat trick in Pride history,
Speaker 1: and per opt to Jack, Banda didn't just bury three,
Speaker 1: she was on target for all six shots she attempted,
Speaker 1: becoming the third player to attempt six or more shots
Speaker 1: with one hundred percent accuracy in an NWSL match. To tennis,
Speaker 1: many of the WTA's top players remained standing in the
Speaker 1: French Open at stad Roland Garros, but a couple players
Speaker 1: have seen their tournaments come to a close. World number
Speaker 1: nine ranked player Emma Navarro got knocked out in straight
Speaker 1: sets by Jessica buzis Manero in the first round, and
Speaker 1: just a few weeks after picking up her first WTA
Speaker 1: title since twenty twenty one, Naomi Osaka suffered her own
Speaker 1: early defeat. She lost to world number ten Paula Bedosa
Speaker 1: in the first round, and she had a pretty emotional
Speaker 1: press conference after the match. A reporter Naomi how the
Speaker 1: tough loss would make her stronger, and here's how she responded.
Speaker 3: I hope you can tell me that I think. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure. I feel like I learn little things from
Speaker 3: each match. I think I lost a tiebreaker in Rome,
Speaker 3: and I didn't lose the tiebreaker here, So I mean
Speaker 3: I am conscious of things when I'm playing. So maybe
Speaker 3: the next match I play, I'll learn little.
Speaker 2: Things from today.
Speaker 1: And you know something, I really can appreciate when athletes
Speaker 1: show us how much a loss hurts, because that way
Speaker 1: we feel even more joy when we get to watch
Speaker 1: them win. Naomi's been on this super public journey back
Speaker 1: to full strength over the last few years, and it's
Speaker 1: been a constant reminder watching her just how hard what
Speaker 1: these players do is. So we're sending love your way, Naomi.
Speaker 1: You're still a hell of a player and we're rooting
Speaker 1: for you. Some WNBA news, second year sensation Caitlin Clark
Speaker 1: will miss at least the next two weeks of Indiana
Speaker 1: games with.
Speaker 2: The left quad strain.
Speaker 1: The injury announcement came on Monday, and of course sent
Speaker 1: some folks into a spiral. By all accounts, though the
Speaker 1: move is more preventative than anything, as Clark had been
Speaker 1: limited in the preseason with what she called tightness in
Speaker 1: her left quad. The team didn't officially confirm whether the
Speaker 1: two instances were related, but Clark said she had a
Speaker 1: pain after their loss to the Liberty on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: an MRI revealed the injury. Now this is uncharted territory
Speaker 1: for Clark.
Speaker 2: She never missed a.
Speaker 1: Game at Iowa nor in her WNBA career to this point.
Speaker 1: The Athletic published some comments from Fever head coach Stephanie
Speaker 1: White talking about the injury. She said, quote, there's so
Speaker 1: many things when you think about Caitlin and her not
Speaker 1: wanting to miss games. Obviously everyone wants to watch her play.
Speaker 1: But for me, it's maintaining perspective. It's making sure that
Speaker 1: we address this in a way that doesn't affect the
Speaker 1: long term, that we take care of it, don't over push,
Speaker 1: don't overexert, making sure that we take the long game
Speaker 1: approach to this so we're not having lingering issues throughout
Speaker 1: the course of the season.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 1: Per ESPN's Candor, and the Fever phenom is set to
Speaker 1: be reevaluated on June ninth. That's a bummer for me
Speaker 1: and Chicago fans as She's said to miss the Fever
Speaker 1: Sky game on June seventh that had been moved to
Speaker 1: the United Center, and that's part of a real cool
Speaker 1: doubleheader with the opening day of AUSL still gonna make
Speaker 1: it happen, but we all want to see Caitlin in
Speaker 1: that one to the Diamond.
Speaker 2: The D one College Softball Super Regionals are.
Speaker 1: Over and eight teams advanced to the Women's College World Series.
Speaker 1: The action gets started tomorrow at twelve pm Eastern with
Speaker 1: number three Florida taken on number six Texas, followed by
Speaker 1: number two Oklahoma versus number seven Tennessee at two thirty Eastern.
Speaker 1: Both those games will be on ESPN Coverage moves over
Speaker 1: to ESPN two at seven pm Eastern for number twelve
Speaker 1: Texas Tech against unranked Ole Miss, and then number nine
Speaker 1: UCLA at number sixteen Oregon round things out at nine
Speaker 1: thirty pm Eastern. We'll link to the full interactive bracket
Speaker 1: in our show notes. Also want to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to Tennessee's CARLN. Pickens, who reset the record for
Speaker 1: the fastest pitch in college softball history. Now you remember
Speaker 1: we mentioned her back in March when she first broke
Speaker 1: the record. With a seventy eight point two mile per
Speaker 1: hour pitch against Arkansas. Well, Pickens out did herself on Saturday,
Speaker 1: throwing a seventy eight point four mile per hour bullet
Speaker 1: in the first inning of the Lady Bowls Super Regional
Speaker 1: game against Nebraska. Starting to understand why Pickens has been
Speaker 1: the SEC pitcher of the year the last two seasons.
Speaker 2: We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, I chop it up with most
Speaker 1: acts back in a jiff. Joining us now, she's a
Speaker 1: professional golfer on the LPGA Tour. A graduate of Stanford,
Speaker 1: where she was a four year All American and a
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen NCAA team title winner. In twenty eleven, at seventeen,
Speaker 1: she was the youngest African American golfer to qualify for
Speaker 1: US Women's Open, and was the only Black qualifier in
Speaker 1: that tournament. She reached her highest ranking so far in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, at one hundred and thirty seven in the world.
Speaker 1: She's in her gen z era, but she's never given
Speaker 1: up the peace sign. And it's Mariah Stackhouse. I'm Mariah.
Speaker 4: Hey, Sarah, you do it.
Speaker 2: I'm good. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Everyone just heard about your start as a golf phenom,
Speaker 1: So I want to go all the way back.
Speaker 2: How'd you get into playing?
Speaker 4: My dad actually got me into playing golf when I
Speaker 4: was younger. So I wanted to go wherever he went.
Speaker 4: So he left the house, I wanted to go with him,
Speaker 4: and so he would often go play golf after work
Speaker 4: on the weekends. So he cut down some clubs for me.
Speaker 4: Got me started when I was about two years old,
Speaker 4: and the rest is kind of history. Started playing tournaments
Speaker 4: at six and just kept it going.
Speaker 1: When you say cut down clubs, like what was he
Speaker 1: using to break adult clubs into the size that you
Speaker 1: could practice with?
Speaker 4: You know, I have no idea, But he was an
Speaker 4: architect and he's had a construction company too, so he
Speaker 4: had all the tools. So whatever he used, okay, chop
Speaker 4: it down, I'm not sure, but he cut some real
Speaker 4: clubs and took me with him.
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to imagine my dad trying to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because the shop, you're right, it's iron, so you'd
Speaker 4: have to really have something and like keep it.
Speaker 1: Safe, like throw something on the end, not stabbing everybody
Speaker 1: when you're trying to learn how.
Speaker 2: To play it too.
Speaker 4: Exactly or like stabbing my own arm slinger, right right right.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that back in twenty eleven, you kind of
Speaker 1: burst onto the scene and you did an interview with
Speaker 1: NPR rejecting the comparisons to Tiger Woods. Was that just
Speaker 1: about the fact that he had won bigger tournaments at
Speaker 1: the age of seventeen than you had yet or was
Speaker 1: there something else that you didn't like about hearing that comparison.
Speaker 4: You know, it's not that there's anything that I dislike
Speaker 4: about hearing the comparison, you know, at that time, and
Speaker 4: honestly still to the present day, there aren't that many
Speaker 4: black golfers on tour. So for all those of us
Speaker 4: who come up that are younger than Tiger, they're always
Speaker 4: going to get that comparison, especially if you've had a
Speaker 4: successful junior career. But you know, Tiger is one of
Speaker 4: the greatest athletes to ever walk the planet, you know,
Speaker 4: So it's honestly just you know, looking out for myself
Speaker 4: and allowing myself to kind of carve my own lane
Speaker 4: with my own expectations that don't necessarily have to be
Speaker 4: as grand as that is, you know. There, like I said,
Speaker 4: one of the best athletes to off for play. So
Speaker 4: now a little bit of pressure exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, you also said back then, which was all
Speaker 1: the way back in twenty eleven, so a long time ago,
Speaker 1: that you hadn't experienced the same race hurdles that Tiger had,
Speaker 1: nor had you faced gender based hurdles. You're thirty now,
Speaker 1: is that still the case for you?
Speaker 4: I think, by and large yes, I think I was.
Speaker 4: I was grateful as junior golfer that my dad, especially
Speaker 4: on the golf course, was always around me, always protective,
Speaker 4: and I think he grew up in murder Beeat, South Carolina.
Speaker 4: He definitely did experience racism on the golf course, and
Speaker 4: so he was always protective of me and wanted to
Speaker 4: make sure that he was there to protect me from
Speaker 4: anything that might be said or done to me. So
Speaker 4: throughout my junior golf career, I just never had those
Speaker 4: experiences because he was always going to be right there
Speaker 4: making sure that they didn't happen. And then, you know,
Speaker 4: as I got a little bit older, start traveling by myself,
Speaker 4: especially turning pro you know, nothing was ever overt you know,
Speaker 4: are crazy, which was which was a blessing for Shure.
Speaker 4: It would all some microaggressions, like you know, letting players
Speaker 4: in that might have their badge on their hit, you know,
Speaker 4: but then not one letting my badge count. It's like, no,
Speaker 4: we also want to see your idea to get into
Speaker 4: the locker room. Little things like that. But you know,
Speaker 4: my dad, they had an affirmation written for me that
Speaker 4: I would say to myself here every day when I
Speaker 4: was young, and part of that was just having pride
Speaker 4: and confidence in myself and being happy to be black
Speaker 4: and proud of that. And so I think that that's
Speaker 4: kind of my internal protection against those sort of things,
Speaker 4: and they never really get me outside of myself and
Speaker 4: outside of my body or make me feel undeserving of
Speaker 4: being in that space.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that, and I love that they had
Speaker 1: you before maybe it even was necessary already saying that
Speaker 1: to yourself and ready for that, Let's talk about the present.
Speaker 1: You're currently sidelined with an injury, which is a bummer.
Speaker 1: Tell us about the surgery.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a pretty like just on a case
Speaker 4: and bicep tendonitis, and I took about six weeks off
Speaker 4: in the off season. At the start, did my PT
Speaker 4: and it just would not get better. So after two
Speaker 4: cortisone injections with no improvement. I reached out to my
Speaker 4: Stanford coach and the Stanford Sports Medicine Network and they
Speaker 4: got me connected with a team here that works with
Speaker 4: a lot of athletes, and so I underwent surgery at
Speaker 4: the very end of March. So it's been almost two
Speaker 4: months now, and I had a bicep toent odisis, which
Speaker 4: is basically going in and cleaning up the damage part
Speaker 4: of my bicep tendon and then retightening it and then
Speaker 4: letting it heal so that I can get back to
Speaker 4: working out and swinging paying free. So it's it's honestly,
Speaker 4: I like the physical side of sports. So the like
Speaker 4: kind of nerd outside of me is enjoyed, like learning
Speaker 4: the process and everything that I'm going through and I'm
Speaker 4: realizing like pt and like recovery. It's a really cool
Speaker 4: space on the side of not being able to play
Speaker 4: that has really up. Like the US Open qualifiers came
Speaker 4: and went couldn't compete. I'm watching my friends, like, you know,
Speaker 4: they had a new and mogural tournament in Mexico and
Speaker 4: a couple of my buddies LPJ and EPSOM were there
Speaker 4: and I was like, man, you know that would be
Speaker 4: that would be cool to be performing getting a chance
Speaker 4: to play there right now. But I have a great
Speaker 4: team around the agent, sponsors, and they are really pushing
Speaker 4: just patience, take care of yourself, heal because we want
Speaker 4: you to come back the best that you can be.
Speaker 4: So it's been a whirlwind, and I definitely miss traveling
Speaker 4: and playing and honestly just seeing our friends on tour.
Speaker 4: But it's also been nice to be home and spend
Speaker 4: some time with my family, time that I haven't gotten
Speaker 4: to spend in years. So I'm just kind of looking
Speaker 4: at the silver lining of it and saying, if this
Speaker 4: is the situation that I'm in, let's just make the
Speaker 4: most of it.
Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you, as someone in their forties,
Speaker 1: if you really like diving into pt and understanding how
Speaker 1: your body breaks down, you're in for a beautiful future
Speaker 1: because a lot of us are are there, whether we
Speaker 1: like on one.
Speaker 2: Are you hoping to be back competing.
Speaker 4: I should be able to make a full swing with
Speaker 4: an iron by the end of June, so that's an
Speaker 4: after the twelve week mark, I can swing a club
Speaker 4: and if that goes well and it's paying free, I'm
Speaker 4: hoping to build up over the next couple of weeks
Speaker 4: next few weeks, so maybe by the end mid to
Speaker 4: end of July be hitting my driver and if that
Speaker 4: goes well, just a couple of weeks so strong work
Speaker 4: in the gym and working to get my swing speed
Speaker 4: back up, which would make the go mid August, so
Speaker 4: all things go well, I'm hoping to be back competing there.
Speaker 1: What's the best part about being a pro golfers.
Speaker 4: I feel like there's two answers for that. For me. One,
Speaker 4: it's just competing and playing golf like as a career.
Speaker 4: Every day I wake up and I go to the gym,
Speaker 4: and I go to practice and I train, and like,
Speaker 4: that's my job is to be as best as I
Speaker 4: can be as great as I can't playing golf, And
Speaker 4: that's pretty cool. It's the game, Like I said, I
Speaker 4: played it since I was two, competitively since I was six.
Speaker 4: It's literally been the dream of my life. So the
Speaker 4: fact that I get to wake up every day and
Speaker 4: do that is a treat. So just competing tournaments and
Speaker 4: the training that goes around it, I love the entire process,
Speaker 4: but also the travel, like traveling around the country, around
Speaker 4: the world, getting to go to all these new places,
Speaker 4: I'm a huge foody, so trying cuisines in different countries
Speaker 4: is great and I feel like when you're there, it's authentic.
Speaker 4: And so those are just the experiences that I get
Speaker 4: to have and the friends that I get to do
Speaker 4: it with makes it great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the social part has always been a big thing
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: I read an interview where you talked about enjoying golf
Speaker 1: in part because you could compete and converse. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just like basketball where you're playing against somebody but you
Speaker 1: can never chat with them because you're midway through, you know,
Speaker 1: defending them or driving the lane or whatever. Do you
Speaker 1: find at the professional level you can still have those
Speaker 1: friendships and really pursue those connections or are people getting
Speaker 1: a little competitive for that at this level?
Speaker 4: I think inside the ropes is definitely a bit more
Speaker 4: competitive professional golf, and rightfully so, right like, every shot
Speaker 4: you hit it it's it's your income, it's your it's
Speaker 4: your earnings that you're working towards and your goals. So
Speaker 4: I would say that for professional golf, inside the ropes
Speaker 4: it's a little bit more serious, but the same thing.
Speaker 4: You make friends with people, and so when you get
Speaker 4: paired with people that you're good buddies with. There is
Speaker 4: still that social element that takes place inside the ropes competing,
Speaker 4: but we also get to travel together, and so there
Speaker 4: are times when we'll ruin an airbnb together. Throughout the country,
Speaker 4: we'll stay at the same hotels and plan dinners and
Speaker 4: little excursions, so you definitely get that social aspect, and
Speaker 4: I think outside off the course, it's almost even more
Speaker 4: important because you're traveling so long, like you could be
Speaker 4: going from homes for four to five weeks, depending on
Speaker 4: how your schedule shakes, and so you definitely need some
Speaker 4: comaraderie and friendship out there so that it doesn't feel
Speaker 4: like a lonely career. And so that's something that I
Speaker 4: learned quickly my rookie year, is that you definitely need
Speaker 4: just friendship and companions to hang out with out there.
Speaker 4: And so I've moved forward after my rookie year and
Speaker 4: do all that in place, and so now I genuinely
Speaker 4: have fun when I travel. It's still work, the priority
Speaker 4: is still showing up to the golf course competing and practicing,
Speaker 4: but on the relaxed moments, evenings, off days, then we
Speaker 4: hang out and we go have fun and explore the
Speaker 4: cities that we're in.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So travel and potential loneliness certainly some drawbacks.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the hardest part of being
Speaker 1: a pro golfer?
Speaker 4: Hands down, Like, there's just things you miss right there
Speaker 4: are you know, milestones and emits and things that will
Speaker 4: happen in your friends' lives that you might not be
Speaker 4: able to be there for. And I think that that's
Speaker 4: the toughest part. But you have to wake up every
Speaker 4: day and say you know this. You know, as an athlete,
Speaker 4: your career is not your whole life. Like at a
Speaker 4: certain point, your body will tell you it's time to
Speaker 4: bow out. And so as long as you're passionate about
Speaker 4: it and love it, I tell myself, you know, it's
Speaker 4: just a sacrifice that has to be made right now
Speaker 4: for you to chase your dreams. And as long as
Speaker 4: you're happy chasing those dreams and the sacrifice is worth it.
Speaker 4: So it's tough. It's tough to miss those things sometimes
Speaker 4: of my friends and family, they love and support me,
Speaker 4: and they know my dreams and my goals and they're
Speaker 4: happy to support And I always understanding of the things
Speaker 4: that I might not be able to make.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it's so hard because usually athletes
Speaker 1: are their athletes are entire lives, and it's not up
Speaker 1: until the moment that they're done that they're out in
Speaker 1: the real world and they really recognize, like, oh man,
Speaker 1: how good did I have it? I'm out on a
Speaker 1: golf course for my job every day, like in the
Speaker 1: sun with my friends competing, playing a game. And then
Speaker 1: you go try to have like a desk job and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh shit, and like you it's not that
Speaker 1: you don't already appreciate it, but you maybe would appreciate
Speaker 1: it even more if you'd ever had to do a
Speaker 1: couple of years of just everyday garbage before you get
Speaker 1: to go back and golf again and real ye, what
Speaker 1: a joy it is to just be outside work. And
Speaker 1: you know, one of the challenges is certainly the cost
Speaker 1: and like competing to make a living, which is so
Speaker 1: different than here's your salary for the year, and you
Speaker 1: know that it's coming in.
Speaker 2: Of course, you got to work hard, but you know.
Speaker 1: In a recent episode of Welcome to the Party, Tesha Allen,
Speaker 1: who's on our iheartwomen's sports network, former pro golfer, was
Speaker 1: talking to another former pro in Cheyenne. Woods and Chyenne
Speaker 1: shared the cost of playing from paying for travel, hotels,
Speaker 1: entry fee, caddy fee, and I don't think I really
Speaker 1: realized how much is on the golfer to cover. So
Speaker 1: can you kind of share the realities of being a
Speaker 1: player on the LPGA tour and what you're responsible for.
Speaker 4: Yeah, playing on tour, that's definitely a huge part of it,
Speaker 4: and I think, honestly, oftentimes it might be a barrier
Speaker 4: for some Like I know that I have friends that
Speaker 4: have felt like I've had to bow out of the
Speaker 4: tour or go on to the next part of my
Speaker 4: career because I didn't get the success I needed fast
Speaker 4: enough to sustain the cost of playing on tour, you know,
Speaker 4: Like you said, caddie is probably somewhere between fifteen hundred
Speaker 4: to two thousand a week. Lodging, you know, is probably
Speaker 4: somewhere between eight to thirteen hundred, depending on the venue
Speaker 4: that you're at. We have an entry fee, which for
Speaker 4: LPG I think they're two hundred. EPSEN, which is the
Speaker 4: Mini tour, I think it's four hundred. You know, air travel,
Speaker 4: rental cars which have also gotten really expensive in the
Speaker 4: last few years too, So you have those costs that
Speaker 4: add up every single week, and then you have dining
Speaker 4: on tour where you have to have to you have
Speaker 4: to manage your dinner, your snacks, and make sure that
Speaker 4: you're fuel so it can Honestly, a week on tour
Speaker 4: can depending can ring somewhere between twenty five hundred to
Speaker 4: five thousand. It just depends on how it shakes out.
Speaker 4: And I mean that's a lot to manage every single week,
Speaker 4: week in and week out. And I'm really grateful that
Speaker 4: I have sponsors that have been, you know, great and
Speaker 4: supportive of me for all the years, especially now, Like
Speaker 4: I think about even on the recovery side, right I'm
Speaker 4: not playing, I'm not competing right now, so I'm not
Speaker 4: making money on the course, but i also have expenses
Speaker 4: in my PT, like I'm going to PT, I'm doing
Speaker 4: I'm going to the trainer, I'm doing various workouts just
Speaker 4: get back and shape. That's also a lot like weekend
Speaker 4: and week out for me here right now at home.
Speaker 4: So having that support makes me feel free and able
Speaker 4: to do that without like financial burden and stress is huge.
Speaker 4: But I mean it's just it's crazy. There's there's nothing
Speaker 4: that we have that's just given to us, and so well,
Speaker 4: no athlete has anything given to us. But when you're
Speaker 4: not on a team, everything is out of pocket for you.
Speaker 4: And it's actually an interesting side to that is when
Speaker 4: I realized that I needed surgery, I had to reach
Speaker 4: out to my Stanford network. Another huge part of that
Speaker 4: is you're not on a team, you don't have a
Speaker 4: dedicated doctor and medical staff right at home. So I
Speaker 4: needed to figure out who I needed to see in
Speaker 4: Atlanta to get me through this. And LPGIT were based everywhere,
Speaker 4: and so there might be a network of doctors, but
Speaker 4: most of the stuff for the tours in Florida, I
Speaker 4: need to be at home during doing my PT So
Speaker 4: I had to go through outside sources to find someone
Speaker 4: here in Atlanta to help me. Whereas if I were
Speaker 4: you know, Atlanta Dream or you know, a team here Braced,
Speaker 4: they have a medical team dedicated to the team right
Speaker 4: then and there to take care of every injury and
Speaker 4: thing that pops up. So it's like all the things
Speaker 4: that you think come up as an athlete, we navigated
Speaker 4: on our own, which is really something.
Speaker 2: So was your medical coverage through the LPGA.
Speaker 4: Actually, the LPGA just launched medical coverage for US, I
Speaker 4: think towards the end of last season, so this will
Speaker 4: be the first fool season with it on tour, and
Speaker 4: with like my injuries and stuff with the pastical be yeers,
Speaker 4: I don't have full status right now, so I've been
Speaker 4: able to take advantage of that. But that was a
Speaker 4: huge announcement for us as players last year because I
Speaker 4: think that's something that people have really been wanting and
Speaker 4: so they came through with that and it's been fantastic.
Speaker 4: I've heard that some players as soon as they got
Speaker 4: it went and did some reproductive stuff, freezing their eggs
Speaker 4: and things like that, which I think is just fantastic.
Speaker 4: You know, to have that ability as a player, you
Speaker 4: don't know how long your career is going to go,
Speaker 4: so you might want to, you know, have those kind
Speaker 4: of options available to you. So pretty cool that they've
Speaker 4: gotten met through for us.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty twenty three, the PGA announced it would
Speaker 1: start loaning mail players money if they were new to
Speaker 1: the tour to cover uprount costs like five hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and then players could return the money as they won
Speaker 1: prize money. Do you know if the LPGA has ever
Speaker 1: considered adding something similar to the women's side.
Speaker 4: I don't know, as there's conversations about that in effect,
Speaker 4: but I do know that there have been both LPGA
Speaker 4: and a few sponsors for certain tournaments have started to
Speaker 4: offer stipends for certain events, and so that could be
Speaker 4: like a fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars stipend to
Speaker 4: offset costs. I know most of the majors do it now,
Speaker 4: So if you compete in the major I think for
Speaker 4: most of them, you earn two thousand dollars for simply
Speaker 4: having a spot in the championship, which is great, and
Speaker 4: so a few regular season events have taken that stance
Speaker 4: as well. So I think the influence of what the
Speaker 4: PGA Tour is doing is solely trickling in. And I
Speaker 4: think that the LPGA is trying to do the best
Speaker 4: with the with the financial resources that we have available
Speaker 4: to figure out ways to start to assist players and
Speaker 4: offset some of those costs.
Speaker 1: So players are making money off of obviously sponsors and
Speaker 1: good finishes. Does it depend on the tournament how far
Speaker 1: down people make money.
Speaker 4: The amount that you make that week is dependent on
Speaker 4: your performance entirely, So most some tournaments are sixty some
Speaker 4: sixty five and ties. But wherever you are on the
Speaker 4: cut after the first two days of the event, only
Speaker 4: the people that makes the cut are going to go
Speaker 4: on and have an opportunity to earn and so then
Speaker 4: depending on the perse size of that influence is payout.
Speaker 4: So you have some two million dollar per to we
Speaker 4: need two million, five hundred thousand, three million, et cetera.
Speaker 4: So the bigger the purse, the bigger opportunity you have
Speaker 4: to make a good a good amount at the end
Speaker 4: of that week. But if you miss the cut, you
Speaker 4: just missed the cut and you have your expenses for
Speaker 4: the week, but you get another chance to go and
Speaker 4: make it back the next week.
Speaker 1: I saw you went down to see some unrivaled action
Speaker 1: in Miami. Are there things that you would like to
Speaker 1: see golf borrow from other women's pro sports leagues, whether
Speaker 1: that's unrivaled or the w NBA and WSL, anything you
Speaker 1: see that you're like, oh, I wish we did that.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I think following, just like social and branding for
Speaker 4: the NWSL and WNBA is incredible and I'd love to
Speaker 4: see I mean, golf is it's a trickier sport because
Speaker 4: there's no team aspect to it, and so you're asking,
Speaker 4: you know, to bring out personalities and get stories from
Speaker 4: players who might be a little bit shy and we
Speaker 4: don't have that buffer of like a team around them
Speaker 4: to help bring you out of the shell. But I
Speaker 4: would love to see our tour figure out a few
Speaker 4: ways to showcase our players and our personalities and our
Speaker 4: stories a little bit more, and you know, start engaging
Speaker 4: in trends online that are popular, etc. I just I
Speaker 4: think that those those organizations do a great job of
Speaker 4: branding and showcasing who the players are, and that's how
Speaker 4: you build a following. And so I understand, like there's
Speaker 4: no team and it so you have to figure out
Speaker 4: a different way to go about doing that. But I
Speaker 4: do believe that it can be done and it would
Speaker 4: be great for us. I think almost even more important
Speaker 4: considering it's not a team sport and it's an individual sport.
Speaker 4: So the more that you can get out about who
Speaker 4: players are, show their humors, show the things they care about,
Speaker 4: man trusted, you start to bring more people in. And
Speaker 4: I think in a women's individual sport it's almost even
Speaker 4: more important because you don't have that immediate market behind them.
Speaker 1: So speaking of things that you're interested in and people
Speaker 1: getting to know your personality, I'm so you get asked
Speaker 1: all the time about being a black golfer and all
Speaker 1: the other stuff, But there's things you'd rather talk about.
Speaker 1: There's things you'd hope that interviewers would ask you. So
Speaker 1: what do you want to talk about? What do you
Speaker 1: wish folks would ask you about?
Speaker 4: You know, the questions are pretty much pretty much okay,
Speaker 4: So I don't know if I have a question about
Speaker 4: that offer it. I will say that I love to
Speaker 4: like you bringing in other women's sports organizations into this conversation.
Speaker 4: Like I'm a huge on sports fan, love soccer, love basketball,
Speaker 4: and so I think it'd be cool to sometimes, you know,
Speaker 4: have a little bit of a crossover and talk about
Speaker 4: the ways that other women's sports and their stories and
Speaker 4: athletes inspire us.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, I mean I love that, And I think if
Speaker 1: I were on the LPGA tour, I would want to
Speaker 1: like get involved with the other leagues and do more
Speaker 1: collabse and bring those players out to the course and
Speaker 1: show them what you do and then maybe you know,
Speaker 1: go go check out a dream game and take some
Speaker 1: shots and all that other stuff. I think one of
Speaker 1: the ways to really involve female golfers in the rest
Speaker 1: of the women's sports kind of industrial complex that's blowing
Speaker 1: up is to have those crossover events where they show
Speaker 1: up in the places people already are and then you
Speaker 1: try to pull them over to your sport into what
Speaker 1: you do. Are there athletes and women's sports that you'd
Speaker 1: love to take out on the course or see in
Speaker 1: a pro am?
Speaker 4: Definitely? So obviously I have a season tickets for Atlanta
Speaker 4: Dream here. It's a huge dream fan. I know that
Speaker 4: Alicia Gay and Ryan Howard play golf, so I think
Speaker 4: that that would be a really cool, you know thing
Speaker 4: to maybe if we had, you know, a tournament or
Speaker 4: a major or something comes through Atlanta, like try to
Speaker 4: get them out to the pro am, which I think
Speaker 4: they both love to do, you know, and just different
Speaker 4: markets that we go to a lot of the women's
Speaker 4: soccer and basketball, a few of them actually play golf,
Speaker 4: you know, so just trying to like maybe pull them
Speaker 4: into our pro ams. I know that the LPGA did that.
Speaker 4: I think last fall that Kate and Clark paired up
Speaker 4: with Nellie Korda, and I'm like, you know, you get
Speaker 4: some of the best in both sports to be playing together, Like,
Speaker 4: that's how you do it, That's how you generate a
Speaker 4: conversation and kind of get golf in there with the
Speaker 4: conversation and the rest of women's sports. And then I
Speaker 4: think when something like that happens, it also helps our
Speaker 4: brand at Nelly Corda. Last year had one of the
Speaker 4: best seasons of any women athlete.
Speaker 2: That's in the world.
Speaker 4: But when it was time to have those conversations about
Speaker 4: Athlete of the Year, I didn't hear her name brought up.
Speaker 4: And I think that that's just a matter of golf
Speaker 4: not being in the conversation with the other athletes as much,
Speaker 4: because her name definitely deserved to be in there, because
Speaker 4: what she did was unspeakable. Five tournaments and roll multiple majors,
Speaker 4: and it's like, how can we get people talking about
Speaker 4: women's golf in the same way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. Speaking of names, most Stacks we got most Stacks, Berdies,
Speaker 1: is your Instagram name? Is that just a play on
Speaker 1: words or is that an alter ego for you?
Speaker 4: No, it's a little bit of a player on words.
Speaker 4: So Moe was one of my nicknames and we just
Speaker 4: shartened it Stacks. But I remember my brother and I
Speaker 4: actually trying to come up with a Twitter handle for me,
Speaker 4: and we were just like, you know what, you play golf,
Speaker 4: you make a lot of birdies, so let's call you
Speaker 4: most Stacks Birdie. So basically most Stack and Birdie's on
Speaker 4: the course.
Speaker 2: I mean, I like it.
Speaker 1: I like it for the name, but I also think
Speaker 1: most Acts would just be a cool nickname and a
Speaker 1: cool altery.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah it is.
Speaker 4: That is my nicknames my friends.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like, you know, you could do a whole
Speaker 1: merch line. I don't know, there's something there's Most Acts
Speaker 1: sounds like someone who would put together those collabs we
Speaker 1: were talking about and find a way to get yourself
Speaker 1: into the other spaces. All right, last question, I want
Speaker 1: to hear about Underrated Golf Tour. What is it and
Speaker 1: what's your involvement in it?
Speaker 4: Yes, so under Golf Tour is Steph Curry's uh tour.
Speaker 4: He has it for basketball as well, but Steph really
Speaker 4: loves golf and it is passionate about providing opportunities to
Speaker 4: our youth, to our junior golfers and getting them on
Speaker 4: on you know, tab of this courses. Learning what it
Speaker 4: is like to play a tour structure over the summer
Speaker 4: owned points which then qualify you for some other Junior
Speaker 4: Gloss events. So it's really about going into the kids,
Speaker 4: getting them on first class golf courses with storied histories,
Speaker 4: and giving them a chance to compete and grow in
Speaker 4: the game of golf. And so I love it. KPMG
Speaker 4: one of my sponsors, and I I had the opportunity
Speaker 4: to get to know Steph his underrated team and get
Speaker 4: involved with supporting his event and then supporting the kids,
Speaker 4: and it's been fantastic. My favorite part of what we
Speaker 4: do is at the Championship in September, once the golf
Speaker 4: has concluded. The next day, we have basically a leadership
Speaker 4: academy set up for the young players and so their
Speaker 4: parents have some informationals. We have some informationals. I'll do sessions,
Speaker 4: My dad will come up and do a session with
Speaker 4: some of the parents. We have college recruiters, people in
Speaker 4: business who can mentor and offer some guidance for the
Speaker 4: young golfers. So it's really investing in them as young
Speaker 4: athletes but also people, and it's been great. Like these kids,
Speaker 4: they love to compete, they're great golf, and I just
Speaker 4: feel fortunate to get to play a role in helping
Speaker 4: them continue to grow and improve their games, and, like
Speaker 4: I said, learn a tour system. Navigating the junior golf world,
Speaker 4: it can be challenging for parents who didn't grow up
Speaker 4: playing a game of golf themselves and might need some
Speaker 4: guidance on how best to move their juniors through it.
Speaker 4: So we provide that guidance to both the juniors and
Speaker 4: to their parents, and our goal is to get them
Speaker 4: to the best school if possible. And if they go
Speaker 4: on and decide that they want to pursue a career
Speaker 4: as professional golfers, then we hope that we've helped invest
Speaker 4: and give them the tools to chase that dream.
Speaker 2: I love that it's so important.
Speaker 1: It's really like it's much more complicated than a lot
Speaker 1: of other sports to get into, to be able to
Speaker 1: afford to try it and to find out if you're
Speaker 1: great at it, and then where do you go if
Speaker 1: you do find that you have a calling for it.
Speaker 2: So that's really.
Speaker 1: Cool, Mariah, so great to talk to you. Heal fast.
Speaker 1: I guess enjoy the PT if that's what you're into,
Speaker 1: and we look forward to see you back out.
Speaker 2: On the link soon.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it, Sarah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: We have to take another break when we come back.
Speaker 1: One former golfer goes all in on changing the game.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, slics.
Speaker 1: We love that you're listening, but we want you to
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Speaker 1: Watch friend of the show Tisha Allin launching her own brand,
Speaker 1: rating ten out of ten fashionable fits for the Links
Speaker 1: and the Clubhouse review. Former pro golfer turned content creator
Speaker 1: and podcast host Tisha Allen. You've heard her on our
Speaker 1: show and on her iheartwomen's sports podcast Welcome to the Party,
Speaker 1: has recognized what she calls gaps in gear visibility and
Speaker 1: how women are included in the game of golf, and
Speaker 1: she decided to do something about it. The first capsule
Speaker 1: of her all in Golf brand is now live at
Speaker 1: allindolf dot com. That's al Yn Goolf dot com. From
Speaker 1: dresses to pants and skirts and t's that say, I'm
Speaker 1: not a player, I just golf a lot.
Speaker 2: She's trying to make golf.
Speaker 1: A little cooler, younger, and edgier, and we're here for it.
Speaker 1: Congrats Tisha. Now it's your turn slices, rate and review.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. Good game, Mariah, Good game, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: Frost UNC Lacrosse and got THEMFC you biceps tendonitis. A
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
Speaker 1: production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
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Speaker 1: producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rutterer.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch and
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Speaker 1: Your Host Sarah Spain