Down Mexico Way ... that's

where Jessie met the wise

woman with a crystal ball

FROM THE DURAMED FUTURES TOUR'S WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
It sounds almost mystical when Jessie Shepley (pictured right) tries to explain her recent metamorphosis and how she went from being a talented under-achieving golf professional who posted only one top-10 finish in three years, to already notching four top-10 finishes in nine events this year.
In her fourth season, she has rocketed to fifth on the Duramed Futures Tour’s season money list, showing signs of what many always thought she could be.
When pressed for details, Shepley describes how she went to Mexico in January for a pro-am tournament and met a wise woman named “Rosalba,” who told the Canadian that she was giving away precious energy she needed for herself. The mother of three, whom Shepley had never met, seemingly laid out the pro’s life for her to see, then helped her understand where she needed to start if she wanted the 2008 season to be any different than previous years.
“I guess I had really sort of lost myself a little bit,” said Shepley, 25, of Oakville, Ontario. “This lady, Rosalba, helped me see that I needed to keep all of my energy centred within myself and that I wasn’t maximizing my time out here. I knew it was time for a change.”
First of all, there was no reason why Shepley, a strong 5ft 9in player who had grown up playing high school basketball, volleyball and golf, couldn’t excel on the Duramed Futures Tour. The former two-time SEC All-Conference player from the University of Tennessee had finished fifth individually at the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship. She had the goods.
But clearly, for a strong player like Shepley, there was a mysterious “disconnect.”
And if she had been looking more closely, she would have seen it back when Violeta Retamoza showed up at Tennessee and took Shepley’s No. 1 spot on the team’s roster without a fight.
“Back in college, when Vi showed up, I was like, ‘OK, she’s No. 1 and I’ll just be No. 2,’” said Shepley. “But then, it was the same thing out here. I’m the kind of person that it’s very, very difficult for me to keep myself in the centre, and sometimes I feel like a jerk when I do it, but what I’ve finally realized is if I want to be out here and be successful, I have to be No. 1 in my own life.”
That’s easier said than done for a gentle-spirited woman who is nurturing by nature. In the past, whenever life got rocky for any of her peers on the Tour, Shepley came to the rescue. If anyone was struggling with anything, Shepley was always there to lend a hand or an ear – often at her own expense.
“She has a heart the size of the universe and she still wants to mother people,” said fellow Tour member, Lili Alvarez of Durango, Mexico. “But she gives so much to others that there’s not always enough left for herself.”
And then there was the issue of trying to step up and be successful for her country. The last Canadian on the LPGA who has won or performed with significance has been Lorie Kane, who is well past her 20s. Of the rising Canadian pros, Salimah Mussani of Burlington, Ontario, has won on the Duramed Futures Tour and Tour alum Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ontario, had a career-best season last year on the LPGA. But where was Shepley, perhaps the one many thought could be the “next great Canadian?”
“I think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and everyone was expecting me to qualify for the LPGA or to at least play better out here,” she said. “Everything was about results, results, results. Finally, it hit me that my golf score is just a number that I shoot and that’s it. I wish I’d realized that sooner.”
Of course, those numbers can tell golfers a lot if they are paying attention. In her first season in 2005, Shepley finished 106th on the Tour’s money list with a scoring average of 73.75. Those numbers dropped to 57th and 73.69 in 2006, and to 48th, rising to 74.44 in 2007. So far in 2008, she is ranked No. 5 on the money list with a stroke average of 72.23. Her four top-10s in nine events include runner-up finishes in Kansas and at last week’s Duramed Championship in Ohio, both played on two of the better courses during the season.
“I’m not sure when the lightning-bolt moment was, but you can tell by the way she’s playing that she is making golf her priority now,” said fellow Tour member Alissa Kuczka of Phoenix. “As far as she hits the ball and as well as she hits it, there’s no reason she should have been shooting the kind of numbers she was shooting last year.”
Last fall, Shepley moved to Orlando, where she began working in earnest with swing coach Seon Foley. The two began changing her swing alignment, swing takeaway at the top, and her weight shift during the swing.
Then she began working on her fitness and her mental approach to life. She read numerous “personal realization” types of books. And she dared herself to move beyond the stagnant place she had remained for the first three years of her professional career. Somehow, Shepley knew there was more out there for her to find.
“This universe holds so many laws that helped create us, so I have tried to learn how to use the energy that exists all around us to be positive and to find something bigger than my golf or myself,” she said.
And there were other realizations: “My favourite saying is that the only things in life that you truly enjoy are the things you work for and earn,” she added. “I wasn’t doing that. I needed to be more responsible to my sponsors, my teachers and myself. And I had to decide to do what I need to do, not always just what I want to do.”
Maybe it is maturity. Maybe it is a young pro finally getting it together. Maybe it was the blunt truth by a sagely Mexican stranger who rattled her consciousness. Or maybe it was simply a player who realized she was wasting her talent as the years clicked by.
“I have days now when I’m driving my car in the middle of nowhere and I can see myself winning, and the next thing I know, I have goose bumps and I’m crying,” said Shepley, still seeking her first professional win. “I definitely want it more.”
With that kind of passion now directed inward, that day could be here before she knows it.