Molly Aronsson swaps hockey stick for golf

Molly Aronsson dreamed of one day being a goaltender in the NHL, but the University of Washington senior golfer would happily settle for a nice career on the LPGA Tour.

That's the plan, at least, but it will have to wait awhile. Aronsson leads the Huskies into the Pac-10 Championships, which begin Monday at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club.

"I kind of wish I could take everything I have learned the past four years and start over," said Aronsson, whose scores have improved each year at UW.

Aronsson, having not specialized in golf while growing up, had a lot to learn when she arrived at UW. She was a four-sport star in high school, also playing tennis, soccer and hockey.

"Sometimes I miss hockey even when I am playing golf because sometimes I would like to take my aggression out on something," said Aronsson, who is able to avoid any urge to blow up on the course, unlike movie character Happy Gilmore, another hockey player turned golfer.

"I like that movie and have watched it a lot, but my dad made sure when I was young that I acted the right way on the course," she said.

Aronsson grew up in Shelbourne, Vt., and excelled as a hockey goalie while playing with boys. She made a select state team, then an all-New England team when she was "about 13 to 14."

"I made the team, then they told me I couldn't play because they were concerned about a girl being with all the boys," she said. "Not being able to play just because I was a girl kind of pushed me toward golf."

Aronsson started playing hockey with girls, but she didn't like the slower pace. She spent her final 2 ½ years of high school in Florida, working at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy and the IMG Soccer Academy.

Aronsson decided to stick with golf, and she was looking for a change of scenery. She has an aunt and uncle who live in Gig Harbor and had heard good things about the Pacific Northwest.

"I had never been here until my recruiting trip, but I really wanted to travel somewhere and I wanted to live in a big city," said Aronsson, who will complete a degree in philosophy this summer.

That was fortuitous for UW coach Mary Lou Mulflur. Aronsson has been among the team's best players each of her four years. She is playing some of the best golf of her career since March, leading her team in the past three events.

She tied for fifth out of 96 at the UCLA/Pepperdine Invitational, including a career-best round of 67. Aronsson then tied for 29th out of 90 at the Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas, and tied for ninth out of 90 at the Arizona State Invitational.

"I am just a lot more confident and committed to each shot," she said.

Mulflur said Aronsson has the ability to play on the LPGA Tour, and the coach should know, having coached current LPGA Tour players Paige Mackenzie and Louise Friburg at UW.

"She has worked real hard and the potential is there to play at the next level if she keeps working," Mulflur said. "She is someone who will lead by example. She won't tell you, she'll just do it. She's a doer, not a talker."

Aronsson plans to spend the summer in Seattle working on her game with renowned coach Joe Thiel. She would like to play in the U.S. Women's Amateur again after making it to the round-of-32 last year.

"I had five three-putts in the match I lost," she said.

She plans to go to LPGA qualifying school in the fall.

"Louise and Paige came to see us play at Arizona State (last week)," Aronsson said. "I had a chance to talk with them and they gave me a lot of encouragement. They told me they thought I was ready and that gave me a lot of confidence."

It would be about as close to her dream as she could get.

"I still love hockey," she said. "If there were a WNHL, who knows?"