Lizette Salas tees off the 15th hole during Round Three of the LPGA KIA CLASSIC at the Park Hyatt Aviara golf course on Mar. 24, 2018.Donald Miralle/Getty Images
SportTechie’s Athletes Voice series features the views and opinions of the athletes who use and are powered by technology. SportTechie talked to LPGA player Lizette Salas about how she got started in golf, and how the technology she has access to has changed through her career.
Lizette Salas’s father, Ramon, has worked as a mechanic at the Azusa Greens Country Club in California’s San Gabriel Valley for nearly 40 years. He tried introducing each of his three children to golf, but only Lizette gave the sport a try. Ramon bartered lessons for Lizette when she was seven years old by working extra jobs at the club.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Lizette Salas earned a golf scholarship to USC, where she was a two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year before graduating with a sociology degree in 2011. She joined the LPGA as a rookie in 2012. Now 29, she is starting her eighth season on the tour as the world’s No. 28 ranked player. She has recorded 26 career top-10 finishes and picked up more than $4.2 million in career earnings.
Salas remains committed to growing the sport among children. She serves on the San Gabriel Junior Golf board of directors as secretary-treasurer, sponsors youth scholarships, and became the namesake host for the Lizette Salas Junior Championship at the Palos Verdes Golf Club in California, operated by the American Junior Golf Association, last summer.
Her Start in Golf
“My dad had been working at the golf course since my sister was born in 1980. I started [playing] in 1996. He had been working there for a while. My brother was a cart boy. He wanted my brother to play, and he was like ‘No, I want to play football.’ And my sister wasn’t interested, so his last go at it was with me. To this day, he’s like ‘I never thought this was going to happen.’ He just thought golf could teach [us] self-confidence, patience, all that stuff. Little did he know that I was going to be on the LPGA tour.
“It started with a lesson every Saturday that my dad had to do side jobs for. His friend was the head pro at the time. I remember showing up wearing a T-shirt, jean shorts, and flip-flops. And my first lesson was obviously ‘How do you dress properly?’
“I remember doing a clinic, maybe a few months later, and my mom and I were scrambling at Sears and JCPenney just trying to find an outfit because I pretty much at that time dressed like a boy. Because there were such limited options [in golf] for girls. I played competitively a lot with the guys. I played high school golf on the guys’ team. I think every experience and situation I’ve been, whether it’s been positive or negative, really just shaped the person I am. I’m really thankful for everything.”
Her First Equipment
“My dad worked in the maintenance shop and would literally find any golf clubs he could and put a set together. I didn’t have a [proper] set until I was probably 10 or 11.
“But I do remember that he had a seven iron that he had made for me. I told him ‘Dad, it’s too heavy. I can’t swing it.’ So my dad, being the mechanic that he is, he drilled holes in the side of the head—just to make it lighter. He didn’t know the technology behind it or where the center of gravity was going to be. He didn’t know any of that. He was just like ‘OK, well, it’s lighter. Let’s take off some material.’
“I made it work. That’s the thing about it, we made it work when I was a kid. I still have that club. I still have my first pair of golf shoes. It’s nice to have those objects to reflect and reminisce on the journey [I’ve] been on. My dad has been with me since the beginning, and now I get to travel worldwide and chase a little golf ball.”
(Photo credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Modern Golf Clubs
“From, say, five years [ago] until now, I kept noticing the heads becoming bigger. If I would think back to how I started, driver heads were not that big. The technology around the driver head to make the ball pop out of the face and the sweet spot and just understanding how different manufacturers produce their heads differently and the technology behind it. It’s really interesting. I try not to get too involved because I would give myself a headache. Just understanding the technology and the engineering behind it and certain materials being used.”
“They’re the best that I’ve ever hit. I play Pings. Just the journey of how I started—I probably had five or six clubs that made up my golf bag to now having the top-notch technology in the clubs I have now is pretty cool. The fact that I’m on this platform and get to share my story and maybe encourage girls to pick it up, whether they’re in a low-income community or not, I believe golf is for everyone.”
Wearable Tech
“I’ve done some work with the FocusBand. That has been pretty insightful of knowing how the brain works and how it may affect your focus on the putting green or whatever. It’s just interesting how it can pick up when your brain is at ease or when there’s not much chaos going on in the brain. Obviously, the more you do it, the more you train yourself to use it to your advantage.”
“Honestly, growing up, I didn’t have my swing on video until I was about 16. I grew up as a feel player. I grew up with the red stake being 100 [yards], the white stake being 150, the blue being 200. I was always just ballparking everything. Somehow I figured it out, but now, being considered a top player, you have to look at your numbers. You have to know far your clubs are carrying, especially in the wedges. I’m still not as number-oriented as other players, but I think inside of 100 yards, you need to know how your ball’s landing, what the spin rate is. And even off the tee, too. You need to know numbers to increase flight and speed and all that fun stuff.
“I use a lot of TrackMan, and my reps at Ping use TrackMan. I use it maybe once every three months just to recheck the numbers. Every time I get new grooves, I just want to make sure they’re flying correctly.”
“[Improved shot tracking] would not only be helpful for us as players and maybe our coaches that are not out there every week, but I think it’d be good for our fans to really understand what our true numbers are because we’re so relatable to an average golfer because we don’t hit it 320 yards or don’t have the same ball speed [as the male pros]. Even to have junior golfers look at our numbers and be motivated to hit those numbers. It’s just beneficial for us, our teams, our fans to really understand what goes through our Tour life.”
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