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Cangrejo Back at Duke Preparing for Q-School
10/6/2016 2:56:00 PM | Women's Golf
DURHAM, N.C.—As she prepares for LPGA Q-School this month, Duke University alumna Alejandra Cangrejo decided to come back to Durham and practice on her old stomping grounds. Cangrejo, a 2014 Duke graduate, guided the Blue Devils to a national championship as a senior and has been playing on the Symetra Tour following graduation. The Honorable Mention All-America and All-ACC selection will tee it up Oct. 17-23 in Florida as she looks to try to earn her tour card for the 2017 season.
GoDuke.com: Give us a little update on what you've been up to since graduation.
Alejandra Cangrejo: I graduated and then turned professional. I went to LPGA Q-School. I made it all the way to the final stage, missed it by a couple shots, but then I was able to play on the Symetra Tour the next year. Around May of 2015, I injured my wrist so I had to go back home and get it checked and unfortunately I had to take five months off because of my injury. So I took a medical leave, I recovered, did all the physical therapy, rehab, and all those things, so it actually took me five months off of golf completely. I started practicing and playing again in January of this year and played my first tournament in February. Since then I have just been playing Symetra Tour tournaments all this year. I struggled a bit towards the start of the year as I was coming back from the injury and was getting back into tournament play. I also switched coaches and that started working very well for me. So about three months ago I started feeling my game kind of coming back to me a little bit and I played a lot better towards the end of the season. I was going to play the full season, but then I decided to take a couple weeks off to just get ready for Q-School. I'm going to second stage, which is the third week of October. I took those two weeks off and I'm going to play the last tournament of the Symetra Tour schedule, which is right before Q-School, and then just head straight there.
Q: How is it out there on the tour?
A: It's a very different life because I've always been used to having something else other than golf. In high school and here at Duke, I was studying or always busy doing something else. So just having golf as my, kind of, only thing to do is very different but I really like it. I am enjoying, so far, life on tour and just traveling around the country, getting to meet a lot of people, also just seeing a lot of familiar faces from junior golf and college golf and a lot of my friends are there, so that is nice. The level of golf that is played at the Symetra Tour is very high. The scores are very comparable to the LPGA. The whole purpose of the Symetra Tour is to get you ready for the LPGA. It's a really good developmental tour and it's very good that we have that tour. I'm looking forward to kind of coming out from it and moving on to the LPGA, hopefully.
GD: Is it nice to reconnect with some of your former teammates on the Symetra Tour and LPGA when you've seen them?
AC: Yeah, I see Yu Liu a lot. She was a freshman when I was a senior. I see her all the time, we play just the Symetra Tour and I also see Jennie Lee. I wasn't her teammate, but she was here previously, so you know, Duke family. It's kind of like the three of us. Candy Hannemann was also there towards the start of the year trying to make her way into the Olympics, so that was very nice to have so many generations of Duke golf in one tour. I haven't seen much of Laetitia [Beck] and Lindy [Duncan]. They are playing on the LPGA but hopefully I'll see them next year.
GD: How much did your four years at Duke help prepare you for this grind?
AC: I think the best part of it is just the discipline and time management that being here teaches you, because you have so many responsibilities: you have to study, you have to keep up with your work, and travel and play at the same time. Just to know how to manage your time and to get the most out of every little bit of practice that you have; I think that helped me a lot to build a better sense of practice, purpose, and time management so that I have enough time travel and recover, but also get the most out of every practice and have self-discipline to accomplish those things.
GD: How nice has it been to be able to come back here, practice, play and talk to coach Dan Brooks?
AC: It's always great to come back. This feels like home to me. Being here four years, just being so far away from home and making it such a special experience for me, it definitely feels like home. Coach Brooks is still the same. He still feels like my coach and just to be back here is awesome. We have, I think, the best facilities in the country, so I could not have come to a better place to get ready for Q-School, because there's nothing that you can't practice here, basically. The course is amazing, it's one of the best, and it's just great to be here and see some of my teammates and then people that I've met through the years and just kind of see the girls. Just being here feels really, really good.
#GoDuke
GoDuke.com: Give us a little update on what you've been up to since graduation.
Alejandra Cangrejo: I graduated and then turned professional. I went to LPGA Q-School. I made it all the way to the final stage, missed it by a couple shots, but then I was able to play on the Symetra Tour the next year. Around May of 2015, I injured my wrist so I had to go back home and get it checked and unfortunately I had to take five months off because of my injury. So I took a medical leave, I recovered, did all the physical therapy, rehab, and all those things, so it actually took me five months off of golf completely. I started practicing and playing again in January of this year and played my first tournament in February. Since then I have just been playing Symetra Tour tournaments all this year. I struggled a bit towards the start of the year as I was coming back from the injury and was getting back into tournament play. I also switched coaches and that started working very well for me. So about three months ago I started feeling my game kind of coming back to me a little bit and I played a lot better towards the end of the season. I was going to play the full season, but then I decided to take a couple weeks off to just get ready for Q-School. I'm going to second stage, which is the third week of October. I took those two weeks off and I'm going to play the last tournament of the Symetra Tour schedule, which is right before Q-School, and then just head straight there.
Q: How is it out there on the tour?
A: It's a very different life because I've always been used to having something else other than golf. In high school and here at Duke, I was studying or always busy doing something else. So just having golf as my, kind of, only thing to do is very different but I really like it. I am enjoying, so far, life on tour and just traveling around the country, getting to meet a lot of people, also just seeing a lot of familiar faces from junior golf and college golf and a lot of my friends are there, so that is nice. The level of golf that is played at the Symetra Tour is very high. The scores are very comparable to the LPGA. The whole purpose of the Symetra Tour is to get you ready for the LPGA. It's a really good developmental tour and it's very good that we have that tour. I'm looking forward to kind of coming out from it and moving on to the LPGA, hopefully.
GD: Is it nice to reconnect with some of your former teammates on the Symetra Tour and LPGA when you've seen them?
AC: Yeah, I see Yu Liu a lot. She was a freshman when I was a senior. I see her all the time, we play just the Symetra Tour and I also see Jennie Lee. I wasn't her teammate, but she was here previously, so you know, Duke family. It's kind of like the three of us. Candy Hannemann was also there towards the start of the year trying to make her way into the Olympics, so that was very nice to have so many generations of Duke golf in one tour. I haven't seen much of Laetitia [Beck] and Lindy [Duncan]. They are playing on the LPGA but hopefully I'll see them next year.
GD: How much did your four years at Duke help prepare you for this grind?
AC: I think the best part of it is just the discipline and time management that being here teaches you, because you have so many responsibilities: you have to study, you have to keep up with your work, and travel and play at the same time. Just to know how to manage your time and to get the most out of every little bit of practice that you have; I think that helped me a lot to build a better sense of practice, purpose, and time management so that I have enough time travel and recover, but also get the most out of every practice and have self-discipline to accomplish those things.
GD: How nice has it been to be able to come back here, practice, play and talk to coach Dan Brooks?
AC: It's always great to come back. This feels like home to me. Being here four years, just being so far away from home and making it such a special experience for me, it definitely feels like home. Coach Brooks is still the same. He still feels like my coach and just to be back here is awesome. We have, I think, the best facilities in the country, so I could not have come to a better place to get ready for Q-School, because there's nothing that you can't practice here, basically. The course is amazing, it's one of the best, and it's just great to be here and see some of my teammates and then people that I've met through the years and just kind of see the girls. Just being here feels really, really good.
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