The story of Lauren Coughlin — LPGA rookie Gigi Stoll returns home
By Addie Parker
The IX: Golf Thursday with Addie Parker, Aug. 1, 2024
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We need to talk about Lauren Coughlin. As the most recent first-time winner on the LPGA Tour, she has climbed up the Rolex Rankings and now sits in fifth place for Solheim Cup standings. But before we dive into what her victory last week at the CPKC Women’s Open means for the future, let’s go back in time a bit and piece together her story.
You can imagine my excitement when my fellow Virginia native hoisted her trophy last Sunday as she was doused in champagne. I’ve never met Coughlin, but I don’t need to know her personally to root for her. When one of your own accomplishes a lifelong goal, it’s easy to have an overwhelming sense of pride. (I’m not alone in this; our state golf association felt the exact same way.)
Coughlin hails from the Chesapeake Bay area, where she was the first girl to play on the Hickory High School boys team for all four years. Her success during her junior career (many state tournament appearances, VSGA and AJGA wins, the list goes on) propelled her to the University of Virginia.
Her first season with the Cavaliers was quiet. Coughlin didn’t play in any events, but she stayed steadfast. She won the 2012 VSGA Women’s Amateur Championship (she’d go on to win it again the next year), providing her game with the confidence boost it needed to continue on the path of collegiate golf.
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Her sophomore and junior years at UVA were transformative. Coughlin led the team’s scoring average in the 2013-14 season, helped them secure a top-20 finish at the NCAA Championship in 2015, and continued to work hard proving herself as a valuable member of her team.
In 2016, her senior year, she claimed her first collegiate victory, winning the ACC individual title. She turned pro later that same year.
Over the last eight years, Coughlin has been on the professional golf roller coaster. During her rookie season, she made only four cuts the whole year, with her earnings totaling around $13,000. But despite the less-than-stellar play, she snagged a victory on the Epson Tour, keeping that competitive fire burning.
It’s no secret that golf is hard, let alone trying to compete against the world’s best, but nevertheless, Coughlin persisted, building up confidence in her game playing in Epson events. In 2019, three years into her journey as a professional golfer, Coughlin collected seven top-15 finishes, rallying to a T41 finish at the Final Qualifying portion of the 2019 LPGA Qualifying Series to gain status for 2020.
And, well, we all know what happened that year.
With an abbreviated season, Coughlin played in only five starts, making the cut for only two of them. She ended the year outside of CME points to failing to maintain her LPGA Tour status.
Over 2021 and 2022, she would scrap together solid rounds of golf securing her playing status, in 2022 alone she made 23 total starts, earning five top-20 finishes, closing the year in 78th place in the Race to the CME Globe — the highest finish of her career — and keeping her status for 2023.
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With more confidence in herself and her game, the steady trend upward during the 2023 season and the first half of the 2024 season for Coughlin has led her to this moment: In her 103rd start on the LPGA Tour, finally Lauren Coughlin captured her maiden victory.
“[This win] just makes it all worth it,” said Coughlin in her winning press conference. “All the sacrifices that I made, that my husband made when I was just getting started, my family made when I was just getting started. A lot of people believed in me when I didn’t, and I wouldn’t be where I was without them.”
Coughlin’s journey is anything but linear. It’s a series of peaks and valleys, and I believe that this is just the beginning.
She’s teeing it up in Portland this week and, with a victory, she would clinch her spot on the Solheim Cup team, where she’d be the first American to play it in her home state in 26 years.
The Virginia girl playing in front of her home crowd for her Solheim debut … you couldn’t write a better script.
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This week in women’s golf
If you have links you wish to share for Golf Thursday, sources for golf news, or want to talk about anything at all, you can email me at addieparker25@theixsports.com! Discussion of any kind is always welcome … I mean it … MESSAGE ME!
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Five at The IX: Oregon native Gigi Stoll returns home for the Portland Classic
Epson Tour graduate turned LPGA Tour rookie (and friend of The IX) Gigi Stoll is back in her old stomping grounds for the Portland Classic this week. Stoll spoke to the media ahead of Thursday’s opening round about being in front of her home crowd, her rookie season thus far and more.
Q. So cool to be first time on the tour, earn that card. The excitement, the actuality of it all for you, how mind-blowing has this year been that this is what you worked for, to get that card-carrying member, and here we are back at home?
GIGI STOLL: Yeah, I’m just enjoying every little [moment] I have out here. This is really what I’ve been working for, just get a couple starts and get the opportunity to be a full-time member out here is the goal at the end of this year.
It’s nice to be back in Portland. It’s good to see a lot of familiar faces. I feel very welcome and very much at home. For this event to be on the schedule and for me to get a start here as an LPGA rookie is just huge.
I’m happy to be here.
Q. What is the significance for girl golfers growing up around here to see the best of the best are here, and you probably saw, I could probably do that, too?
GIGI STOLL: Yeah, you know, I grew up — I was the standard bearer out here. I remember I was 8 years old. I was coming down with the final group, Lorena Ochoa, and one of the big things is she was talking to me on the last hole.
She took the time to ask me if I play golf. That’s something I really try and do for the fans out here, little girls out here, little boys, anybody who is out here rooting us on.
It’s a full-circle moment to be back out here and to be able to do what I hope to be doing. I looked up to a lot of the girls growing up just coming out here to this event at Columbia Edgewater.
Q. So you’ve been around now. You’ve seen so many courses, so many events. How does the Portland Classic stack up?
GIGI STOLL: This is a great event. I’ve talked to quite a few girls out her this week. The course is in one of the best shapes that we’ve had all year. It’s pristine out here. You can tell the staff has been doing a fantastic job getting the event ready.
New clubhouse, good purse; we’re all excited to be here.
Q. Now that you’re one of the pros and been around for a while, what do you think your role is for other kids that come watch or see you on TV, that you’re a kid, now a grown woman from Beaverton, from here who’s made it.
GIGI STOLL: As competitive as it is, I like to have fun, you know. If you’re following me around this week you’ll see I’m pretty light. I’m chatting with my caddie. We’re having fun, smiling.
That’s really what it’s about. At the end of the day golf is just a game, but we’re here to have fun. The score doesn’t really resemble who I am, but I can just control how I act at the end of the day.
Q. You took seventh at the Dow Championship and just have had some good showings lately. How would you say you feel about your momentum and where you are with the season?
GIGI STOLL: Yeah, finishing seventh at Dow was a huge momentum boost, just being out here my first year. It kind of proved to me that I can be out here and show these girls who I am and where I stack up against them.
I’ve made the last couple cuts in a row, and it’s helped. I feel like my game is really trending in the right direction to be at a venue that I know very well and I’m very comfortable with. I’m excited to stack up and see how it goes here.
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