Deacon Sports Xtra: Right Place at the Right Time: Kupcho’s Luck Leads to Wake Forest Legacy
11/17/2021 12:03:00 PM | Women's Golf
Wake Forest women's golf coach Dianne Dailey was walking to the parking lot of the 2013 U.S. Girls' Junior Championship at Sycamore Hills Golf Club in Fort Wayne, Indiana; concluding that after five days of scouting she'd seen everybody who could potentially be a future Demon Deacon.
THWACK
"Oh my gosh," Dailey wondered as the powerful tee shot echoed through her ears. "Who hit that?
"I looked up and didn't recognize any of the names."
She narrowed it down and discovered it was Jennifer Kupcho, who was playing in just her second national event outside of her home state of Colorado.
Dailey quickly reversed direction and began following Kupcho's group on the course for the rest of her 18 holes that day.
"She made a good par," Dailey said. "There was a difficult par-3 on the next hole, and she stuck it right next to the pin. She was the only person who hit the green.
"This girl is good."
After the round was complete, Dailey started the drive back to Winston-Salem with assistant coach Kevin Diaz, as the two sought out Kupcho's professional swing coach so they could begin a dialogue.
"It was like detective work, because we're not allowed to talk to them or their parents," Dailey said.
Once they made contact and found out Kupcho was set to compete in the U.S. Amateur in Charleston, South Carolina, making the drive as a family from Denver, a plan was set in motion.
"Why don't you stop by Winston-Salem and look at Wake Forest?" Dailey asked the family. "Once she saw Wake Forest, I thought we had a good chance of getting her.
"It was total luck that I found her."
Kupcho, now a successful professional on the LPGA Tour, finds the episode a bit humorous in retrospect.
"I stopped her in her tracks, and she followed me for a few holes," she said.
It wasn't too long after the tournament that Kupcho's swing coach called to tell her Wake Forest had reached out.
"What's Wake Forest?" Kupcho asked. "Where is that?"
Kupcho's father told her Wake Forest is where Arnold Palmer came from and that she should take a look at the school. She eventually narrowed her choices to Wake Forest, Kansas, Colorado State and Denver.
"I really wasn't looking at many schools out of Colorado," Kupcho said. "I took a visit and just fell in love with Wake Forest. I knew it was going to be really great for trying to go professional. Wake has all the resources for that.
"Going out of state was a big move for me. I'm very much a homebody. It was a tough freshman year. I was really homesick."
Kupcho has double-digit top-10 professional finishes including five this year. She recently finished 16th (-10) in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers, Arkansas and T22 (-8) at the Pelican Championship in Tampa Bay, Florida.
"It's been really good," she said. "This has obviously been my first full year out here. It's been nice to try and play as many events as I can and see how my body works through it. It's been a great year to just try everything. Covid has at least calmed down a little bit out here, as protocols have lessened. It's been super nice just to get to meet people out here."
She started as a rookie in 2019, with her first full year as a professional coming in 2020 — right as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the tour schedule.
"The hardest part of the career in general is meeting people and having a group of friends out here," Kupcho said. "When Covid hit I had met some people the year before, but then you're stuck not being able to hang out with anyone. You were supposed to go straight from the course to your hotel and that was it at the time. It made the hardest part of being out here even harder. I got through it, although it was difficult and super-lonely.
"You're used to traveling with a college team and having them arrange all the travel. Then you're out here thrown into it. Good luck (laughs). It definitely was a difficult transition."
After setting a program scoring record as a sophomore while earning multiple All-American awards, Kupcho faced a difficult decision. A key component to helping her push through her early homesickness was the relationship she'd built with Diaz and his entire family.
"They helped push me to get through the year and find my own group of friends who weren't on the golf team," Kupcho explains.
But then Diaz left the program for other opportunities in the middle of her sophomore season.
"It was a tough decision," Kupcho said. "We got really close and the one person I was close to was leaving. I did get close with the rest of the team my junior and senior year, and it all worked out in the long run."
Ryan Potter was brought in as an assistant coach and he was a big factor helping Kupcho make improvements in her golf game.
"We worked really well together, and he worked with me on my short game," she said. "My short game wasn't good when he came in. It was the hunt and desire to go back and win. That's what got me through."
She broke her own scoring record as a junior and then claimed an NCAA Championship, leading the event wire-to-wire. As a senior she led the Demon Deacons to the national championship match before falling to Duke.
"The NCAA Championship that I did win — to have my team there with me and have us all come together was really exciting," she said. "When our team took second my senior year, to have a team competing for the national championship was really special."
THWACK
"Oh my gosh," Dailey wondered as the powerful tee shot echoed through her ears. "Who hit that?
"I looked up and didn't recognize any of the names."
She narrowed it down and discovered it was Jennifer Kupcho, who was playing in just her second national event outside of her home state of Colorado.
Dailey quickly reversed direction and began following Kupcho's group on the course for the rest of her 18 holes that day.
"She made a good par," Dailey said. "There was a difficult par-3 on the next hole, and she stuck it right next to the pin. She was the only person who hit the green.
"This girl is good."
After the round was complete, Dailey started the drive back to Winston-Salem with assistant coach Kevin Diaz, as the two sought out Kupcho's professional swing coach so they could begin a dialogue.
"It was like detective work, because we're not allowed to talk to them or their parents," Dailey said.
Once they made contact and found out Kupcho was set to compete in the U.S. Amateur in Charleston, South Carolina, making the drive as a family from Denver, a plan was set in motion.
"Why don't you stop by Winston-Salem and look at Wake Forest?" Dailey asked the family. "Once she saw Wake Forest, I thought we had a good chance of getting her.
"It was total luck that I found her."
Kupcho, now a successful professional on the LPGA Tour, finds the episode a bit humorous in retrospect.
"I stopped her in her tracks, and she followed me for a few holes," she said.
It wasn't too long after the tournament that Kupcho's swing coach called to tell her Wake Forest had reached out.
"What's Wake Forest?" Kupcho asked. "Where is that?"
Kupcho's father told her Wake Forest is where Arnold Palmer came from and that she should take a look at the school. She eventually narrowed her choices to Wake Forest, Kansas, Colorado State and Denver.
"I really wasn't looking at many schools out of Colorado," Kupcho said. "I took a visit and just fell in love with Wake Forest. I knew it was going to be really great for trying to go professional. Wake has all the resources for that.
"Going out of state was a big move for me. I'm very much a homebody. It was a tough freshman year. I was really homesick."
Kupcho has double-digit top-10 professional finishes including five this year. She recently finished 16th (-10) in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in Rogers, Arkansas and T22 (-8) at the Pelican Championship in Tampa Bay, Florida.
"It's been really good," she said. "This has obviously been my first full year out here. It's been nice to try and play as many events as I can and see how my body works through it. It's been a great year to just try everything. Covid has at least calmed down a little bit out here, as protocols have lessened. It's been super nice just to get to meet people out here."
She started as a rookie in 2019, with her first full year as a professional coming in 2020 — right as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the tour schedule.
"The hardest part of the career in general is meeting people and having a group of friends out here," Kupcho said. "When Covid hit I had met some people the year before, but then you're stuck not being able to hang out with anyone. You were supposed to go straight from the course to your hotel and that was it at the time. It made the hardest part of being out here even harder. I got through it, although it was difficult and super-lonely.
"You're used to traveling with a college team and having them arrange all the travel. Then you're out here thrown into it. Good luck (laughs). It definitely was a difficult transition."
After setting a program scoring record as a sophomore while earning multiple All-American awards, Kupcho faced a difficult decision. A key component to helping her push through her early homesickness was the relationship she'd built with Diaz and his entire family.
"They helped push me to get through the year and find my own group of friends who weren't on the golf team," Kupcho explains.
But then Diaz left the program for other opportunities in the middle of her sophomore season.
"It was a tough decision," Kupcho said. "We got really close and the one person I was close to was leaving. I did get close with the rest of the team my junior and senior year, and it all worked out in the long run."
Ryan Potter was brought in as an assistant coach and he was a big factor helping Kupcho make improvements in her golf game.
"We worked really well together, and he worked with me on my short game," she said. "My short game wasn't good when he came in. It was the hunt and desire to go back and win. That's what got me through."
She broke her own scoring record as a junior and then claimed an NCAA Championship, leading the event wire-to-wire. As a senior she led the Demon Deacons to the national championship match before falling to Duke.
"The NCAA Championship that I did win — to have my team there with me and have us all come together was really exciting," she said. "When our team took second my senior year, to have a team competing for the national championship was really special."
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