Dreams on the Green: Allisen Corpuz on Her Golf Breakthrough
With a major tournament win under her belt, Hawai‘i golfer Allisen Corpuz is one of the LPGA’s newest standouts.
Allisen Corpuz at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images and the LPGA Tour
Allisen Corpuz started out like lots of other young athletes in Hawai‘i. Her dentist dad, an avid golfer, taught her to golf as a preschooler, taking her and her older brother out on weekends to hit balls. She wasn’t good at first, but kept practicing, took lessons and started playing competitively. She won local junior tournaments, then excelled nationally. As a standout on Punahou’s golf team, she earned a scholarship to the University of Southern California, where she was a two-time All-American. After graduating, she took a shot at the LPGA’s Qualifying School, gaining membership into the pros for the 2022 season. In her rookie year, she played 24 events, making the cut 17 times and recording three top 10 finishes.
Promising, for sure, but then things spun well beyond even her own imagination.
The 25-year-old made international news this past summer when she captured the U.S. Women’s Open in Pebble Beach, California, one of five major golf tournaments in women’s golf. Along with earning $2 million in prize money, her ranking soared and the golf world turned its lens on her. As of late September, she was No. 9 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Cheered on by Michelle Wie—her idol as a kid—along with fellow Punahou alum Barack Obama, she was heralded as the sport’s newest breakthrough star. “It still feels like it hasn’t sunk in yet,” Corpuz says. “I was just trying to have a good week. It was my first time out at Pebble Beach, and it was the first U.S. Women’s Open to be played there, so there was a lot of excitement. I was just trying to go out there and play well.”
She’s now playing tournaments across the globe, accompanied by her mother, who Corpuz says keeps her comforted with her favorite Korean foods. And despite the onslaught of attention (and scrutiny), she’s staying grounded, focused on playing her best day by day.
Allisen Corpuz is known on the golf course for staying calm and steady, traits that have helped her rise up the ranks. Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images and the LPGA Tour
When relaying her golf story, however, she too marvels at how far she’s come since her small-kid days trying to keep up with her dad on the greens of O‘ahu.
“When I was younger, it was more just like, wow, it would be really cool to do that,” Corpuz says, recalling how she used to watch the action at the annual LPGA event on O‘ahu. “Playing college golf was my first golf dream. I thought it was cool to see all these golfers from Hawai‘i come back from breaks carrying their college golf bags. Then once I went to college and saw a few teammates turn pro, I was like, hey, maybe this is something that I could do as a career.”
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Her goal now is to help grow women’s golf. And as the only player from Hawai‘i currently on the LPGA tour, she knows people at home are rooting for her. “I know how much Michelle (Wie) inspired me, so I hope that I can do the same for the future generations,” she says.
Her other big dream: to make the U.S. Olympic team and play at the 2024 Games in Paris. Although the competition will be fierce, it would be foolish to think she won’t earn her place.
