She started playing golf as a child. What were the first steps?
«I have always played golf, my father was a very passionate golfer and he took his three children to golf from an early age. When I was a little girl and my friends went for picnics in the countryside or parties in various houses on Sundays, I had to go to golf with the whole family. I hated it! At a certain point, seeing that my attempts at independence were completely useless, I decided that if I really had to play, I might as well do it well, and I started to consider golf as a serious sport in which to engage. Now that, at almost 74 years of age, I still play and enjoy myself more and more, I sincerely thank my father for his insistence! "
How and when did the habit of attending golf courses become a competitive passion?
«Competing has always been a“ normal ”component in my family. My older brother was very good at all the sports he did (golf, skiing and sailing) and it was therefore a natural process for the other two children to immediately consider sport as a competitive commitment and not as a Sunday pastime ».
What were the main successes obtained in the sports field at club level and then in official teams and then again with the Swiss national team?
"Since I had a sufficiently low handicap, I have represented the different clubs of which I have been a member over the years (Monza, Acquasanta, Garlenda, Lugano) in the interclub championships, I then joined the Italian junior national team, taking part at numerous international meetings, I won an Italian junior title and a second category one. I didn't have a particularly brilliant youth career because at the time I was much more passionate about skiing than golf and as long as there was enough snow for the competitions, the golf bag was abandoned, to be dusted off in the spring. Then I got married very young and immediately had my two children (who of course I forced to play golf from an early age!). Golf has become a Sunday pastime with some exceptions for national club competitions. Emigrated to Switzerland in 1981, I participated in some Swiss championships with some success and I represented Lugano's golf in the interclubs. But it was only when I became seniors, with my grown-up and independent children, that I joined the Swiss team and started competing in international competitions again. I was part of the Swiss senior national team from 1998 to 2019, winning 2 silver medals and some bronze medals (sorry, but as a good senior I don't remember ...) at the European championships. Now I am part of the “Master” team (over 65) and I have won 2 silver and one gold medals. I also won 6 Swiss titles, the last of which last year, great satisfaction, the youngest seniors are my daughter's age! ».
From 2004 to 2008 she was captain of the SSLGA (Swiss Senior Ladies Golf Association), can you tell us about the satisfactions obtained during this experience?
“It was truly an exciting experience! The president, Maud Mocellin, from Geneva, was a perfect business partner, we got along very well and remained very close friends. During international matches I was a player captain and this, instead of putting too much pressure on me, galvanized me a lot. We invented training camps for seniors, a tradition that has also been carried on by those who have succeeded us and which has been very successful. We had also organized trips abroad, in which we had a lot of fun! Yes, it was a really good experience of which I have excellent memories ».
For 20 years she has participated in the meetings of the SWIM (Senior Women Invitational Matches): are there differences regarding the way to approach golf in Europe and in America?
«In America, amateur golf is very similar to professional golf, except for the economic side. Now here, too, young successful amateurs lead a life very similar to that of professionals, whose footsteps will one day follow, but in my time, and therefore for us seniors, sport was still pure amateurism: you train yes, but sport is part of life, not the reason for it. American SWIM golfers play golf every day of the year and train in the gym when they're not playing. Nevertheless, every now and then we manage to beat them! ».
In addition to golf, you have a job, a family, important charitable activities. How was it possible to reconcile all this?
"It was easy precisely because during the years when my children were small, golf remained a secondary pastime and because, even if it is a very important part of it that gives me great satisfaction and great joys, golf has always remained a part of my life, not the center of it. Time and time again the focus goes to what I am doing, if I work for my charity (www.associazionevimala.org) I forget about golf, if I participate in a golf competition I only think about that. Of course my children are always there, but since they too are excellent golfers, they are one more reason to love this sport ».
What do you see in your future as a golfer and what do you still expect from a sport to which you have dedicated all your passion over the years?
«I hope to be able to play for many more years, both because I like it and because I'm lazy and I'm bored by walking, so 18 holes of golf are excellent physical exercise. I hope to live long enough to become like my 94-year-old partner friend from Lugano, who plays every day, is straight as a spindle, still witty and lucid as he was 20 years ago when I met him. I hope to be able to play my age, which has always been the dream of my father who has never succeeded. My brother did it regularly and I'm trying hard! I hope to learn many more things from golf which, as a friend of mine said a little provocatively, is her religion. Learning to accept the wrong blows, to trust the decisions I make and to accept the consequences without complaining, to put a wrong blow behind me and forget it, to rejoice in a right blow without thinking of "having understood everything". It looks a lot like how life should be lived, don't you think? '
