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 Allie White.
White's Outgoing and Adventurous
Watch for a Toyota Prius with a Batman sticker and a roof rack – but no hubcaps – rolling through Kansas next week. It might be Epson Tour golfer Allie White, sporting her iconic “Ohio Farmer” hat.
Don’t worry if you miss White in person as she drives from North Carolina to the Epson Tour’s Sept. 5-7 Prairie Band Casino & Resort Charity Classic in central Kansas. You will probably read about her travels in “Inside The Ropes with Allie White,” a monthly blog which has appeared on epsontour.com since early 2013, White’s rookie professional golf season.
“I was an English major in college and I like to write,” White said of her first-person work. “I got ahold of the people on the Epson Tour before I even played in a golf tournament and said I’d like to do something. It’s important to have a voice.”
White’s outgoing personality and adventurous nature are obvious through her writing. She obtained the talent legitimately as her father, Tim, is the longtime editor of Ohio Farmer Magazine, a publication that is nearly 175 years old. Tim and wife Kathy, a former Ohio State tennis player, own an 80-acre farm in Lancaster, Ohio where they raised three children along side sheep, corn, soybeans, wheat, hay and sod. White has access to a bevvy of “Ohio Farmer” caps that have become keepsakes for many on the Epson Tour.
“I’ve had a good time wearing that hat,” White said. “It reminds me of growing up on a farm. When I played in the 2009 U.S. Open in Pennsylvania, somebody told me they would give me $50 for my hat.”
With such a grasp for personalizing her golf experience, White’s next goal is to document earning a LPGA card and life at the top rung of professional women’s golf. Currently, White is 103rd on the Epson Tour money list, a long way from the top 10 and a 2015 LPGA card, but she has made seven consecutive cuts this season and sees a positive conclusion.
“I’m really proud of how I’ve done during the course of the season after getting off to such a rough start,” Whit said. “It’s just a matter of doing a better job on the short game and going mentally to another level. I just need to be more consistent – going from birdieing the hardest hole on the course twice and then playing the two easiest holes 1-over par in a week, like I did in Richmond.
“I’m trying hard to get into the top 10 in a tournament and then into the top 80 for the season so that I can have fully exempt status on the Epson Tour next season.”
White’s trek to professional golf began as an outstanding junior golfer. She made the 2007 Junior Solheim Cup team and shared the stage in Sweden with such current LPGA players such as U.S. teammate Vicky Hurst and Europe’s Carlota Ciganda and Caroline Hedwall. At North Carolina, she was teammates with Epson Tour player Catherine O’Donnell as the Tar Heels finished fourth in the 2009 NCAA Championship and won the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference title. She also earned All-America Scholar honors three times en route to her English degree, even though she went back home briefly during her college years.
“When I went to school at North Carolina for my freshman year, I was homesick and went back to Ohio State for a bit,” White said. “But then I reconsidered and went back to Chapel Hill. The three coaches I had at North Carolina and Ohio State helped me as a young person who was trying to figure it out. They helped me graduate and get through college. If I wouldn’t have met the right people, I might not have succeeded to get where I am.”
As usual with White, you will probably read more about it soon as she progresses toward the LPGA.
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