In 1942, when Louise was just 16 years old, she won the Georgia State Amateur. 

Her prize included an honorary membership to the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. That’s where Bobby Jones grew up. When Jones wanted to get away from Augusta and the Masters, he went home to East Lake.

Louise writes, “I would sit for hours at the driving range, watching Bobby Jones practice. Every now and then he’d look up and say, “Want to go play a few?”

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Louise loved to push against the status quo. In 1961, she stated publicly that women pro golfers were just as good as men. Today, with players in the spotlight like Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko, we’d all agree with Louise.

But 1961 was a different world. Sam Snead, who was still a giant in the game of golf, said, “The women can’t begin to play with us.”

Louise corrected her statement. She didn’t mean to say that LPGA players were just as good as PGA players. She meant to say an LPGA player could beat a PGA player. 

As you can imagine, ol’ Sam Snead took that as a challenge.

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In 1948, Louise competed in the British Ladies’ Amateur. It was her first time overseas—and her first experience playing a links course. She writes, “The weather was our toughest opponent. Relentless wind, gusting 30 miles an hour, and rain driving sideways.”

Louise was an amateur who expected to carry her own bag. So she was surprised when a small British man walked up and introduced himself as her caddie. 

“Tish Rimmer in my name,” he said. “And the only thing I ask is this: if the flag is over here,” and he pointed in one direction, “but I say to aim over there,” and he pointed in the opposite direction,“then,” he said, “you hit over there.”

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At the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open, Louise was 44 years old, semi-retired, and played only a few tournaments a year. At the time, no one that old, in the PGA or LPGA, had won the U.S. Open.

Imagine entering your club tournament. You won several years ago. But you’re older now and you don’t compete as often. As you wait for your name to be called, you watch the club’s best young players crush their tee shots. That’s intimidating.

But Louise didn’t even notice. She just smiled and said, “Golf is played against only one opponent — yourself.” 

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Louise writes, “Having a good imagination is an essential part of my game. I could visualize how I wanted each shot to go—then I just had to believe it and trust it.”

Did you notice what Louise did there? She builds her belief and trust on images, not words or swing thoughts. 

She writes, “Golfers make it far too complicated. People ask me: What do you think about when you hit the golf ball? And I say: Not a damn thing.”

Instead, Louise builds her belief and trust on visualizations.

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Louise says, “I was runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Open on four occasions, and two of them were to Mickey Wright.”

Mickey beat Louise at the 1958 Open. Then she did it again the next year. So when they faced off in 1961, did those big losses intimidate Louise? Just the opposite. 

She writes, “Whenever Mickey and I played with one another, we seemed to play our best golf.” Losing this time teaches you how to win next time.

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Last time, we talked about losing. Today, let’s look at one of our favorite topics: preparing to play. It’s always helpful to hear how champions get ready to compete.

Louise was one of the 13 co-founders of the LPGA. She writes, “In addition to competing each week, we had to do a lot of the work ourselves. We literally ran the tour out of the trunks of our cars.”

It was hard to find golf courses willing to shut down for a week to sponsor a tournament. Many events were played on courses where the only greenskeeper was the weather. 

Louise and the other players walked the course, pounded the out-of-bounds stakes, and cut new hole positions in the greens each day.

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