On July 9, I sat in a room with other women who had each, in their own way, broken through barriers. They had led movements. They had changed how an entire industry thought about who belongs in it. And I was proud to be part of that group.
Drishti Magazine hosted the event to celebrate women in sports and to loudly and unapologetically push for greater diversity and inclusion in an industry that has historically made room for very few of us. I was named one of the “Influential Women of 2026,” an honor I am very proud of.
I started playing golf at age five. I loved the game, the quiet of a course early in the morning, and the discipline of trying to do one small thing a little better each round. But it wasn’t until years later, competing at the NCAA Division I level for the University of Arizona and representing Team Canada for five years, that I began to understand what it meant to be one of the few women in the room. Winning the Clover Cup individually in 2023 was one of the proudest moments of my career. But days like the Drishti event remind me that the wins on a scorecard are only part of the story.
What struck me most about the event was its message. Every speaker returned to the same idea: that advancing women isn’t a favor we do for them; it’s a correction to something that was broken for a long time. Representation matters. Visibility matters. A young girl who sees a woman on the golf course, in the boardroom, or on the podium understands something about her own possibilities that no amount of encouragement from adults can replace.
Being surrounded by other accomplished women that day was, honestly, a delight. There’s a particular energy in a room where everyone has fought for their seat at the table in different ways but somehow arrived at the same understanding that the fight is easier and more meaningful when you’re not doing it alone. We swapped stories. We laughed. We compared notes on the strange, specific loneliness of being “the only one” in a room and the relief of, for one day, not being that anymore.
I’ve spent most of my life chasing something measurable, a lower score, a bigger tournament, a spot on a leaderboard. This award measured something different. It recognized a kind of contribution that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet: the act of simply being visible, of staying in a sport, and of trying to leave a wider door open behind you than the one you walked through.
That’s what I want to carry forward from this. I’m going to keep chasing my goals, and I don’t intend to slow down. But this award means more to me than a line on a resume. It means I was counted among a group of women actively changing what’s possible for the next generation. And I want to earn that, not just once but continuously, by mentoring younger girls who pick up a club for the first time, by speaking out about the barriers that still exist, and by making sure that when I do eventually leave this game, it’s easier for the next woman to walk in than it was for me.
Golf changed my life. If receiving this award from Drishti Magazine does anything, I hope it’s a reminder to myself, as much as to anyone, that the responsibility now runs in both directions. Someone inspired me. Now it’s my turn to inspire others.
