By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
So did you hear what Amanda Moltke-Leth did now?
Maybe not, but if you know her and you heard it, you probably
wouldn’t be surprised.
“I’m never shocked by what she does,” UCLA
women’s head golf coach Carrie Leary said.
Whether it’s changing on the golf course in full view of
the clubhouse, sneaking into Leary’s room to short-sheet her
bed or diving in some bush in the middle of a tournament to, uh,
relieve herself, the women’s golf team’s lone senior
isn’t much afraid of what people think of her.
“I like to shock people,” the Danish-born
Moltke-Leth (pronounced “Mol-keh-leeth”) explained.
“I like to see how they take it. Especially because Danish
people are very free. We like to make fun of and dare
Americans.”
Coach Leary calls it something else. “She’s very
adventuresome. Fear is not in her vocabulary,” she said.
Like that changing-on-the-golf-course incident
““Â Moltke-Leth isn’t an exhibitionist. But it was
Friday morning practice at 6:30, Moltke-Leth had a particularly
late Thursday night, and she barely got to the course on time and
had to change to her golf clothes in the car.
It wasn’t until she was at the ninth tee that Moltke-Leth
realized she forgot to put on her bra.
Oh well, Amanda will make do.
While teammates Alicia Um and Julie Oh were putting, Moltke-Leth
just took off her shirt, reached in her bag for her bra, and stood
there with only her pants on.
“Alicia looks, and she screams like, “˜Ahhh, Amanda!
What are you doing?’ and Julie was like, “˜The clubhouse
is right there! Everyone can see!'” Moltke-Leth
said.
Amanda’s laughing response to that: “Well,
they’ve probably seen this before.”
Actually, when it comes to Moltke-Leth, people have seen even
more than that.
A running joke on the team is Moltke-Leth’s penchant for
heeding the call of Mother Nature when it’s just about the
worst time to do so. Say … when she’s in the middle of the
course with not a bathroom in sight.
Oh well, Amanda will make do.
“Normally I go in the bush,” Moltke-Leth said.
“One time there wasn’t a bush so I just went down and I
was sitting with my umbrella. I didn’t notice that there was
people walking behind me, so I was totally flashing
them.”
But this does not embarrass Moltke-Leth in the least.
“If they don’t want to see, they should look the
other way. I mean, if you gotta go, you gotta go,” she
said.
Actually, one time this habit did shake Moltke-Leth’s
composure. She was at Pac-10 Championships two weeks ago, when, of
course, she had to go again. At the 16th hole, no less.
“I couldn’t wait those three holes,”
Moltke-Leth said with a laugh, “so I went in the bushes, and
this guy comes up to me and he’s like, “˜Are you looking
for your ball?’ I’m sitting here spreading my legs and
I’m like, “˜Noooooo ““ go away!’ He said,
“˜Oh! I’m so sorry!’ and then he didn’t
bother me again.”
As Moltke-Leth graduates soon, it is possible that the staid
world of professional golf might have a Happy Gilmore-type on its
hands.
After all, the UCLA women’s golf season is over, ended
four strokes short of a berth to the NCAA championships, and
Moltke-Leth’s UCLA career is over as well; by just one stroke
she failed to qualify for the individual championships.
But for Moltke-Leth, golf is far from over. It took all of
college to figure it out, but she finally realized that she has the
ability and love of golf to make a career of it. In September she
will turn pro and try out for the LPGA tour. Then in November
Moltke-Leth will fly home and try out for the European tour as
well.
Her coach has no doubt in her abilities. “She expects to
be successful. Her long-term plan is to play this sport
professionally, and she knows she can,” Leary said.
“That sets her apart from the crowd.”
Actually, that’s just one of the many things that sets her
apart. Even as a golfer she does things differently.
For instance, freshman teammate Saki Uechi points out
Moltke-Leth’s amazing ability to focus.
“Walking from one hole to another, she’ll be talking
to you about her whole life,” Uechi said. “But at the
ball as she’s about to hit it, she’s totally focused.
She’s a different person. That’s not something a lot of
people can do.”
That’s her greatest strength, according to Leary.
“She has the unique ability to focus completely,”
she said. “Most people get distracted by the past and future.
Amanda’s a very in-the-moment kind of player. On her normal,
best days, she doesn’t think about anything but the
shot.”
This is what has made the senior, who transferred from the
University of Memphis two years ago, UCLA’s best golfer.
It’s what earned her a No. 8 ranking nationally and got her
First Team All-Pac-10 Conference honors.
No doubt her love of the game will also carry her far.
Moltke-Leth loves being outside, she loves the social nature of the
sport, and she loves the competitive aspect of it. She is the first
to defend golf against those who ask questions like, “Oh come
on, is it really a sport?”
“We hear comments a lot about, “˜Why do you have to
work out? Isn’t golf just walking around? Don’t you sit
in the carts, anyway? You don’t even sweat, do
you?'” Moltke-Leth said. “And it’s true,
it’s not a sweaty sport, but there are so many psychological
aspects to it. I don’t think people understand how golf is
not just going down and hitting the ball.”
But as Moltke-Leth brings her skill and attitude to compete for
a spot in the LPGA and European tours, there will be an empty spot
in the Bruin roster. The team will miss the European import who,
according to freshman teammate Bridget Dwyer, is “So crazy,
so daring and willing to do anything.”
Like sneaking into coach Leary’s room during the first
tournament of the year to short-sheet her bed.
“I don’t know how she got into my room,” Leary
said. “I still have to get her back for that.”
Actually, Moltke-Leth says, it was Um who did the
short-sheeting. She herself just provided the distraction.
The team had just finished its pre-tournament meeting when
Moltke-Leth went to Leary and said, “Hey coach, I need to
talk to you. I really want to go over the course.”
Then, while Moltke-Leth pretended to be engrossed with the
yardage book and Leary, a first-year coach who didn’t yet
know Amanda too well, fell for it (“I never look at the
yardage book,” Moltke-Leth confessed), Um snuck upstairs and
rigged the bedsheets.
“I love teasing coach,” Moltke-Leth said. “She
knows I only do it for the fun of it.”
It’s just one of the many things she does for the fun of
it. Like sky-dive. Bungee-jump. Hop the fence at a hotel and
skinny-dip in the jacuzzi while at another tournament.
“She’s a fun girl. We’re going to miss her so
much,” Leary said. “As a coach, I wish I had her for
longer. She’s the player you dream about having ““
natural talent, fun, happy, loving to teammates.
“She’s tough to replace.”
Oh well. The team will make do.
But no doubt in the meantime they’ll miss hearing about
what Amanda Moltke-Leth did now.