Emma Talley: From injury to discovery
Emma Talley was injured last season, and struggled to find success on the golf course. The season quickly became a grind: In fact, in 21 starts, she would miss more cuts (12) than she made (9), and finished the year 106th on the money list.
Now age 30, Talley looks at her early years as a pro to see they not lived up to what she might have expected them to be, not after winning a U.S. Women’s Amateur (2013), and two years later capturing an NCAA individual championship, a rare combination, as well as an All-America career at the University of Alabama.
So Talley has begun to explore other avenues that still keep her around a game that she loves and has played since she was 10. She has coached and mentored young girls who are starting to play, really enjoying the assignment, and has become more involved in the media side of golf.
This week, she will make her first LPGA start of 2024, competing at Wilshire Country Club after receiving a sponsor’s exemption.
“I didn't know it – but golf had become my whole identity,” Talley said. “Now that I'm coaching these girls who are amazing and I'm doing media, so talking to girls about golf, it's almost like it's been a lightbulb moment for me.”
Golf, she tells the girls she is teaching, is “like a chess game. You hit it here and then you do that, you make moves.”
But having an involvement in golf that does not entail playing the game has given her a refreshing and eye-opening avenue to explore.
“It's really given me perspective that I'm more than just a golfer,” Talley said. “I think we lose perspective of that because it's such a grind out here. You're trying to play your best golf, week-in and week-out. It's given me a lot of perspective, and I feel so much ‘freer’ and I am having so much fun doing all these different things.
“Golf has become something I do, and not who I am in a bigger circle.”
