Getting to the Green

Megan LaMothe had a successful career with Victoria Secret. But once she took up the game of golf just a short time ago as a young adult, she came to a career-altering realization.

This realization was that women’s golf apparel was lacking and she wanted to help fix that. Megan LaMothe used her vast range of experiences at Victoria’s Secret, like attention to detail and obsessing over how clothes fit, to bring her company to life.

Foray Golf was born. And for Megan LaMothe, it’s more than a business: it’s personal. It’s about demonstrating that women can build something from nothing. It’s about her daughter Ray, who inspired the name of the company, and showing her how she can excel with other women and for other women. In many ways, Foray Golf is a sisterhood.

As a CEO/Founder, wife and now mother of one, Megan LaMothe has a full plate in front of her. With only six full-time employees after four years of Foray Golf, the grind never stops, and the new product releases and innovation haven’t slowed down. Long-term, she hopes to expand the company’s international footprint and be the leading force in women’s golf fashion.

Megan LaMothe has learned entrepreneurship is an endurance race. But with a product she’s proud of, happy customers and the relationships that have blossomed from starting Foray Golf, she will undoubtedly keep going.

Even though taking up golf started out as a bribe, Alexis Belton’s fiercely competitive side kept her committed to the game. She quickly learned that golf is a sport you can make uniquely your own; it’s a sport where ”everyone paints the canvas of the golf course a different way.”

Alexis Belton is doing just that today as both a Symetra Tour player, seeking her shot on the LPGA Tour, and participating in World Long Drive. As she talks about in this episode of Fairway Tales, she wouldn’t be on the Symetra Tour if it weren’t for World Long Drive. When trying to figure out a way to make her money back from qualifying school, she stumbled across the World Long Drive competition.

Without any clue of how she’d perform on the World Long Drive stage, or what to even expect going this route, she found success. In more ways than one, it has prepared her for the grind required of Symetra Tour players and given her extra financial freedom along the way.

Beyond her power hitting and love of the game, Alexis Belton has dreams that are even bigger: making golf a more accessible game for people who look like her. For those who can’t afford the game, how can she help change that? For those stories in women’s golf we aren’t hearing about, how can she help tell those stories?

As her platform grows, so will her impact.

The fight for a better world isn’t an option for Mackenzie Mack. It’s a must.

Outside of being a highly competitive golfer and well-respected instructor, she is making an impact in the lives of many through her role with the Tennessee Golf Foundation as the Associate Executive Director and West Tennessee Regional Director. In this position, she delivers all junior golf programming in West Tennessee.

While Mackenzie Mack is perfecting the craft of youngsters, putting her PGA and LPGA Class A Membership to the test, she’s also teaching kids the importance of life outside of golf. Her mom was the one who introduced her to the game. And now, Mackenzie is sharing that passion with the next generation in underserved communities.

As one of a small percentage of Black PGA Professionals, she understands the barriers she faces in golf. Mackenzie continues to persevere, continues to inspire the people around her and has taken it upon herself to welcome many others with similar experiences and backgrounds into the game.

During a time where racial injustice and discrimination is at the forefront of society, and having experienced it herself, Mackenzie Mack recognizes the opportunity in front of her. Using golf as the pipeline and her role in the industry as the platform, it’s time for action. It’s time to do better.

It’s time to keep the conversation going.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Molly Gallatin began her career in sports with the Minnesota Twins. A job in Daytona Beach, Florida eventually took her away from her roots and an 11-year stint in baseball—and launched her into a new industry: golf.

Molly Gallatin’s first job in golf was with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) where she served as the Senior Manager of Publicity. Her duties ranged from being the communications leader and spokesperson for the LPGA, to traveling around the globe to conduct on-camera interviews and press conferences at tournaments.

From there she landed a job at the PGA of America and is now the Senior Director of Brand and Content Strategy. Although Molly Gallatin brings a smorgasbord of experience to the table, she has found her voice in one particular area of the game: new golfers. And part of being a new golfer means making sure all people, like the LGBTQ community, feel welcomed into the game.

Being part of the LGBTQ community herself, Molly Gallatin opens up about the importance of inclusion in golf and how, as a brand ambassador, she can make a difference while also inviting others in the industry to do the same. New golfers come from all walks a life. Molly Gallatin has made it her mission to ensure all are included, welcomed and fully embraced.

It was the golf community that brought Natalie Long into the game, and it was the golf community that kept her in it.

Through high school and college, she crossed paths with several PGA Professionals who were integral parts in her golf journey and future in the industry—one being Ed Schwent, PGA, who is the Director of Instruction at Old Hickory Golf Club. While Schwent poured his heart and soul into Natalie Long as a player and a person, it was another PGA Professional who sparked a deeper desire in her to pursue a career in golf.

Natalie Long knew from the get-go corporate America wasn’t for her. She landed her first job in golf through the PGA WORKS Fellowship, which is a program that offers an entry pathway to learn about careers in golf to individuals from diverse backgrounds (whether by gender, age, race or color, national origin or ancestry, sexual orientation, disability, religion or Veteran status). PGA WORKS Fellows are provided the opportunity for a one-year, paid immersion in a PGA Section’s Foundation operations, and the experience offers a taste of what a career in the golf industry can provide.

It was during her fellowship with the Gateway PGA Section where she met Executive Director Ali Wells, PGA, and is now working alongside her today full-time as the Junior Golf Coordinator. It was Ali Wells who not only helped Natalie realize the possibilities of turning a passion for golf into a career, but served as the perfect role model for her to look up to.

Thanks to Nataline Long’s PGA WORKS experience, and other PGA Professionals who opened her eyes to this pathway in golf, it’s safe to say she’s in the golf industry for the long haul.

Without the game of golf, Jane Blalock doesn’t know where she would have ended up.

She was a natural athlete, and probably would have played softball or basketball if the opportunities existed at the time. But the fact that she didn’t have choices in other sports is ultimately why she ended up choosing golf. To this day, she still considers her journey through the amateur and professional ranks as accidental.

Jane Blalock knew she was good at golf, but never really saw it as a long-term career. She began a job in education—until one conversation with her mom changed her mind. At that point it was decided she never wanted to go through life not trying something; she was going to give professional golf a try. She packed up for Florida to start golf lessons and the rest is history.

After receiving Rookie of the Year in her inaugural LPGA season, Jane Blalock’s career continued to soar. She still holds the record for most consecutive cuts made on a professional golf tour at 299.

Today, Jane Blalock continues to make an impact through various philanthropic initiatives and the KPMG Women’s PGA Golf Clinics, a nationwide series of one-day golf clinics held in a dozen major U.S. markets to provide best in class fundamentals and on-course instruction to female executives.

Head of Growth Initiatives and Business Development at Toptracer, a division of Topgolf, Jeehae Lee can confidently say today she embraces all that the golf industry offers. After her parents introduced her to the game at a young age, she realized that while her sister was a talented pianist, golf was going to be ‘her thing.’

Jeehae Lee ran with her talent on the links up until her time at Yale, where she played college golf her freshman year, but was ultimately more drawn to extracurricular activities outside of golf. The sport remained an afterthought while running various campus organizations and getting her degree in economics. But as a senior, Jeehae Lee wanted another crack at golf, so she re-joined the team for one final season.

From here, she wondered what would happen if she truly committed herself to the sport after she graduated from Yale. To no surprise, she shot for the stars and earned her LPGA status after a rare, one attempt at Qualifying Series.

Though Jeehae Lee’s time as a professional golfer was somewhat short lived, it opened the door to a plethora of business opportunities—like being Michelle Wie’s manager and meeting Topgolf Executive Chairman Erik Anderson. No matter what, one fact has always held true through her personal journey in golf: she’ll always keep coming back for more.

Follow Jeehae on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jeehaeda) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/jeehaeda/).

At first, playing golf was more of a chore than a passion for now Golf Channel social media correspondent Nikki B. It wasn’t until she met and got a picture with LPGA Tour player Natalie Gulbis that she became excited and ready to take up the game of golf. A former Division I athlete who played for the Sacramento State women’s golf team, Nikki B. hustled to live out her dream playing college golf and continues to hustle for dream opportunities in the industry. But more than getting to experience places all over the globe, and working a dream job at Golf Channel, she is giving back to the game in even bigger ways through Nikki B. Academy (https://www.instagram.com/nikkibacademy/).

As a seasoned marketer, entrepreneur, and brand development strategist with now 13 years of cross-industry expertise, Jess McAlister found a niche in golf media that’s challenging the status quo one campaign at a time. With a plethora of agency experience under her belt through college and beyond, she first launched McAlister Co. where she advises brands, talent, and agency partners alike. Her latest endeavor, Digital Golf Collective, combines her passion for golf, entertainment, lifestyle and sports marketing all in one. Jess McAlister spotted a gap in the market and has hit the ground running to bring it to life ever since. Learn more about Digital Golf Collective here (https://digitalgolfcollective.com/) and see what Jess McAlister is up to on her Instagram page here (https://www.instagram.com/jesssmcalister/).

In response to the severe challenges impacting golf communities nationwide, the Golf Emergency Relief Fund has been established to provide short-term financial assistance to certain individuals facing significant financial hardship with an initial focus on those impacted by COVID-19. This relief effort was initiated through a lead pledge of $5 million by the PGA of America. PGA President Suzy Whaley joined Fairway Tales to elaborate on this effort and what it aims to accomplish during this precedented time. She tells us what the Golf Emergency Relief Fund is, who it's for and how the initiative came together.