Allisen Corpuz’s educational resume at USC was much more spectacular than her formidable achievements on the golf course.
Twice an All-American decide and ranked No. 1 nationally as a fifth-year senior, Corpuz additionally earned an undergraduate diploma in enterprise administration, a grasp’s in international provide chain administration, and graduate certificates in enterprise analytics sustainability and enterprise.
“And it wasn’t like she was simply skating by in these courses. She was getting As, A-minuses, B-pluses, a really excessive GPA,” stated USC coach Justin Silverstein, who started watching Corpuz when she was in eighth grade. “She took it very severely. Her mother and pa did an outstanding job coaching her for that. She bought each inch she might out of this college.”
Now in her second season on the LPGA tour, Corpuz is including vital accomplishments to her golf resume and is poised to make her mark on a aggressive tour that has topped 23 first-time winners the final two seasons.
Corpuz, who grew up in Hawaii however calls Southern California and the Rolling Hills Nation Membership her base, convincingly received the U.S. Ladies’s Open at legendary Pebble Seaside in July for her first profession tour victory. She was the one participant within the area who shot below par all 4 days, compiling a nine-under 279 on the energy of a dominant remaining spherical.
With that mastery got here a $2 million prize — the most important ever for the winner of an LPGA main — and probabilities to signify the U.S. within the Solheim Cup and the Grant Thornton Invitational, a workforce occasion that brings collectively high LPGA and PGA gamers.
Corpuz leads the LPGA cash checklist with $3,017, 771, forward of Lilia Vu of Fountain Valley and UCLA ($2.76 million). Corpuz has recorded 5 top-10 finishes this season and is primed so as to add one other at this weekend’s ANNIKA event at Pelican Golf Membership in Belleair, Fla.
Corpuz completed third behind Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson final yr on the prestigious occasion named for Corridor of Famer Annika Sorenstam, so she’s acquainted with the course. The final yr’s expertise ought to assist her conquer any challenges that come up.
“I performed actually strong at Pelican final yr, and so I believe it was the course that actually suited my sport. Actually like the way it seems,” Corpuz stated throughout a video information convention. “I believe numerous Florida programs look much like Hawaii programs. The Bermuda [grass] and some of the holes have the water operating alongside the perimeters. Fairly vast open fairways and simply should be a little bit extra, I assume, centered in your strategy pictures. I had the putter going fairly properly there and simply general favored the course design.”
Her development the final yr has taken place largely in her head. After taking part in 5 straight weeks final season and feeling exhausted, she realized to tempo herself and determine which programs greatest match her fashion. “This yr was numerous psychological work, actually,” she stated. “My rookie yr was extra simply getting snug, studying what a event week seems like.
Allisen Corpuz hits from a bunker on the twelfth gap in the course of the remaining spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open golf event at Pebble Seaside Golf Hyperlinks.
(Darron Cummings / Related Press)
“Simply popping out and telling myself that I’m adequate to compete. I’ve been taking part in properly and been working exhausting. I believe that was the largest game-changer for me.”
The daughter of a Filipino father, Marcos, and Korean mom, Could, Corpuz started taking part in golf when she was 4. She stated she was horrible at first however she was a fast learner: She was 10 years, three months and 9 days outdated in 2008 when she broke Michelle Wie West’s file because the youngest qualifier in U.S. Ladies’s Newbie Public Hyperlinks historical past.
She went on to thrive at USC, invigorated by her research and the golf workforce’s excellence. “Simply having the time to mature and develop, I believe, helped loads,” stated Corpuz, who had a USC emblem on her golf bag and on the yardage e-book she had in her again pocket when she received at Pebble Seaside.
Silverstein stated Corpuz’s ballstriking together with her irons was among the many greatest this system had witnessed.
“And her yardage data is the most effective we’ve ever seen, her capacity to regulate her distance not on full pictures is tremendous, tremendous elite,” he stated. “These two elements mixed made her the most effective iron participant we’ve ever had right here. And one factor about iron play is it travels. It goes website to website. There isn’t a course on this planet the place good iron play doesn’t enable you to. So we knew if she carried that on to skilled golf, after which elevated the opposite elements of her sport a little bit bit, she was going to be a really elite skilled golfer.”
She’s approaching that degree. “I believe she’s bought potential to be a top-five participant on this planet, if not the No. 1 participant on this planet,” Silverstein stated. “She’s very superior together with her psychological abilities. She’s very self conscious exterior of golf but in addition on the golf course, so I believe that may allow her to be very constant together with her golf.
“And if her iron play stays at that degree even when she’s not tremendous sharp, she’ll have the ability to make cuts. To get your rating as excessive as she’s on the lookout for it to get, merely making cuts and ending within the high 30, 40 in your off weeks — and I’m utilizing air quotes after I say off weeks — is essential since you’re nonetheless stacking factors and cash.”
Success hasn’t modified Corpuz. She hasn’t blown her new wealth on vehicles or different big-ticket indulgences, and she or he acknowledged her Pebble Seaside victory as a possible launching pad for a triumphant profession, not a remaining vacation spot. The magnitude of her victory remains to be sinking in.
“I believe the extra that I hear from different folks how a lot enjoyable that they had watching me on TV, simply having Pebble Seaside internet hosting a ladies’s event, I believe it simply turns into extra particular the extra I hear it,” she stated.
Think about that: The little lady who thought she was horrible at golf is all grown up and able to make a big effect on the game.
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