June 22, 2022 • 28 mins
In this episode of the Birdie Bunch Podcast, Kennedy hosts Professional Golfer and social media influencer Marisa Messana to discuss the recruiting process, her time at Clemson, the transition from college to professional sports, and some fun stories.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Birdie Bunch is a production of I Heart Radio
and the College Athletes Network. Can You dig It? Can
You dig It? You digg? Hey everybody, this is Kennedy
(00:35):
Swan and you're listening to The Bertie Bunch on the
College Athlete Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
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on my website at www dot Kennedy Swan dot com.
Feel free to fill out my contact form with any suggestions, questions,
or comments of what you might want to see on
(00:57):
the show. On this week's episode, we have a very
special guest, a good friend and a college roommate, Marissa Massana.
Hey Marissa, Hi, how are you guys? I'm good? How
are you? I'm so good. I've been excited to hop
on and so thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely so, Marissa.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
(01:18):
Oh wow? Okay, So, UM I guess started at the beginning.
Um I played junior golf growing up. Um ended up
committing to go to Cleinson and had an awesome time.
They're playing at the girls UM at Clenson University and
graduated my undergrad UM, started my masters and then actually
finished my master as while I was playing professionally. And
(01:38):
now this is my third year UM that I have
status on the attentur awesome. UM. So let's kind of
dive into a little bit of your junior golf experience.
So tell me what it was like kind of playing
junior golf in Florida. I know, Florida is kind of
one of the major state Florida, Texas California are pretty
much the biggest states for junior golf. What events did
(02:00):
you kind of play in growing up? Um? What tours
did you play in any like the Women's Amateur Qualifiers,
women Women's Open Qualifiers, high school golf, that kind of stuff. Yeah,
I I grew up playing in a lot of the
U s g A events and those qualifiers. Um. The
Florida Junior Tour was awesome, UM, as well as the
Junior Golf Association of Broward County, which is in South Florida.
(02:22):
UM that I've played in gosh since I was like
five years old, UM, and so that was an awesome
place for me to get started. UM. And then really
just kind of learn how to compete. Um. I definitely
was guilty of being a range rat growing up, so
I was constantly working on my fundamentals. Uh, but growing up,
I'm pretty sure you're still a ranged rat. Yeah, that's
(02:42):
probably a fair call, I will say, But doing much
better at forcing myself to get out on the course
playing competing, which obviously I see value in and have
finally learned, um that there's a time and place for
both and when you need to be more focused on
those fundamentals versus when you need to get out there
and compete and learn how to get the ball on
(03:03):
the whole. So um. So yeah, I think you know,
I played mostly started junior tour a few a j
G s. Um. I think for most girls it just
kind of comes down to what resources you have and
if you can get UM onto those a j G
A circuit and you know that's ideal, um, but you
don't necessarily have to. So I definitely wouldn't want people
to be discouraged if you feel like you're not there yet,
(03:23):
you still will have opportunities, um to learn and grow
as a competitor. Yeah. So you qualified for a couple
of women's ameters, right, yes I did. The one was
in Portland. It was such a special place for me
to go, um and play in the U S AM.
Had an incredible experience there at Portland Golf Club. Um
My awesome caddies still my caddy to this day, shout
(03:48):
out to cabin so. Um. Yeah, I learned a lot
from that event. Um. They really put on an incredible
tournament for us, and um Clemston was awesome and supporting
us to get out there. Um. So that was a
look through its definitely I would say probably a pivotal
turning point in my career, to be honest. Yeah, I
think a lot of the U s g A events
are really helpful both in like building confidence and kind
(04:10):
of getting you started into the recruiting process because it
kind of gets your name out there, you know. I
know for me, that was where j T had kind
of recruited me from first, was the girls Junior um
in Flagstaff. So that was really helpful. Um. So kind
of in your recruiting process, like how old were you
when you got started? Um, what we're kind of like
the first steps that you took, you know, did you
(04:32):
reach out to coaches? Um? Did you kind of wait
for them to reach out to you. Um, what kind
of did you look at Yeah, before you started looking
at Clemson. Yeah, I think gosh, I think it was
like seventh or eighth grade when it was kind of
on my radar that I wanted to go and play
um college golf. So I was just kind of, um,
looking up to some of the other players that were
(04:52):
older than me that we're playing. I think, you know,
one of my high school teammates committed to Duke U
c l A. So I was able to kind of
see what it was like of them. Um. But I
think what was really important, which I probably didn't know
at the time, that I would definitely advise other girls.
It's just kind of knowing what your goals are, um,
and knowing what drives you, what's important to you, and
then trying to understand what the team environment is like
(05:15):
at the different universities and not just going to a
school for the school's name, um, but more so, Okay,
are you wanting to compete in when a national championship
or are you wanting to go and just have a
great college experience and not necessarily um, you know, have
goals to play professionally, and then trying to put yourself
on the team that's in alignment with those goals as well,
and knowing what the coaches and um, the team's goals are,
(05:38):
which then you can become an alignment with as well. Yeah. Um,
would you say that academics and kind of the like
campus slash like outside of athletics was pretty important to
you too during recruiting or do you think it was
more of like a strictly sports related No. Yeah, for me,
it was definitely the whole package. I mean, academics was
(05:59):
always super weren't to me growing up? Um? Obviously even
in college, I was very driven from an academic standpoint. UM.
I was very honored to receive the Elite ninety award
of the National Championship. So that was definitely something that
was special and important to me, UM. And that was
fun for you to be there to celebrate that with
me for sure. UM. So yeah, it was really the
(06:20):
whole package, I think. Um. You know, athlete development programs
is something that colleges are doing awesome with now, and
Clemson had a great program that I'm very grateful for
her to be able to grow as a person, as
a student, as an athlete, UM, which I think really
just helps you all around. So that's something that UM,
I would actinitely recommend getting plugged into and using those resources.
I mean it's pretty incredible, um, the resources that you
(06:43):
have in a university setting. So, UM, that was something
I was looking for. I was very mindful of that.
I was very appreciative of the involvement of even the
president of the university developing relationships with me. Coach Sweeney
from the football team even took an interest in US.
I mean, those are all really really cool things that
I think we were blessed to have. UM that Clemson. Yeah,
(07:04):
so once you kind of committed to Clemson, did you
feel like there was a weight off your shoulders, like
playing in junior golf. I know a lot of people
want it, especially for me, to like once you commit,
you're kind of like, oh, I'm good, Like I've got
a place that I'm going. You know, there's definitely not
as much pressure to go out there and perform to
like prove something. UM, once you kind of commit. Yeah, definitely,
(07:24):
I think that it was. I felt like it was
almost the whole job in itself, trying to decide where
I was going to go to school and processing all
the offers and the options and all the different factors
that I was trying to prioritize and decide on. Um,
so that was huge. I remember I through a huge party.
My parents were, I mean they own a catoring companies,
so they're pretty good at throwing party. Yeah. They hired
(07:50):
a baby tiger to come in on the dance floor
and there was like a hundred people at our health. Yeah,
it was a big deal, so we're all very excited.
I didn't know that Katie Perry I had the tiger going.
I mean, I thought you're about to say you had
Katie Perry there. I was about saying, WHOA, I didn't
know that. No, not quite. But we didn't have a
(08:12):
lot of tigers, so that was pretty sick. But um, yeah,
huge kudos to my parents on on celebrating properly. Nice
and uh okay, So, like, I know both you and
I are like pretty organized person people that you know,
we're very on top of things. Um, did you kind
of have a system of like organizing like when you
were going through the recruiting process of like ranking colleges
(08:34):
or like kind of how did you keep all that straight?
Because that's a lot of information to have so many
different offers from so many different schools, you know, what
was kind of your organizational process? Oh totally. It's funny
that you say that because I hadn't thought about that
in a while, but I now use Excel documents process everything. Um,
But at the time, I had this spreadsheet on paper
(08:54):
that I created that was probably the size of my
whole dining room table of all the factors and all
the colleges. It was a way overboard looking back, because
I mean, you know, you could do as much to
prepare as possible, but it's never going to play out
the way you envisioned, right, And so I think that
was a huge learning process hindsight looking back, as you
can do all the processing and documenting that you want,
(09:15):
and when it comes down to it, I think it's
just really important to prioritize maybe those three things that
are most important to you, um, and then just staying
true and staying tunnel vision on that because again, there's
so many trivial factors that you can try to account
for and come up with systems to figure out. But um,
I think it's kind of more so of doing that
work of doing some soul searching on what's most important
(09:36):
to you and then um, trying to narrow that down
and prioritize accordingly. Yeah, I completely agree. You know, I
kind of had a notebook that like, on each visit
that I took, like me and my parents would kind
of rank the schools based on those, you know, the
most important factors and stuff. So that was really helpful.
But I think it is important to to just kind
of know like it's a learning process. You know, you
(09:57):
can gather as much information as you want and have
people give you as many tips as you want. Um.
Kind of similar to pro golf. You know, I've had
people that have kind of helped me through the process
and you know, said do this, don't do this, you know,
but at the end of the day, it's a learning
process and you're you're gonna have to learn your way,
you know whatever for you. It's different for person to person. Yeah, totally.
(10:19):
You know, know, I can give you the answers on
this is the way to do it, you know, you
kind of have to just jump in and wing it
and figure it out as you go. That I've definitely
learned how to do things to pro golf in college golf,
and I think that each level you just get better
and better. Um, which has been really rewarding. Actually, I
would say now where I am um with being able
to process the adversity that you've experienced along the way,
(10:39):
right and just being like the queen of adaptability? Is
that I call it? Yeah? So, well that was Marissa
Massanna and I um on kind of the recruiting process.
And in the next segment we're going to be discussing
the transition from high school athletics to college athletics. Again,
you're listening to the Birdie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and
this is the College Athletes net Work. All right, and
(11:36):
welcome back to the Brady Bunch on the College Athletes Network.
This is Kennedy Swan and Marissa Massana. Make sure to
subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss a show
and find us on social media. So, Marissa, in the
first segment, we kind of talked about your junior golf
and the recruiting process and kind of committing to Clemson. Um,
so what did you do kind of coming in to
(11:57):
Clemson to really prepare yourself for the college experience compared
to the high school experience. Yeah, I remember that I
actually came in about a month early and I took
UM a summer course. I think it was two summer
classes that I took UM, which was great because that
just kind of got me acclimated to the university and
the lay of the land the campus. UM. That way,
(12:19):
when the first semester of fall King, we can kind
of hit the ground running and start feeling super comfortable,
knowing where everything is, knowing how to balance both my
classes and my golf practice. UM. And that's just it
was a great routine for me to kind of get ready. Yeah,
you know, I think that's definitely super helpful. You know,
I took some summer courses as well to kind of
help get me ready as well. UM. And kind of, yeah,
(12:39):
I get in the lay of the land of the
campus and you're just not like completely overwhelmed when you
get there trying to do both school and golf. UM.
So in terms of picking a major, kind of how
did you go about that? Um, I know academics is
very important to you as well. You know, kind of
how did you weigh in your mind, you know, what
you wanted to do academically with how it was going
to affect your golf Hey, I'm sorry. My my connection
(13:04):
is like it just went in and out. But I
think I'm in a better spot now. Okay, I can
hear you now, Okay, can you repeat that question? Yeah? So, Um,
I was kind of talking about the difference, um between
um picking a major and kind of being able to
balance academics versus golf and kind of how you wanted
to to incorporate academics into your college career. Yeah, it
(13:27):
wasn't too challenging for me. Um. I would say that
I knew my goals were more focused on golf, and
to pick a major that would allow me to have
the time to focus on golf, um while still seeing,
you know, on top of my school work and being
a great student. So um, it was pretty easy. I
chose communications and I did very well with that. So
um it was a good balance. And you know, like again,
(13:49):
I knew my goals were more focused on golf, so
I didn't want to go into pre med or pre
law or something that I think would be way more
time consuding where I wouldn't be able to kind of
prioritize the four years that I had that I wanted
to get my all um to being a golfer will
also being able to learn and enjoy the content that
we were able to cover as a communication major. Yeah, No,
I mean I completely agree, and I definitely learned that lesson.
(14:12):
You know, I started as a pre med major and um,
you know, people say you can't do it all, and
I guess I was a little cocky and thought I
I maybe could, and so I tried to do it.
My my g p A dropped a full point after
my second semester, so um after that, Yeah, I switched
to pr T m um parks Recreation Tourism and management
at least while I was at Clemson, and and that
(14:32):
was definitely a lot easier. And I think that's something
that you do kind of have to decide whether you
want to give your all to golf or whether, um,
you do want to be able to do both golf
and academics. So um, yeah, kind of walk us through
your team dynamics when you first got there. You know,
how did you like the team as a freshman? Did
you feel accepted? You know, did the seniors kind of
look down on you? I feel like that's kind of
(14:52):
a common stigma, you know in college athletics, is that
the freshman are kind of the newbies. It might get
hazed a little bit, UM and the you know, the
coaches might be a little standoffish kind of how is
your freshman year? You know, I thought it was great.
I was really lucky that the girls were very welcoming.
I think, you know, there's always gonna be a few
in particular that are n actually more um, you know,
like the motherly figures, let's say, UM. So I was
(15:15):
very grateful for that. There was a few that kind
of took me under their own way. UM. And again
I think naturally people are going to um, you know,
segment into different personalities and and you might get along
better with some versus others, but you just always have
that mutual respect and I think that it works out
pretty well over time. So UM, I was definitely lucky
and very grateful to have both you and Anna Paula
as a roommate are leader part of the career UM,
(15:38):
which was a lot of fun. I think there was
a lot to be learned from that in itself, and
balancing that dynamic of compartmentalizing when you're on the course
versus life and not letting that kind of still over
if someone beat you out of the lineup, you can
still do have it with them afterwards, Yeah, for sure,
you know. Yeah, And I think it's pretty tough to
you know, with UM, with your schedules, you're so busy
(16:00):
a lot of times. You know, your team really is
your is your family, and they are your friends, you know,
because that's the people that you spend the most time with.
So it's really important to kind of be able to
separate that. And you know, there's a healthy amount of competition,
but jealousy is kind of where you get into a
little bit of an unhealthy dynamic. So yeah, I think
we did a great job as roommates. You know, we
(16:21):
never really got into too many fights. We had one
debacle of the dishes when what you were junior senior
and we uh, we couldn't figure out who kept leaving
all the dishes in the sink and the spoiler alert,
it was our other non golf roommate. We kept fighting
over nothing for no. I think it was good. I
(16:44):
think that we had a good dynamic of being able
to be direct with each other but knowing it was
always coming from a place of love, and that's something
that I definitely appreciated. UM from you and Alla both,
which is I think a unique dynamic. But um, I
would strongly encourage people to try to Yeah. Absolutely, Um.
Now what about like your your practice routine, Like obviously
(17:06):
we talked a little bit about your more of a
range rat you know, kind of how did that um
change and develop a little bit from junior golf are
um to college golf. Um, I would say it was
pretty similar, to be honest, UM, I would say it
changed more ones I became and it was a pro
playing because you're playing competing a lot more um with
(17:26):
the tournament almost every week, right, whereas in college golf
you have some you know, two or three weeks in
between tournaments at times, so you have more time to practice, practice,
more time to work on those fundamentals in your team. UM.
So now I just kind of would strongly recommend creating
a schedule and kind of your I guess, um, segmenting
your practice. Let's say, if you have three weeks versus
if you have one week between tournaments, and then tailoring
(17:50):
more time on the course versus more time on the range. Accordingly, Yeah,
for sure. UM, all right, great, that was Marissa and
I talking about kind of the UM the difference between
junior golf and college golf. Um. So in the next segment,
we're going to have some fun stories for you along
with kind of the transition between college and professional golf.
(18:13):
So you were listening to the Bertie Bunch. I am
Kennedy Swan and this is the College Athlete Network. All right,
(18:55):
welcome back to the Bertie Bunch on the College Athlete Networks.
This is Kennedy Swan with Mirth from the Sauna. Please
subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss a show. So, Marissa,
I've got some tough questions for you. So I'm gonna
rack your brain and try to come up with the
best college golf memory that you can. Um, and what
(19:19):
genre like funny, A rewarding. Let's see, all right, let's
go let's go funny, and then let's go like most memorable,
like most heartwarming, you know, like what meant the most
to you, and you can just go with the first
that pops into your head. Doesn't necessarily have to be
at Okay, I would say, um, I don't know if
it's the most rewarding or would have the thought that
(19:41):
I always remember when I think back to my college
career was um Our facility, our practice facility on campus
was incredible, and they literally had lights out their stadium,
lights that we can go and use at night, And
so I would go out there and it would be
like nine or ten o'clock at night and I'm practicing,
and I remember one times in the Penning Green and
its truck drives by and honks at me and he's like,
(20:03):
I love to see you out here, go Tigers. And
I look over and it's coach Coach Sweet and the
football facility that's a cross from our golf facility, and
it was just like such a cool moment of people
that are grinding at the top of their craft to
be the best right and just that shared experience of
like he's out there and working at his office told
not or TMPM there's not one of their car in
(20:24):
the parking line, and he's there, and I was doing
the same in golf, and so that was like a
really cool memory that I think I'll always had. That
kind of gives me chills thinking about that atmosphere of
and the opportunity of being able to practice in the settings. Yeah,
for sure. And I think sometimes, you know, golf can
kind of be one of those underappreciated sports at schools.
You know, I feel like there's a couple at every school.
You know that, um, people don't take it seriously as
(20:47):
like football or baseball or soccer, you know, some of
those bigger like sports that bringing in money. So that's
really cool that you know, Um, Dabo understands that, you know,
we're just as important as they are. Yeah. Absolutely, he
was always very supportive of that, so very appreciative for sure. Yeah,
what can I say my funniest fro Yes, I was
(21:09):
going to say, what about your funniest one that comes
to mind? I know I have a couple for you.
I remember in New Orleans and I was sharing my
room with Kennedy and I got up to use the
restroom in the middle of the night, and then you
(21:30):
get back and there's a body in. I was freaked out.
And by the time that I literally went to the restroom,
she's sleep walking to my and I was like, girl friend,
what are you doing? Get out of here? And she's like,
oh my gosh. So Kennedy was the sleepwalker of our team. Yes,
oh my god. The funny part was is I don't
even like I didn't even remember it. In the morning
(21:52):
like you would. You were had like woken up and
like worked out and everything and came back and I
got up and you're like, so, how you doing a doing?
Like I just woke up. I'm fine. You're like, do
you not remember that? And that's when you were sick
with the flu and that's why you were concerned, and
you're like, get out of my bed because you didn't
want to get me sick. Yeah, that was like COVID
(22:14):
six years before COVID hit. And you guys, literally maybe
we're in the mask. I remember. That's like popped up
in my like snapchat memories so many times, like three
years ago. And then if you and Kelly sitting with
like the masks on the plane, and that is that
when we crashed the wedding too. Oh gosh, Yeah, we
(22:37):
didn't crash that wedding because the groom's mom invited us
to join, so yeah she did. Yeah that was we
did not officially crash that wedding, but yes, that was. Yes,
we have a lot of really fun, fun college stories,
and I think that's definitely part of like the college experience,
you know, of getting to share it with teammates that
are like your family, if you have memories like this,
(22:59):
like that was six years ago for me, you know,
to be able to yeah, for both of us, yea,
to be able to look back and just like still
laugh about that. Yeah, totally so um Okay, Now on
more of a serious note, what about your most challenging
scenario and kind of how you work through it? You know,
what was the biggest challenge for you through college golf
(23:20):
and how did you move on from it? Yeah? I
think again it comes down to adaptability, and that's something
that when you are planner like heally I am. H
you know, I always want to be on the right schedule,
and so when you are comedy being to a team
of eight other girls, you have to learn how to
adapt and sometimes do something that's more for the better
(23:41):
of the team as a whole as opposed to your
individual desires um. And then of course we had a
coaching chain as well, and so that was a big
learning curve in order to adapt to a different coaching
style than what maybe I signed up for my freshman year. Um.
But honestly, hindsight, like I said, I think that it
was such a learning tutity for me because whether that's
(24:01):
in college golf pro golf. I mean, things are going
to come at you, and it was a great lesson
for me to kind of learn how to work through
that and again be the queen of the adaptability and
things as well. As you can plan anything, it might
not play out that way and you can still dominate
and be great. So um, yeah, I think that was
something that I definitely learned throughout my college career that
(24:23):
I'm really grateful for and I've used until it's still
to this day. Yeah, for sure, I think adaptability is
a big thing, and that's something that I'm working on
even still to this day. Of just you and I
are very similar and just wanting to have a plan
and kind of wanting to know what's going to happen,
and just being able to be flexible when things don't
work out in your way, and just knowing that sometimes
(24:43):
it might work out for the better, you know. I Mean,
I love my time at Clemson and I love being
there with you guys. But for me, you know, I
was a lot more successful ll Miss just because it
was a better fit. But if you would have asked me,
you know, at the start of my junior year, if
I would ever see myself transferring I would have said, no,
you Oh, and that's something that just being able to
be adaptable like that is, uh, I think a huge,
(25:06):
huge advantage. Yeah, like being able to pivot like you did.
I definitely admire. And you know, it's really proud of
how UM you meet things work for yourself regardless, and
I think there's a lot to be learned doing that
resilience that UM really can be applied to so many
different scenarios. So absolutely, yeah, well thank you, and you
are definitely a big role model for me. And uh,
(25:26):
I know I've got one more question for you and
then we'll go ahead and wrap things up. UM kind
of tell us a little bit about kind of the
pro life, and I guess tell us the biggest transition
between being a college golfer and transitioning into being a
professional golfer. Yeah, I would think the biggest thing is
that you are managing everything yourself. So you are truly
(25:47):
blessed after college level to have your coaches and administrative
and the entire staff behind you to where you literally judge,
show up and show out. And unfortunately that's not the
way it is when you are first starting out as
a professional golfer. So you know, the goal is that
eventually that you'll have your team and your agents and um,
the people that can support you to sign you up
(26:08):
for tournaments and book your travel in your rental car
and your hotel and the you know, million different factors
of scheduling and coaching and training and playing and fundraising
and everything that you need to do. It's really a
whole business in itself. UM. So that of course was
a big learning curve which I really enjoyed. UM, but
it definitely uh, you know, forces you to be super
(26:29):
mindful of your time unintentional and productive and the little
sessions that you have. UM that I would say, you know,
gradually mastered. It wasn't easy at first, but now I
know how I functioned best and I think that, um,
that's really all it comes down to, and just kind
of figuring out your routine and in order to be
efficient and effective and and get it all done. Yeah,
(26:50):
for sure. Well everyone that was Marissa Massana, a good friend,
college roommate and role model of mine. Um, Marissa, why
don't you tell us, um your social media best platform
that if listeners wanted to check you out, they can
find you on social yeah, so Marissa Masana just my name,
my first and last name is on Instagram. Um. And
then I will be spending a channel on Sports Illustrated
(27:12):
that will be coming out this summer, so that will
be exciting. UM. Marris's minutes, so you can check that
out and it will be published shortly. Oh that's so exciting.
Congratulations well, as always, thanks for listening to The Bertie
Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe so you
don't miss an episode. I'm Kennedy Swan with Marissa Massana.
Thank you, Marissa, and we'll talk to you soon. Can
(27:33):
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(00:35):
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or comments of what you might want to see on
(00:57):
the show. On this week's episode, we have a very
special guest, a good friend and a college roommate, Marissa Massana.
Hey Marissa, Hi, how are you guys? I'm good? How
are you? I'm so good. I've been excited to hop
on and so thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely so, Marissa.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
(01:18):
Oh wow? Okay, So, UM I guess started at the beginning.
Um I played junior golf growing up. Um ended up
committing to go to Cleinson and had an awesome time.
They're playing at the girls UM at Clenson University and
graduated my undergrad UM, started my masters and then actually
finished my master as while I was playing professionally. And
(01:38):
now this is my third year UM that I have
status on the attentur awesome. UM. So let's kind of
dive into a little bit of your junior golf experience.
So tell me what it was like kind of playing
junior golf in Florida. I know, Florida is kind of
one of the major state Florida, Texas California are pretty
much the biggest states for junior golf. What events did
(02:00):
you kind of play in growing up? Um? What tours
did you play in any like the Women's Amateur Qualifiers,
women Women's Open Qualifiers, high school golf, that kind of stuff. Yeah,
I I grew up playing in a lot of the
U s g A events and those qualifiers. Um. The
Florida Junior Tour was awesome, UM, as well as the
Junior Golf Association of Broward County, which is in South Florida.
(02:22):
UM that I've played in gosh since I was like
five years old, UM, and so that was an awesome
place for me to get started. UM. And then really
just kind of learn how to compete. Um. I definitely
was guilty of being a range rat growing up, so
I was constantly working on my fundamentals. Uh, but growing up,
I'm pretty sure you're still a ranged rat. Yeah, that's
(02:42):
probably a fair call, I will say, But doing much
better at forcing myself to get out on the course
playing competing, which obviously I see value in and have
finally learned, um that there's a time and place for
both and when you need to be more focused on
those fundamentals versus when you need to get out there
and compete and learn how to get the ball on
(03:03):
the whole. So um. So yeah, I think you know,
I played mostly started junior tour a few a j
G s. Um. I think for most girls it just
kind of comes down to what resources you have and
if you can get UM onto those a j G
A circuit and you know that's ideal, um, but you
don't necessarily have to. So I definitely wouldn't want people
to be discouraged if you feel like you're not there yet,
(03:23):
you still will have opportunities, um to learn and grow
as a competitor. Yeah. So you qualified for a couple
of women's ameters, right, yes I did. The one was
in Portland. It was such a special place for me
to go, um and play in the U S AM.
Had an incredible experience there at Portland Golf Club. Um
My awesome caddies still my caddy to this day, shout
(03:48):
out to cabin so. Um. Yeah, I learned a lot
from that event. Um. They really put on an incredible
tournament for us, and um Clemston was awesome and supporting
us to get out there. Um. So that was a
look through its definitely I would say probably a pivotal
turning point in my career, to be honest. Yeah, I
think a lot of the U s g A events
are really helpful both in like building confidence and kind
(04:10):
of getting you started into the recruiting process because it
kind of gets your name out there, you know. I
know for me, that was where j T had kind
of recruited me from first, was the girls Junior um
in Flagstaff. So that was really helpful. Um. So kind
of in your recruiting process, like how old were you
when you got started? Um, what we're kind of like
the first steps that you took, you know, did you
(04:32):
reach out to coaches? Um? Did you kind of wait
for them to reach out to you. Um, what kind
of did you look at Yeah, before you started looking
at Clemson. Yeah, I think gosh, I think it was
like seventh or eighth grade when it was kind of
on my radar that I wanted to go and play
um college golf. So I was just kind of, um,
looking up to some of the other players that were
(04:52):
older than me that we're playing. I think, you know,
one of my high school teammates committed to Duke U
c l A. So I was able to kind of
see what it was like of them. Um. But I
think what was really important, which I probably didn't know
at the time, that I would definitely advise other girls.
It's just kind of knowing what your goals are, um,
and knowing what drives you, what's important to you, and
then trying to understand what the team environment is like
(05:15):
at the different universities and not just going to a
school for the school's name, um, but more so, Okay,
are you wanting to compete in when a national championship
or are you wanting to go and just have a
great college experience and not necessarily um, you know, have
goals to play professionally, and then trying to put yourself
on the team that's in alignment with those goals as well,
and knowing what the coaches and um, the team's goals are,
(05:38):
which then you can become an alignment with as well. Yeah. Um,
would you say that academics and kind of the like
campus slash like outside of athletics was pretty important to
you too during recruiting or do you think it was
more of like a strictly sports related No. Yeah, for me,
it was definitely the whole package. I mean, academics was
(05:59):
always super weren't to me growing up? Um? Obviously even
in college, I was very driven from an academic standpoint. UM.
I was very honored to receive the Elite ninety award
of the National Championship. So that was definitely something that
was special and important to me, UM. And that was
fun for you to be there to celebrate that with
me for sure. UM. So yeah, it was really the
(06:20):
whole package, I think. Um. You know, athlete development programs
is something that colleges are doing awesome with now, and
Clemson had a great program that I'm very grateful for
her to be able to grow as a person, as
a student, as an athlete, UM, which I think really
just helps you all around. So that's something that UM,
I would actinitely recommend getting plugged into and using those resources.
I mean it's pretty incredible, um, the resources that you
(06:43):
have in a university setting. So, UM, that was something
I was looking for. I was very mindful of that.
I was very appreciative of the involvement of even the
president of the university developing relationships with me. Coach Sweeney
from the football team even took an interest in US.
I mean, those are all really really cool things that
I think we were blessed to have. UM that Clemson. Yeah,
(07:04):
so once you kind of committed to Clemson, did you
feel like there was a weight off your shoulders, like
playing in junior golf. I know a lot of people
want it, especially for me, to like once you commit,
you're kind of like, oh, I'm good, Like I've got
a place that I'm going. You know, there's definitely not
as much pressure to go out there and perform to
like prove something. UM, once you kind of commit. Yeah, definitely,
(07:24):
I think that it was. I felt like it was
almost the whole job in itself, trying to decide where
I was going to go to school and processing all
the offers and the options and all the different factors
that I was trying to prioritize and decide on. Um,
so that was huge. I remember I through a huge party.
My parents were, I mean they own a catoring companies,
so they're pretty good at throwing party. Yeah. They hired
(07:50):
a baby tiger to come in on the dance floor
and there was like a hundred people at our health. Yeah,
it was a big deal, so we're all very excited.
I didn't know that Katie Perry I had the tiger going.
I mean, I thought you're about to say you had
Katie Perry there. I was about saying, WHOA, I didn't
know that. No, not quite. But we didn't have a
(08:12):
lot of tigers, so that was pretty sick. But um, yeah,
huge kudos to my parents on on celebrating properly. Nice
and uh okay, So, like, I know both you and
I are like pretty organized person people that you know,
we're very on top of things. Um, did you kind
of have a system of like organizing like when you
were going through the recruiting process of like ranking colleges
(08:34):
or like kind of how did you keep all that straight?
Because that's a lot of information to have so many
different offers from so many different schools, you know, what
was kind of your organizational process? Oh totally. It's funny
that you say that because I hadn't thought about that
in a while, but I now use Excel documents process everything. Um,
But at the time, I had this spreadsheet on paper
(08:54):
that I created that was probably the size of my
whole dining room table of all the factors and all
the colleges. It was a way overboard looking back, because
I mean, you know, you could do as much to
prepare as possible, but it's never going to play out
the way you envisioned, right, And so I think that
was a huge learning process hindsight looking back, as you
can do all the processing and documenting that you want,
(09:15):
and when it comes down to it, I think it's
just really important to prioritize maybe those three things that
are most important to you, um, and then just staying
true and staying tunnel vision on that because again, there's
so many trivial factors that you can try to account
for and come up with systems to figure out. But um,
I think it's kind of more so of doing that
work of doing some soul searching on what's most important
(09:36):
to you and then um, trying to narrow that down
and prioritize accordingly. Yeah, I completely agree. You know, I
kind of had a notebook that like, on each visit
that I took, like me and my parents would kind
of rank the schools based on those, you know, the
most important factors and stuff. So that was really helpful.
But I think it is important to to just kind
of know like it's a learning process. You know, you
(09:57):
can gather as much information as you want and have
people give you as many tips as you want. Um.
Kind of similar to pro golf. You know, I've had
people that have kind of helped me through the process
and you know, said do this, don't do this, you know,
but at the end of the day, it's a learning
process and you're you're gonna have to learn your way,
you know whatever for you. It's different for person to person. Yeah, totally.
(10:19):
You know, know, I can give you the answers on
this is the way to do it, you know, you
kind of have to just jump in and wing it
and figure it out as you go. That I've definitely
learned how to do things to pro golf in college golf,
and I think that each level you just get better
and better. Um, which has been really rewarding. Actually, I
would say now where I am um with being able
to process the adversity that you've experienced along the way,
(10:39):
right and just being like the queen of adaptability? Is
that I call it? Yeah? So, well that was Marissa
Massanna and I um on kind of the recruiting process.
And in the next segment we're going to be discussing
the transition from high school athletics to college athletics. Again,
you're listening to the Birdie Bunch. I'm Kennedy Swan and
this is the College Athletes net Work. All right, and
(11:36):
welcome back to the Brady Bunch on the College Athletes Network.
This is Kennedy Swan and Marissa Massana. Make sure to
subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss a show
and find us on social media. So, Marissa, in the
first segment, we kind of talked about your junior golf
and the recruiting process and kind of committing to Clemson. Um,
so what did you do kind of coming in to
(11:57):
Clemson to really prepare yourself for the college experience compared
to the high school experience. Yeah, I remember that I
actually came in about a month early and I took
UM a summer course. I think it was two summer
classes that I took UM, which was great because that
just kind of got me acclimated to the university and
the lay of the land the campus. UM. That way,
(12:19):
when the first semester of fall King, we can kind
of hit the ground running and start feeling super comfortable,
knowing where everything is, knowing how to balance both my
classes and my golf practice. UM. And that's just it
was a great routine for me to kind of get ready. Yeah,
you know, I think that's definitely super helpful. You know,
I took some summer courses as well to kind of
help get me ready as well. UM. And kind of, yeah,
(12:39):
I get in the lay of the land of the
campus and you're just not like completely overwhelmed when you
get there trying to do both school and golf. UM.
So in terms of picking a major, kind of how
did you go about that? Um, I know academics is
very important to you as well. You know, kind of
how did you weigh in your mind, you know, what
you wanted to do academically with how it was going
to affect your golf Hey, I'm sorry. My my connection
(13:04):
is like it just went in and out. But I
think I'm in a better spot now. Okay, I can
hear you now, Okay, can you repeat that question? Yeah? So, Um,
I was kind of talking about the difference, um between
um picking a major and kind of being able to
balance academics versus golf and kind of how you wanted
to to incorporate academics into your college career. Yeah, it
(13:27):
wasn't too challenging for me. Um. I would say that
I knew my goals were more focused on golf, and
to pick a major that would allow me to have
the time to focus on golf, um while still seeing,
you know, on top of my school work and being
a great student. So um, it was pretty easy. I
chose communications and I did very well with that. So
um it was a good balance. And you know, like again,
(13:49):
I knew my goals were more focused on golf, so
I didn't want to go into pre med or pre
law or something that I think would be way more
time consuding where I wouldn't be able to kind of
prioritize the four years that I had that I wanted
to get my all um to being a golfer will
also being able to learn and enjoy the content that
we were able to cover as a communication major. Yeah, No,
I mean I completely agree, and I definitely learned that lesson.
(14:12):
You know, I started as a pre med major and um,
you know, people say you can't do it all, and
I guess I was a little cocky and thought I
I maybe could, and so I tried to do it.
My my g p A dropped a full point after
my second semester, so um after that, Yeah, I switched
to pr T m um parks Recreation Tourism and management
at least while I was at Clemson, and and that
(14:32):
was definitely a lot easier. And I think that's something
that you do kind of have to decide whether you
want to give your all to golf or whether, um,
you do want to be able to do both golf
and academics. So um, yeah, kind of walk us through
your team dynamics when you first got there. You know,
how did you like the team as a freshman? Did
you feel accepted? You know, did the seniors kind of
look down on you? I feel like that's kind of
(14:52):
a common stigma, you know in college athletics, is that
the freshman are kind of the newbies. It might get
hazed a little bit, UM and the you know, the
coaches might be a little standoffish kind of how is
your freshman year? You know, I thought it was great.
I was really lucky that the girls were very welcoming.
I think, you know, there's always gonna be a few
in particular that are n actually more um, you know,
like the motherly figures, let's say, UM. So I was
(15:15):
very grateful for that. There was a few that kind
of took me under their own way. UM. And again
I think naturally people are going to um, you know,
segment into different personalities and and you might get along
better with some versus others, but you just always have
that mutual respect and I think that it works out
pretty well over time. So UM, I was definitely lucky
and very grateful to have both you and Anna Paula
as a roommate are leader part of the career UM,
(15:38):
which was a lot of fun. I think there was
a lot to be learned from that in itself, and
balancing that dynamic of compartmentalizing when you're on the course
versus life and not letting that kind of still over
if someone beat you out of the lineup, you can
still do have it with them afterwards, Yeah, for sure,
you know. Yeah, And I think it's pretty tough to
you know, with UM, with your schedules, you're so busy
(16:00):
a lot of times. You know, your team really is
your is your family, and they are your friends, you know,
because that's the people that you spend the most time with.
So it's really important to kind of be able to
separate that. And you know, there's a healthy amount of competition,
but jealousy is kind of where you get into a
little bit of an unhealthy dynamic. So yeah, I think
we did a great job as roommates. You know, we
(16:21):
never really got into too many fights. We had one
debacle of the dishes when what you were junior senior
and we uh, we couldn't figure out who kept leaving
all the dishes in the sink and the spoiler alert,
it was our other non golf roommate. We kept fighting
over nothing for no. I think it was good. I
(16:44):
think that we had a good dynamic of being able
to be direct with each other but knowing it was
always coming from a place of love, and that's something
that I definitely appreciated. UM from you and Alla both,
which is I think a unique dynamic. But um, I
would strongly encourage people to try to Yeah. Absolutely, Um.
Now what about like your your practice routine, Like obviously
(17:06):
we talked a little bit about your more of a
range rat you know, kind of how did that um
change and develop a little bit from junior golf are
um to college golf. Um, I would say it was
pretty similar, to be honest, UM, I would say it
changed more ones I became and it was a pro
playing because you're playing competing a lot more um with
(17:26):
the tournament almost every week, right, whereas in college golf
you have some you know, two or three weeks in
between tournaments at times, so you have more time to practice, practice,
more time to work on those fundamentals in your team. UM.
So now I just kind of would strongly recommend creating
a schedule and kind of your I guess, um, segmenting
your practice. Let's say, if you have three weeks versus
if you have one week between tournaments, and then tailoring
(17:50):
more time on the course versus more time on the range. Accordingly, Yeah,
for sure. UM, all right, great, that was Marissa and
I talking about kind of the UM the difference between
junior golf and college golf. Um. So in the next segment,
we're going to have some fun stories for you along
with kind of the transition between college and professional golf.
(18:13):
So you were listening to the Bertie Bunch. I am
Kennedy Swan and this is the College Athlete Network. All right,
(18:55):
welcome back to the Bertie Bunch on the College Athlete Networks.
This is Kennedy Swan with Mirth from the Sauna. Please
subscribe to my podcast so you don't miss a show. So, Marissa,
I've got some tough questions for you. So I'm gonna
rack your brain and try to come up with the
best college golf memory that you can. Um, and what
(19:19):
genre like funny, A rewarding. Let's see, all right, let's
go let's go funny, and then let's go like most memorable,
like most heartwarming, you know, like what meant the most
to you, and you can just go with the first
that pops into your head. Doesn't necessarily have to be
at Okay, I would say, um, I don't know if
it's the most rewarding or would have the thought that
(19:41):
I always remember when I think back to my college
career was um Our facility, our practice facility on campus
was incredible, and they literally had lights out their stadium,
lights that we can go and use at night, And
so I would go out there and it would be
like nine or ten o'clock at night and I'm practicing,
and I remember one times in the Penning Green and
its truck drives by and honks at me and he's like,
(20:03):
I love to see you out here, go Tigers. And
I look over and it's coach Coach Sweet and the
football facility that's a cross from our golf facility, and
it was just like such a cool moment of people
that are grinding at the top of their craft to
be the best right and just that shared experience of
like he's out there and working at his office told
not or TMPM there's not one of their car in
(20:24):
the parking line, and he's there, and I was doing
the same in golf, and so that was like a
really cool memory that I think I'll always had. That
kind of gives me chills thinking about that atmosphere of
and the opportunity of being able to practice in the settings. Yeah,
for sure. And I think sometimes, you know, golf can
kind of be one of those underappreciated sports at schools.
You know, I feel like there's a couple at every school.
You know that, um, people don't take it seriously as
(20:47):
like football or baseball or soccer, you know, some of
those bigger like sports that bringing in money. So that's
really cool that you know, Um, Dabo understands that, you know,
we're just as important as they are. Yeah. Absolutely, he
was always very supportive of that, so very appreciative for sure. Yeah,
what can I say my funniest fro Yes, I was
(21:09):
going to say, what about your funniest one that comes
to mind? I know I have a couple for you.
I remember in New Orleans and I was sharing my
room with Kennedy and I got up to use the
restroom in the middle of the night, and then you
(21:30):
get back and there's a body in. I was freaked out.
And by the time that I literally went to the restroom,
she's sleep walking to my and I was like, girl friend,
what are you doing? Get out of here? And she's like,
oh my gosh. So Kennedy was the sleepwalker of our team. Yes,
oh my god. The funny part was is I don't
even like I didn't even remember it. In the morning
(21:52):
like you would. You were had like woken up and
like worked out and everything and came back and I
got up and you're like, so, how you doing a doing?
Like I just woke up. I'm fine. You're like, do
you not remember that? And that's when you were sick
with the flu and that's why you were concerned, and
you're like, get out of my bed because you didn't
want to get me sick. Yeah, that was like COVID
(22:14):
six years before COVID hit. And you guys, literally maybe
we're in the mask. I remember. That's like popped up
in my like snapchat memories so many times, like three
years ago. And then if you and Kelly sitting with
like the masks on the plane, and that is that
when we crashed the wedding too. Oh gosh, Yeah, we
(22:37):
didn't crash that wedding because the groom's mom invited us
to join, so yeah she did. Yeah that was we
did not officially crash that wedding, but yes, that was. Yes,
we have a lot of really fun, fun college stories,
and I think that's definitely part of like the college experience,
you know, of getting to share it with teammates that
are like your family, if you have memories like this,
(22:59):
like that was six years ago for me, you know,
to be able to yeah, for both of us, yea,
to be able to look back and just like still
laugh about that. Yeah, totally so um Okay, Now on
more of a serious note, what about your most challenging
scenario and kind of how you work through it? You know,
what was the biggest challenge for you through college golf
(23:20):
and how did you move on from it? Yeah? I
think again it comes down to adaptability, and that's something
that when you are planner like heally I am. H
you know, I always want to be on the right schedule,
and so when you are comedy being to a team
of eight other girls, you have to learn how to
adapt and sometimes do something that's more for the better
(23:41):
of the team as a whole as opposed to your
individual desires um. And then of course we had a
coaching chain as well, and so that was a big
learning curve in order to adapt to a different coaching
style than what maybe I signed up for my freshman year. Um.
But honestly, hindsight, like I said, I think that it
was such a learning tutity for me because whether that's
(24:01):
in college golf pro golf. I mean, things are going
to come at you, and it was a great lesson
for me to kind of learn how to work through
that and again be the queen of the adaptability and
things as well. As you can plan anything, it might
not play out that way and you can still dominate
and be great. So um, yeah, I think that was
something that I definitely learned throughout my college career that
(24:23):
I'm really grateful for and I've used until it's still
to this day. Yeah, for sure, I think adaptability is
a big thing, and that's something that I'm working on
even still to this day. Of just you and I
are very similar and just wanting to have a plan
and kind of wanting to know what's going to happen,
and just being able to be flexible when things don't
work out in your way, and just knowing that sometimes
(24:43):
it might work out for the better, you know. I Mean,
I love my time at Clemson and I love being
there with you guys. But for me, you know, I
was a lot more successful ll Miss just because it
was a better fit. But if you would have asked me,
you know, at the start of my junior year, if
I would ever see myself transferring I would have said, no,
you Oh, and that's something that just being able to
be adaptable like that is, uh, I think a huge,
(25:06):
huge advantage. Yeah, like being able to pivot like you did.
I definitely admire. And you know, it's really proud of
how UM you meet things work for yourself regardless, and
I think there's a lot to be learned doing that
resilience that UM really can be applied to so many
different scenarios. So absolutely, yeah, well thank you, and you
are definitely a big role model for me. And uh,
(25:26):
I know I've got one more question for you and
then we'll go ahead and wrap things up. UM kind
of tell us a little bit about kind of the
pro life, and I guess tell us the biggest transition
between being a college golfer and transitioning into being a
professional golfer. Yeah, I would think the biggest thing is
that you are managing everything yourself. So you are truly
(25:47):
blessed after college level to have your coaches and administrative
and the entire staff behind you to where you literally judge,
show up and show out. And unfortunately that's not the
way it is when you are first starting out as
a professional golfer. So you know, the goal is that
eventually that you'll have your team and your agents and um,
the people that can support you to sign you up
(26:08):
for tournaments and book your travel in your rental car
and your hotel and the you know, million different factors
of scheduling and coaching and training and playing and fundraising
and everything that you need to do. It's really a
whole business in itself. UM. So that of course was
a big learning curve which I really enjoyed. UM, but
it definitely uh, you know, forces you to be super
(26:29):
mindful of your time unintentional and productive and the little
sessions that you have. UM that I would say, you know,
gradually mastered. It wasn't easy at first, but now I
know how I functioned best and I think that, um,
that's really all it comes down to, and just kind
of figuring out your routine and in order to be
efficient and effective and and get it all done. Yeah,
(26:50):
for sure. Well everyone that was Marissa Massana, a good friend,
college roommate and role model of mine. Um, Marissa, why
don't you tell us, um your social media best platform
that if listeners wanted to check you out, they can
find you on social yeah, so Marissa Masana just my name,
my first and last name is on Instagram. Um. And
then I will be spending a channel on Sports Illustrated
(27:12):
that will be coming out this summer, so that will
be exciting. UM. Marris's minutes, so you can check that
out and it will be published shortly. Oh that's so exciting.
Congratulations well, as always, thanks for listening to The Bertie
Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe so you
don't miss an episode. I'm Kennedy Swan with Marissa Massana.
Thank you, Marissa, and we'll talk to you soon. Can
(27:33):
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