July 23, 2007 (Plymouth, MA)—With the start of the Atlantic Country Club Open tomorrow in Plymouth, MA, the North American Pro Golf Tour will have a first: Anna Grzebien, a 22 year-old Duke graduate who just turned pro, will be the first female to play on the tour.
To name just a few items from her impressive resume, Grzebien is a three time NCAA champion at Duke University, three time New England Women’s Golf Association champion, and winner of the 2006 Massachusetts Women’s Open. She said she is very excited, albeit nervous, about this new challenge.
Grzebien said playing on the NAPGT is “… just a way to stay competitive. You guys have so many events which is really nice, and then to play with the guys is just going to test me even more, playing longer courses and stuff like that,” she said.
This will be the first time Grzebien will play competitively against men and she knows it will probably be tough out there. But she is friends with a few of the guys, which should help, she said. More importantly she is just taking it step by step.
“I’m not gonna go in with too many expectations, especially for the first event,” said Grzebien. “I just want to get back into the mindset, because I had a little bit of a break, and hopefully just do a little better each week till I get more comfortable and get used to playing at that length,” she said.
Grzebien loves to compete but has also found a balance between being intense and having fun. Her style of competition, which is focused inward, rather than against other golfers, might help her along in this new environment.
“Obviously you want to be the low person,” she said. “But you can’t be caught up into what other people are doing—then you lose the focus of what you’re trying to get done.”
Grzebien has been playing golf since age five when her dad used to take her and her two sisters to Point Judith Country Club in Narragansett, RI, her hometown. She has always wanted to turn pro. “It’s wild it’s finally here,” she said. “It’s usually something I’ve just been talking about, but it’s here and it’s pretty cool.”
Story by Stacia Golem/NAPGT
