Michigan Golf Journal April 2020

LPGA’s Liz Nagel Survived Cancer; She’ll Survive COVID-19 Shutdown as Well By Tom Lang On March 20, the LPGA Tour postponed three additional tournaments that had not already been cancelled, making sure that ladies professional golf will not commence again before early May at the soonest. Michigander Liz Nagel of DeWitt, age 28, has been playing this year with a full LPGA Tour Card, and talked with me the same day of the LPGA Tour announcement. In very good spirits, Nagel explained how this shutdown for pro tournaments has similarities to when her golf game was shut down between the fall and springs seasons of her senior year at Michigan State, when she underwent treatment for Thyroid cancer – and made a full recovery. “It’s really a one day at a time thing,” she told me about the current pause in the schedule. “And that really relates more to my cancer recovery than anything. “My battle during college was very much one day at a time. At least me, right now I’m pretty good with ‘how do I feel today – what am I going to do today?’ And it’s the same with (when I had) cancer; I woke up and asked myself if I feel okay today, can I go practice, do I push it, do I have the energy?’ It becomes one day at a time, one little victory at a time. Nagel last played the LPGA Tour event in Australia, then went to Florida while temperatures were still frigid in Michigan. She planned to only stay in the south for three weeks – now it might total six or more. On the day we talked, meat and chicken were no where to be found in the Florida grocery store, so she was buying ingredients for fish tacos for her grandmother, and parents who were visiting. “I do think it’s a little bit like my break that I had to take for the cancer recovery,” she added about the unexpected down time that feels most like the break between pro seasons. “Back then I had a date I was looking at to come back yet didn’t know if I’d be able to. That (cancer) part was worrying more about physical health, now it’s almost more about just staying put. “I’m relaxing, reading more than I’d get to do. And I’m with my family which is great because I don’t get to see them that much.” MGJ 17 April 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com