Each week throughout the year we will spotlight one Epson Tour player and provide an in depth look into her life - both on and off the course. Up next in "This week is all about..." series is Lindy Duncan.
Many Pieces of a Puzzle Towards Earning her LPGA card
Lindy Duncan has been through the hyper-focused process to solve the riddle of golf before. So the current matter of improving her short game shouldn’t be a problem as the 2014 Epson Tour winds down to the final three events of the season. It’s not just a casual observation that this phase of her game needs to get better, but a set plan to solve the issue, led by her father, David, and instructor, Martin Hall. A spot on the LPGA hangs in the balance.
“The past six months I’ve really been doing a great job of focusing on getting better,” Duncan said on Monday, shortly after driving back to south Florida with her mom, Debbie, from last week’s Eagle Classic in Richmond, Va. “I’ve made these discoveries because sometimes I felt like I could hit my 5-iron straighter than my wedge. That wasn’t cutting it at this level. A lot of courses we play on the Epson Tour aren’t super long, and distance isn’t a problem for me, so I should have lots of opportunities. I needed to start taking advantage of that.”
Building a better golfer – in a unique way – has been a lifelong goal for the 23-year-old Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., native. When she became serious about the game at age 13, her father rebuilt the family room at their home. Gone was the casual setting with a TV and in came a hitting net built from PVC pipe, a mat with a plywood base, a video system, a launch monitor and a putting deck.
“My dad has a little bit of a different mind,” Duncan said. “He was really interested in the golf swing and how it works. People got used to seeing that room when they came in our house. They knew what we were doing.”
The family tradition continued when Duncan left to play college golf at powerhouse Duke. In her tiny Durham, N.C., apartment, David helped Lindy put together a miniature version of the mad golf scientist’s lab.
“Whenever it was too cold or too messy to play outside in Durham, I could still hit balls,” Duncan said. “It was really cramped. I guess people would come to my apartment and have these big eyes. But that helped me.”
It helped so much that Duncan was one of Duke’s most decorated golfers, earning All-American honors four times, being voted the 2012 NCAA Player of the Year and playing on the 2012 Curtis Cup team.
Besides playing at the top level of the game, hanging around some of the smartest college students also had an effect on Duncan.
“I felt out of place at Duke for about two years,” Duncan said. “I was trying to play the best golf possible, that was my goal, and I had classes with people who put the same all-consuming effort into their studies. I didn’t know how that was going to work out.
“But my last two years I felt more comfortable. It made me tougher, I had to fight to get through these classes and do well. I became more competitive. It was a great lesson for me in life, not just golf. And that’s helping me as I travel and play now.”
With a Psychology degree and the honor of being an Atlantic Coast Conference Scholar Athlete, Duncan marched onto the Epson Tour last year and is now engaged in a battle for the 10th and final spot on the Epson Tour money list. Duncan has a second, a third and a fifth this season and ranks 11th on the money list, just $282 behind Veronica Felibert, with spots 10 through 17 separated by only $2,905.
With the Epson Tour off till early September, Duncan will prepare for the stretch run at a very rural location in south Florida, the tiny town of LaBelle, Fla. The Duncans have 20 “foresty, swampy” acres not far from some high-end golf. But it’s also a place where Duncan can get away with another passion of hers, four-wheeling.
“I will play and practice golf, but also drive on about 80 miles of trails,” Duncan said. “It’s a really cool place to see Florida nature. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, suburban city. I always thought camping was kind of weird. But I just love it out there.”
It’s just another piece of the puzzle toward earning a LPGA card.
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