She's always had the pure talent. Now, she's finding her stroke on the nation's largest, professional circuit.
Haley Millsap is playing professional golf on the LPGA circuit.
“It's everything that I thought it would be,” Millsap said. “It's where I'm starting.”
Millsap was born in Jacksonville, but grew up in Pace. She graduated from Pace High School and then finished college as a hospitality major at Ole Miss. She's now adjusting to life on the tour.
“There's so many meetings, so many hours,” she said. “I find that out when I get to the event. I have to work out meals around the tour and get practice time in—then there's a meeting at 5 p.m., and somehow I have to get in nine holes.”
Though, even with the busy schedule of life on the professional tour, the 23-year-old said she was well prepared for the transition to the national stage.
“Learning that time management is kind of hard starting out,” Millsap said. “I was always busy playing in college. I had to study, travel, plan for extra curricular activities.”
Playing since the age of five, Millsap has developed a focus, a clarity that she cannot describe. She said she doesn't get nervous while approaching the tee.
“I don't get pressure,” Millsap said. “It's when I'm walking down the fairway—it's like it's time to play golf.”
She said when she lost passion for the sport of golf in 2011, Millsap turned to God for help. Millsap was driven to attend a nine-month training program that taught leadership and spirituality with Downline Ministries in Memphis, Tenn.
She said she found direction and rekindled her passion. That's also when she found her professional tour card to the LPGA circuit.
There's a lot of travel involved in the professional circuit. Millsap said she was struggling to find time to change her vehicles oil and make time for the dentist, when she was just recently in town visiting with her parents. She will be living life on the road for the next few weeks, while she contemplates her next move.
“I wouldn't say I'm living anywhere,” she said. “I just dropped off my stuff back home in Pace. I'll either move back home, or maybe further south.”
Millsap says she would encourage any young person to pursue their passion in life.
“Do what you love,” she said. “And remember the fun—Why you do it. Why you love it.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pace's Millsap hits the LGPA circuit