CANDID CONVERSATION

‘SOMETIMES DREAMS CHANGE’

For one young Cary golfer, the grass looks greener away from the professional fairways

BY KURT DUSTERBERG

For the past decade, the game of golf has provided countless thrills for Emilia Migliaccio. As her skills improved, she left behind local events to participate in national tournaments. She loved the travel, the suitcase life and especially the hotels. She practiced in 100-degree heat with a zest for the game that few could match.

The payoff was a dizzying amount of success. By the time Migliaccio graduated from Wake Forest University in May, she was one of the top collegiate players in the country. She won several college tournaments, played in two U.S. Women’s Opens and traveled the world to play in the most prestigious golf events. Her world ranking climbed as high as No. 3. At the start of her senior golf season, her dream of playing professionally on the LPGA Tour was likely to come to fruition within a year.

Then Migliaccio decided she was finished with competitive golf.

Such a life-changing decision doesn’t come easily or without self-examination. The 22-year-old Cary resident is upfront about that. “I’m not uncomfortable talking about it, not afraid to be vulnerable,” she says.

Perhaps that is because Migliaccio’s life is already rich with other storylines. Her passion for writing led to publishing a novel, “Just An Illusion,” in 2018. At Wake Forest University, she was the leader of a studentathlete community service group. “She’s wanting to give a little bit of herself to a lot of people,” says Demon Deacons women’s golf coach Kim Lewellen. “She serves people and she has a big heart. She wants to make sure she can share that with people.”

We asked Migliaccio about her decision and accomplishments, and what we learned was that she doesn’t take any of them lightly.

I understand you first stated wondering about your future in golf last summer when you were playing in the North & South Women’s Amateur Championship. What happened?

I birdied the last three holes to finish eve par but I didn’t feel that sense of triumph I thought I would feel. That was the first time had thoughts of, “I don’t know if I want to do this as a career.” I think a lot of it was because I was playing in my last college year and I’m going to go to [LPGA qualifying] school next year. I was putting so much pressure on myself that I wasn’t able to perform. It took a while to really listen to my heart, because you don’t know if you’re thinking this because you’re not playing well. I made the decision at the end of January. In the middle of the first tounament I said, “Coach, all I’m thinking about is, I don’t want

Did you initially listen to that inner voice, or did you push it down and say, “No, playing professionally has been my dream for a long time”?

I didn’t want to listen to my heart. I wanted to push through this. I thought this was just a longer setback than I am normally used to. But I knew it was so much more than that.

This sounds like the type of decision that could involve tears and sleepless nights.

There was a lot of confusion and frustration. A lot of anxiety, too. After practice and before practice, I was always thinking about golf and my swing and my putting stroke, and I wasn’t able to turn off the switch. I didn’t want to come home to my family seven years down the road and have this anxiety about my backswing. I could see it affecting my family ... I could just see the pain in their eyes when I spoke about my frustration.

I needed to tell myself that I was not going to pursue professional golf so that I could try to relieve some of that. Regardless of what I was going to do in the fall, I needed to make this decision so I can make golf something I love doing, but not something I take with me everywhere I go and make it emotionally taxing on me.

Augusta National Women's Amateur

I know one of your goals has always been to be the No. 1–ranked golfer in the world. As you were making this decision, your coaches helped you examine that kind of thinking, right?

There is a difference between mastering a skill, and there’s a different mindset in trying to be the best. It was a really good perspective for me. That’s not life. Life is being around the people I love and going to the beach and playing golf with the people I love. That’s where life is.

Now that you have made this decision, is there anything you would look back on and handle differently?

If I would tell my younger self anything, I would say, “I promise, if you take this day off, it’s going to help.” It wasn’t until recently that I would take an off-day in practice. My [first] thee years of college, I would never take the off day. More is not always better. That’s where it’s easy to start placing your worth in golf.

You’re leaving competitive golf behind, but you’ve got something else to look forward to now.

I am pursuing a master’s in communications [at Wake Forest University]. It’s a two-year program. I chose this program because I will have the opportunity to focus my studies on one particular topic within communication I enjoy, and then write a thesis paper on it. Right now, I’m interested in studying either technology communication or marketing communication. I love school and love to learn, so I am really excited for the next two years.

And before you even start your graduate program, you will be doing some writing.

I will be on the editorial staff this summer for the Golf Channel website. My job consists of writing and editing pieces, and organizing the website. I would love to be able to write on the LPGA and Symetra [Tour] players.

Leaving behind a professional career is such a big decision. How much have you had to wrestle with that?

I don’t look at it as giving up anything. It’s OK to know you didn’t give up on your dream, but sometimes dreams change. I’m just not pursuing golf in a professional light anymore. I’m learning to embrace that, and look forward to new chapters with greater opportunities than I could ever imagine.

MIGLIACCIO’S REMARKABLE LAST CHAPTER

Emilia Migliaccio’s decision not to pursue professional golf didn’t mark the end of her competitive career. In addition to her college season, she had one more international tournament: the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Played at the home of the Masters Tournament, the ANWA is a who’s who of international players that Migliaccio says is “100% the biggest tournament you can play in.” It turns out, she had one more memory to create. Playing against the greatest amateurs in the world on America’s most famous course, Migliaccio finished in a two-way tie before losing the title on the first playof hole to Tsubasa Kajitani of Japan. The near-perfect ending came with a special family connection. Migliaccio’s mother, Ulrika (pictured at left), herself an all-American golfer at the University of Arizona in 1992, caddied for her daughter. The mother-daughter duo experienced the three-round tournament side-by-side. “It was so special,” Migliaccio says. “I kept looking back at my mom. It was so wild to see her in the professional uniform and just being able to walk there with her. I wasn’t star-struck to the point I couldn’t play, I was star-struck to just appreciate the moment and appreciate every hole.” Before the tournament began, Migliaccio worked through her emotions and expectations, knowing the experience could be filled with anxiet. “I was just telling myself, ‘My purpose here is not to win,’” she says. “‘If I step out on the tee hoping to win the tournament, thinking about the outcome, I’m not going to play well. The purpose is to really enjoy this time with my mom and to play with freedom.’ I didn’t want to be nervous about screwing up or hitting a bad shot. … On the first tee I didn’t feel any nerves. Because I had worked through those mental areas, I just felt pure joy.