Cindy LaCrosse put together a resume for the first time a couple of weeks ago. That is, aside from the one she made for a college assignment back at Louisville.
Not that 32-year-old LaCrosse hasn’t had a job these past 10 years. Friends don’t call her “Laboss” for nothing. (Actually, she’s not quite sure why Tiffany Joh dubbed her that years ago in a music video, but the nickname stuck.)
After 10 years as a playing professional, LaCrosse made the decision to call it quits. When she put it out there on social media just before Christmas it suddenly felt official, though LaCrosse knew after the LPGA event in Portland last summer that she wasn’t going back to Q-School.
This was it.
Back to being a rookie.
“My problem is,” said LaCrosse of what comes next, “is that I don’t look great on paper with the resume. I need to kind of find a way in to just talk to people. Once I can get in front of somebody, opportunities will come up. I’m kind of willing to try anything.”
LaCrosse joked that she could complete her resume in one sentence. After all, she’d had only one job since she left college in 2009 with a degree in sport administration. And for most people, that job is a hobby.
But while many refer to leaving the tour as entering the “real world,” there’s plenty of LPGA life that actually translates to an office. Most professional athletes are goal-oriented, disciplined workers who become masters at time management. The successful ones learn how to identify and work on weaknesses. Overtime is a foreign concept.
LaCrosse essentially ran a business that took her around the world straight out of college. She hired and fired her own team. Booked travel. Managed money. Schmoozed with clients and potential sponsors, and in her latter years on tour, gave back by partnering with animal rescues at tour stops.
When LaCrosse arranged for shelter dogs to come out to the course at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, 10 dogs were adopted that week.
“That was my mission behind everything,” she said, “to get the dogs out of the shelter so that they’re seen in a normal environment that’s not scary for the dogs or the people.”
High-pressure situations
LaCrosse leaves the tour as a Class A member, which means she might get in the odd event here or there. A member must have four consecutive years on tour with a minimum of 10 tournaments in each of those years to achieve Class A status.
Depending on where she lands, LaCrosse could see herself taking vacation days to tee it up on tour once or twice. She wouldn’t mind getting a job outside of the golf industry though just to try something fresh.
“It definitely becomes your identity,” said good friend Alison Walshe of a pro golfer’s life, “and it’s tough to walk away from that because it’s a pretty cool identity.”
LaCrosse’s resume touts her patience in high-stress situations. That on-the-job training came quickly in her first full year on the LPGA when she found herself in the final group with World No. 1 Yani Tseng on Sunday at a major.
Going into the last round of the 2011 Wegmans LPGA Championship, LaCrosse didn’t feel too many nerves as she trailed by four against the hottest player in the world. Then Tseng bogeyed the first hole.
“Oh yeah, I lost it,” she recalled. “I got so nervous after that, ‘Oh my gosh, what if I actually have a chance?’ ”
Odds are whatever job comes next won’t play out on national TV. It’s not likely that the media will be there asking questions afterwards either.
But if that’s the case, she’s ready for that too.
From walk-on to Hall of Fame
The pressure of competing to win or competing to keep a card tests every part of a person. LaCrosse, a strong iron player, never won on the LPGA, earning $588,486 over the course of her career. She did win three times on the Symetra Tour.
Behind LaCrosse’s quiet nature, said Walshe, is a bulldog fight. LaCrosse did whatever it took to extend her career, even caddying at a local club during off weeks to help make ends meet.
“She was the only girl in the yard,” said Walshe. “I thought that was pretty cool and admirable.”
LaCrosse had BioTech Solutions as a sponsor in recent years along with her dad, Doug, an accomplished player who supported her in any way he could.
“At the end,” said LaCrosse, “I ended up spending more than I made.”
She’s now at peace with the decision to move on.
Last October, LaCrosse was inducted into the University of Louisville Athletics Hall of Fame, putting a bow on a career that began with walk-on status.
Right now, she’s busy giving lessons at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, and volunteering at her local animal shelter, where her love of dogs got started with a Golden Retriever mix named Comet.
“I can’t go too many days in a row,” she said, “because then I’ll start to get attached.”
LaCrosse can’t save them all, but she’ll go so far as to write a poem about each dog and post it on social media in hopes that someone is moved to action.
That’s something else to add to the resume – heart.
A Symetra Tour player recently reached out to LaCrosse on Instagram to share that she’d been inspired by her efforts to give back while on the road.
The soft-spoken LaCrosse made a mark on the LPGA and Louisville golf. Maybe it wasn’t everything she had dreamed, but it was meaningful.
She made sure of that.
[lawrence-related id=778017437,778017275,778014009]