STARKVILLE — The first step in getting one of the Southeastern Conference’s top talents to Mississippi State was a lucky Internet search.
Around 2011, MSU women’s golf coach Ginger Brown-Lemm was looking through the recent results in the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), which serves as host for junior golf tournaments, including many sponsored by current or former PGA pros. Brown-Lemm came across the name of Jessica Peng. The sample size was limited, but Peng showed in one appearance the ability to shoot under-par at 15 or 16 years old.
A crosscheck revealed Peng was one of the top 10 amateurs in her home country of Taiwan. Brown-Lemm knew she couldn’t let Peng go.
After two years of hard recruiting and fighting off programs like Ohio State and Pepperdine, Brown-Lemm convinced Peng to come to Starkville. Now Peng is among the best in the Southeastern Conference and a key member of the MSU women’s golf team that will compete today in the SEC Championship at Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama.
Next month, Peng and MSU will move on to the NCAA tournament. Brown-Lemm is convinced Peng has what it takes to compete with the best in both settings.
“Some of the best players in the world are in the SEC, and she’s just as good, if not better,” Brown-Lemm said. “She hits it as far as anybody. She’s got a touch around the greens that’s so beautiful. I could never hit some of the shots she hits. It’s just a natural feeling. I can watch it happening and I could never do it. It’s an innate touch.”
That talent was evident the second Peng arrived at MSU. Peng’s freshman year was the senior year for Ally McDonald and Rica Tse, both of whom went on to appear in LPGA events. Earlier this month, McDonald, who is a volunteer assistant coach at MSU, made the cut at the LOTTE Championship.
McDonald and Tse had well-established reputations in college, and Peng immediately shot comparable scores. It didn’t surprise Brown-Lemm.
“She was incredibly worldly and well traveled, so she was a mature kid that knew hard work was the only way to go,” Lemm-Brown said. “We just set up a network of structure that made sure she was successful with class schedule and tutor support. She didn’t have a car, so we made sure she buddied up with teammates to get a ride.”
Where Peng had room to grow was in her brushes, albeit few and far between, with failure.
Brown-Lemm said failure in golf, even if for one shot, is almost guaranteed. That’s why she spends at least one of the 20 hours per week the NCAA allows student-athletes to dedicate to sport in a meeting room discussing coping with failure. Sometimes it’s a video series they work through on the subject. Sometimes it’s reviewing the book players have been given to read for the semester. Her goal is to try to get the players to learn “how to handle yourself in decision-making, aggravation and recovery.”
Given the limited amount of struggle Peng faced in junior golf, that was where she needed the most work. It didn’t surprise Brown-Lemm after what she has learned recruiting and coaching Asian players.
“Their brain, their mental capacity, their focus ability. They plan and execute and don’t have room for failure. That’s both a positive and negative,” Brown-Lemm said. “You must allow yourself room to fail, understand, and learn from that because it’s not healthy.”
Entering the SEC tournament, Peng said her mind-set has turned into a strength. She might have to give partial credit for that truth to her academics.
Brown-Lemm would know having played a role in the development of McDonald and Tse. She said it would have been very easy for Peng to turn professional after last year. She stayed primarily to finish her degree in psychology.
“Because a lot of people think athletes are dumb, and most of the Asian golfers turn pro when they are 18, they don’t even go to college,” Peng said. “I think it’s important to prove I’m better than just golf. Golf is important, but it’s not everything.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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