Marissa Steen, who finished 8th on the final Epson Tour Volvik Race for the Card money list, has always been a detailed goal-setter. She’s specific, analytical and now becoming more progressive in the goals she sets.
In 2014, when Steen was the Epson Player of the Year after a three-win dominating campaign, one of her goals for the LPGA in 2015 was trying to make more cuts than she missed. Injuries plagued her ’15 season and she didn’t accomplish the goal, but more importantly now realizes that it wasn't a forward-thinking goal and she has removed that for 2017.
Following the 2016 Epson Tour, Steen went home to West Chester, Ohio and had a long discussion with her caddy, John Turner, and her longtime instructor, Tim Lambert.
“John does all my statistics while we’re on the road playing and he emails them every week or every other week to Tim so he can tell me if there is anything I need to address,” explained Steen. “We looked at the numbers and figured out what exactly I needed to work on and where I was versus where I can see the most improvement in my game.”
For the offseason, Steen has three goals.
- Improve proximity to the hole on approach shots with irons from 100-150 yards out
- Improve putting in the 8-20 foot range
- Gain 5 miles-per-hour in club head speed
“I didn’t give myself enough birdie chances at all on the LPGA in 2015 so one of my main goals this year was to work on my proximity and it got way better, but it could still improve,” said Steen, who no surprise was on the range in the Orlando area practicing while doing this interview. “I also starting working with Super Speed Golf (https://superspeedgolf.com) in Milwaukee in order to try to gain club head speed."
To add distance, Steen is also working out three times a week with Scott Shepard at the Mike Bender Academy.
Steen also has three goals for the 2017 LPGA season.
- Get off to a good start and play my way into the first major (ANA Inspiration)
- Play my way into all five majors
- Qualify for the Asian swing at the end of the season
Notice nothing about making cuts.
“I removed that because I didn’t want to limit myself,” said Steen. “I want to have a more aggressive mentality where I’m more confident and feel that I have the ability to make the cut every week.”
Steen now references back to a quote she got from John’s college coach.
“He would always say ‘I play to win’ and he was a good player and played on the PGA TOUR,” explained Steen. “He would say, 'I have the mentality to win because if you’re going to win, you’ve got to make the cut’."
Touche.
Over the next month, Steen plans to practice and compete (in two mini tour events) and then re-evaluate where she is in her offseason goals. It’s this consistent desire to improve that makes Steen great and someone to keep an eye on in 2017 on the LPGA.
It’s also remarkable to think that less than 8 years ago, Steen held a 79+ scoring average at Memphis. The ability to evaluate, work and improvement has been her recipe for a second season on the LPGA.
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