Q&A With Former Duke Golf Star Liz Janangelo

The following Q&A was provided by the Duramed FUTURES Tour communications office.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Fourth-year professional Liz Janangelo has a golf resume that any player would want.

The five-time winner of the Connecticut State Open Championship was a four-time All-American while at Duke University, where she won seven collegiate titles. The native of West Hartford, Conn., was also the 2004 Division I PING NGCA Player of the Year, and a member of two NCAA Women's Golf Championship teams while at Duke.

She was named to the 2004 U.S. Curtis Cup Team and won two times in 2007 on the Duramed FUTURES Tour, finishing sixth on the Tour's 2007 Money List. She went on to the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament in the fall of 2007, where she earned the last full card to play on the 2008 LPGA Tour.

But her rookie season on the LPGA last year was full of peaks and valleys. When Janangelo was unable to hold on to LPGA membership, she returned this season to the Duramed FUTURES Tour, where she is currently ranked 26th on the season money list with two top-10 finishes in five starts.

Janangelo sat down with the Duramed FUTURES Tour's Lisa D. Mickey to discuss her 2009 season:

DFT: You seem more relaxed than usual ? smiling more easily and cracking one-liners.

JANANGELO: I guess I'm finally kind of comfortable with myself and my golf game. Last year was really hard on the LPGA Tour. If you're not in the pro-ams, you play your practice rounds at 5:45 a.m., with the first few holes in the dark. And I found the courses to be much more difficult. I could play well and still miss cuts.

DFT: So is your comfort level all about adjusting to the transition?

JANANGELO: It's like going to a new school and trying to make friends. I was just lucky that LAURA DIAZ took me under her wing and played a lot of practice rounds with me. On the highest level, everybody wants to be No. 1 in the world, so there's a lot of jealousy. People are envious about material items and even golf games. It's like the old thing at school when it's about who's got the best lunch box?

DFT: Why do you think your first transition to the LPGA didn't go so smoothly?

JANANGELO: I worked really, really hard out there. I practiced for hours and hours, but that's not me. I thought all of that practice was what it would take, but even after hitting thousands of putts, if it's not you, it's not going to make you play that much better if that's not what you are comfortable doing.

DFT: I would imagine that you wouldn't be too happy to come back to the Duramed FUTURES Tour.

JANANGELO: No, it's actually a positive because I have come back with so much more confidence. Last year, every week, I was just grinding to make the cut. It was all about winning and I lived and died with every shot. I lost the fun in it. I got tired and run down and my hands hurt. I think I was like a turtle with its head in its shell. I played scared. I thought, ?Oh my God, everybody knows I shot 68-80 and missed the cut.' You think everybody cares about that, but they really don't. So it's nice to have that fire back and to really like playing golf again and feeling the adrenalin.

DFT: You'll have a chance to go back to the LPGA next week to play in the Sybase Classic Presented by ShopRite.

JANANGELO: Yes, I'm lucky that I can play in the Sybase. I'm going to take all the positives from out here and go back out there. If you let yourself get into a downward spiral, you're not going to play your best. That's what happened and I need to go back out there, excited to play.

DFT: You have always been fit as a professional golfer, but you look even more ?cut' than usual. What kind of routine are you in now?

JANANGELO: I've been working with a fitness trainer at PGA National in Florida, lifting a lot of weights. I had a bad shoulder for a long time from too much golf, but I've taken care of that and now I'm trying to get stronger.

DFT: While you were on the LPGA Tour, what did you learn from Lorena Ochoa ? the best woman golfer in the world?

JANANGELO: That you work hard, but that you also have fun and enjoy your job. There's no one nicer or kinder than Lorena. She's comfortable with herself. Even as the top player, she would look me in the eye and say, ?Hey Liz, how are you?' She didn't have to do that, but she did because that's what kind of person she is.

DFT: You won twice out here in 2007, and spent the next year on the LPGA Tour. How are you different now than you were two years ago?

JANANGELO: Two years ago, I came out here with a lot of confidence, similar to now. But I began to take two steps back to take one step forward. I had to learn that if I had a bad round, it wasn't the end of the world. I would get so down that it was like my pet had died if I played poorly. But now, I can go back to those wins in 2007, and remember that I had to make a birdie on the last hole to win at one tournament and that I went into a playoff to win another. I think about winning the last point on the [U.S.] Curtis Cup team or that I had to sink a putt on the last hole at LPGA Final Q-School to get my card. There are so many things now that I can pull from. I really think everything happens for a reason. Coming back to the Duramed FUTURES Tour will only make me stronger.

Q&A With Former Duke Golf Star Liz Janangelo

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