To say that the rookie year on the pro Symetra Tour circuit for former Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and LSU All-America Madelene Sagstrom has been an instant success might be making a bit of an understatement.
For Sagstrom it is a dream come true just to be playing and the success that has come with it isn’t too bad either.
Now this week she will be one of 156 golfers competing in the United States Women’s Open Golf Championship at CordeValle in San Martin, California.
This record breaker on the Symetra Tour, the level just below the LPGA Tour, will take her game up against the best in the world. She is just looking forward to the opportunity. Whatever happens, she will continue to learn the ins and outs of professional golf on the Symetra Tour.
But here is what her rookie season has brought her to date:
- 2 wins, 3 runner-up finishes and one third place in nine Symetra starts.
- 1st in money earnings at $114,157 … That’s an all-time tour record … Only two other players have topped $90,000 on a tour that is paying better but is still trying to pay a better rate top to bottom as the feeder program for the LPGA.
- 1st in driving distance at 278.6 yards.
- 1st in scoring average at 70.821 strokes per round.
Sagstrom sat down recently in the LSU Athletics offices and thought back on this season in which she has become one of the faces of Symetra.
“I still don’t think I understand what’s going on,” the native of Sweden said matter-of-factly. “We just go out and play golf. It’s been fun. It’s been a big adjustment from just going and playing one tournament (in college), going home and then playing another (sometimes a couple of weeks later). Now it’s just going, going, going. It’s been interesting. I’ve learned a lot.”
Sagstrom had one of the best years overall in LSU women’s golf history as she earned SEC POY honors and consensus first-team All-America honors while finishing as runner-up for the prestigious ANNIKA Award. But her season ended in a start-stop weather delayed national championship event in which she struggled to get anything going. Then came the failure to make it all the way to the LPGA Tour in qualifying, but with the caveat of full exemption on the Symetra Tour.
“First I was really upset (when I didn’t make LPGA) because that was the goal,” Sagstrom said. “Looking back it may have been the best thing that happened to me. I don’t know how I would have payed. I’m here for a reason. What in my game do I have to get better at to make it to the next level? It turned out to be a lot both in my head and on a personal level to fully get the potential out of my game.
“I have never told myself I was good enough to play on the big tour until a few months ago. I never realized that I’m pretty good at what I do because I’ve always focused on the negative stuff … what I could do better, what I needed to learn. (In 2014-15) I had a great year at LSU, but I still focused too much on nationals and how I failed at nationals. So instead of taking all the positive with me I worried about finishing my (college) career in the bottom. It was not good.”
But now the thoughts are positive and the Symetra Tour has shown her what she is capable of and she feels that competing on the LPGA Tour is just a part of her future. “We’ll see.”
And so she headed out on the journey. The Symetra Tour had an opening event in February in California and then didn’t reconnect until April in Florida.
Thankfully, former LSU players like Megan McChrystal, Tessa Teachman and Lindsay Gahm, were veterans of the circuit.
“I had no clue about anything. I felt I didn’t belong I didn’t know what to do. Lindsay was a big help. ‘Madelene we are going here. You are going to figure it out. Just calm down.’”
It finally took a message from her mentor, Robert Karlsson, a Swedish pro golfer who has 11 European Tour wins and five top 10 major finishes, to get her to understand this position in her life.
“He told me, ‘No, Madelene, you belong here. You’ve earned your spot like everyone else out here.’
Sagstrom went out and opened the Symetra Tour season with a career best round of 8-under 64 heading to a third place finish in her debut.
This would be the spot where I would probably say, “and the rest was history.” But there is one other major character in this rookie journey.
There is a relationship that started as someone who offered to carry her bag on a Florida tour stop that is now her traveling companion and full-time caddy.
Well, no golfer on the Symetra Tour likes to carry the bag and when the tour moved to Florida, Teachman caddied for Sagstrom on the final day of the first tour stop there when Sagstrom finished third. Two local guys who were golfers met Tessa and one caddied for her before she missed the cut. Teachman told Sagstrom the other guy would caddy for her at the next Florida stop in Fort Meyers.
“I said fine. I’ll just have someone to just walk on the side and carry my big. I’ll try it.”
Josh Williams met Sagstrom on pro-am day. The day of our interview Sagstrom looked at Josh and said “You didn’t say much. I made all my decisions and we won. What do I do now? He came with me to Sarasota.”
Now the rest is history.
So what is Josh’s role as caddy? “Try to keep her happy,” Williams, who is originally from Michigan, laughs. “I try not to get in her head too much. If she comes off the green talking Swedish I know that’s not a good thing. We line up putts. We talk yardages. We talk clubs. It’s a great relationship.”
“For me, I try not to rely on him too much, but it’s like if we think the same thing it is just a reinforcement of the decision,” Sagstrom said. “We are very much a team. I would not have been able to do what I have done without him. Having someone that believes on me on the bag is crazy.”
Sagstrom is also learning the things that happen off the course when you have a year like this.
“I love everything. I love talking to media. I love that stuff,” she said. “I love putting my brand out there. But I need to make sure I don’t overload myself.”
Now on Thursday, Sagstrom will tee it up in the most prestigious tournament of her pro career, the Women’s U.S. Open. This came after shooting 66-70 in qualifying in Atlanta. For her, it will be another learning experience for her future.
The top 10 on the Symetra Tour in money earn their LPGA cards for next year. One more win gets Sagstrom there early. There are still lessons to be learned, but for this former LSU golfer and LSU graduate, her future path appears clear. But she also knows her four years in Baton Rouge showed her the way.
“(LSU Coach) Karen (Bahnsen) has always been there for me,” Sagstrom said. “I’ve called her crying on campus stressed out. She’s been there through everything. It means a lot to me. She’s the reason I came here in the first place. I loved the school, but having that support from her has always been important.
“I’m here,” she said. “This is my dream growing up and now I’m here. I’m going to appreciate it.”
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NOTE: Joining Sagstrom in the U.S. Open will be LPGA member and former LSU golfer Austin Ernst. On Thursday and Friday, bonus coverage and feature group coverage begins on USGA.org before moving to FS1. Fox Sports will have the coverage on Saturday and Sunday with USGA.org handling the feature group. Further tournament information and tee times can be found at USGA.org.