Eastwood grad living the dream working for pro tour

By: 
J. Patrick Eaken

LPGA senior coordinator of player services Alexis Abraham has always loved sports, and now she’s living the dream of working for a major professional tour.
The 2010 Eastwood graduate always wanted to travel with her job, and now she has seen some of the most spectacular golf courses in the world.
Her favorite — Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington because “the course is beautiful with all of the evergreens and so picturesque.” Her favorite locales she has traveled to include Singapore, Scotland, South Korea, Thailand, California, Arizona, Washington, and Hawaii.
“It’s so cool being immersed in so many different cultures and I’m very thankful for the life experience I’ve had,” Abraham said.  
Abraham says working for the LPGA is a blessing — one she would not pass up for anything.
“I was a baton twirler and a dancer, so sports like golf or baseball were not my thing to actually play, but I loved to watch baseball and basketball, but honestly not really golf. I was never a golfer, which is interesting because a lot of people ask, ‘Don’t you like golf?’ I’m like, ‘I like it now,’” Abraham said.
“I just really like sports and so obviously there are so many jobs in sports and the opportunity was there and I was like, ‘This is great to get into.’ It’s hard to get into sports, so once you are in it, you’ve got to stay in it. Right now, it’s a lot of hours and not a lot of pay.”
Abraham says when the LPGA opened its 2020 tour with the Drive On Championship at Toledo’s historic Inverness Club, the players could not have been more excited.
In front of a national television audience, American Danielle Kang earned a wire-to-wire victory at the Drive On, finishing at 7 under par to take a one-stroke win over France’s Celine Boutier. The event went off without a hitch, despite no fans and two days of rain, which the ladies were happy to play through.
“I thought it went super well,” Abraham said. “I mean, Inverness is a beautiful golf course, and the 2021 Solheim Cup is there, and all the girls were super excited to play it. They are so appreciative. I mean, all the players and caddies were like, ‘Thank you so much for all of your hard work getting us back to play’ because some of these people haven’t had a job or a paycheck in five months — and not all of them live in this country.”
Kang has now won in four consecutive LPGA Tour seasons and survived a Sunday battle with Boutier that started in constant rain and ended under gloriously sunny skies. It’s safe to say that Kang will be one of the most excited players to take on the renowned Donald Ross design at next year’s Solheim Cup.
“Inverness Club is definitely a chameleon. That's what I kept calling it. Depending on the weather, depending on the time, it changes how it how it plays, how receptive it can be, defense. It's just so different,” said Kang.
“I think the best way I can put it is you have to respect the golf course. The golf course changes so often, and you can't take little shots for granted. I just try and keep as much focus as possible and not let the golf course get to me and try and play the course instead of fighting it.”
 
Road to LPGA staff position
For Abraham, her road to her current position with the LPGA took over six years, but since her college days she has been providing services to the tour in one way or another.
While at Eastwood, she was a competitive baton twirler with the Perrysburg Twirling Sophisticates before attending the University of Cincinnati, graduating in April of 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in electronic media with a minor in sport administration.
In 2013, she interned with the LPGA helping with video production, and that’s how it all started.
“Once I graduated, they were looking for a freelancer for the same thing, so I ended up going and freelancing for them. Then, the social media position opened up, so I applied for that and got that job, and did that for two-and-a-half years. Then, I became senior coordinator of player services for the LPGA tour,” Abraham said.
Abraham adds that another blessing is getting to work with the players.
“It’s really cool. I’ve been around them for going on six years, so I know a lot of them really well and their caddies. You know, you create that relationship,” Abraham said. “My job is really about the relationship I have with the players because I need to go to them to ask for player requests, like golf clinics or if we have skybox visits on site and things like that. But since COVID, that has kind of all changed.”
Abraham said the players were almost giddy to be on the course again, but it’s been difficult for everyone with the new rules.
“The girls and the caddies make it worthwhile. Sometimes, I’m super stressed out but a lot of times they come to me and they are like, ‘Hey, I know you are doing a lot but we really appreciate all of it,’ which at the end of the day is all I want — to just feel good that they are playing again,” Abraham said.
“The past few months have been a grind, but it’s worth it because it’s making all these girls and the caddies have a smile on their face.”
She has gotten to be friends with several LPGA players, like Melissa Reid, but adds that she has to maintain her professionalism and distance.
She was already home when the LPGA opened its tour in Toledo, which made the Drive On Championship even more convenient for her.
“It’s been great. I was actually home the month of June since we are all working from home and spent a solid month with mom (Rossford graduate Joyce Abraham), which she loves because none of her kids live in Ohio anymore,” Abraham said.
Once Toledo’s second straight LPGA tournament, the Marathon Classic held at Sylvania’s Highland Meadows Golf Club ends on Sunday, she moves on with the tour. But, she is not planning on going to the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open in North Barwick, Scotland next week, and for good reason.
“I am not leaving for Scotland just because we try to be cautious. Regardless, we try and give our staff some breaks, so we try to divvy up some weeks. But we have to be careful how many weeks in a row you do because we don’t want anyone to contract COVID,” Abraham said.
“So, one of my counterparts is going to Scotland for the two weeks, and right now, it’s about avoiding burnout, because we are doing so much more. We usually do a lot, but now we are doing more with testing and temperature checks and registering people for certain things. The burnout can happen fairly easily.”
 

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