Lori Atsedes
Winter Park, Fla.
Hometown: Ithaca, N.Y.
Birthdate: 3/29/64
Home Golf Course: Rio Pinar Country Club,
Orlando, Fla.
Interests: Cooking, fishing, mentoring
Family: Single
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Lori Atsedes is on the back-nine of her career and she knows it. She also knows that her career, and life, could have ended well before having the chance to succeed.
Where the enemy is now age, early in her life Atsedes battled self-imposed demons. At age 13, her drinking and drug addiction eventually led to a suicide attempt. Later, at 25, she tried cocaine for the first time and was hooked. During her destructive early twenties when she was caught in a vicious circle of drugs and alcohol, she worked at the TPC at Eagle Trace in Coral Gables, Fla. At 27, in an attempt to help Atsedes straighten out her life, her grandmother gave her the money to go play golf in Europe. Having never lived anywhere but Ithica, N.Y., and Coral Springs, Fla., the idea of going to Europe was scary.
“I had never played a professional tournament,” said Atsedes, whose brother accompanied her on the trip. “Our first night in Rome was so scary. I felt lost. The whole experience was too much.”
The time away, though, was a turning point. Upon their return, she moved to Orlando to escape the lifestyle that plagued her life. “I wanted a fresh change. I got away from drugs and my party lifestyle. In Orlando, I played golf all day and worked at Outback at night,” Atsedes recalls.
On the suggestion, and $500 from four friends, she set out to play the Duramed FUTURES Tour. From the outset, Atsedes was one of the best players on the fledging circuit. Ultimately, she won four times in her five-year stint that ended in 1997, the year she earned conditional status to play on the LPGA.
After four years of mixed results, she was so frustrated by injuries and her play that she quit golf. Eventually, a friend offered to sponsor her to play in the 2002 LPGA Q-school, when Atsedes once again earned conditional status. Two years later, she returned to the Duramed FUTURES Tour, where she has been ever since. She is not bitter about the path her career, or life, has taken, and actually credits her early addictions to developing perspective on and off the golf course.
“My mind is the strongest part of my game,” Atsedes insists. “Now I can look at myself honestly. When you are an addict, you are afraid to really see yourself. So you become an actor, putting on an act with your friends and yourself. But now I really know who I am.”
And a survivor is who she is. When Atsedes says Big Break Ka’anapali could be the end of the road, it is coming from the perspective of appreciating time left instead of mourning time lost.
Click to See What’s in the Bag
| Club | Name | ||
| Driver: | Cleveland 400 Launcher 8.5° | ||
| Woods: | Adams 14.5° 3WD | ||
| Utility Club: | Adams 18,22 | ||
| Irons: | Henry Griffitts 4-P |
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| Wedges: | Henry Griffitts 56° |
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| Putter: | Odyssey 200 Dual Force | ||
| Ball: | Prov 1 |
