Emie PERONNIN
Golfer

Emie received a grant to help her participate in international competitions.

What is your sporting background?
I come from a sporty family, and I’ve been surrounded by sports since birth. I did 10 years of handball, four years of karate and athletics on my high school team. However, golf has been in my family since I was born. My father took up golf himself and coached my mother and then my older brother, so naturally I followed them at the age of five. A few years later, I was playing my first competitions (however I only entered a few in my junior amateur career). I played handball, golf and athletics until I was 18, so I wasn't totally dedicated to golf. It was during my last year of high school that I discovered the possibility of obtaining a scholarship to go to an American college and I took advantage of it. My victories and good results had allowed me to reach 23rd place in the Ladies Amateur Ranking and thus to join a good American university (University of Minnesota). After four years of studying there, I graduated with a degree in Business and Marketing. During those four years, I also obtained many academic and sports awards. In addition, I was able to represent the French team at the 2016 World University Championships and the 2017 Summer Universiade during my time at university. I graduated in June 2017 and turned professional in January 2018. I first played in the second European division of women's golf, the LETAS (Ladies European Tour Access Series). In my first season I finished second in the Lavaux Ladies Open and then a few months later I won the Anna Nordqvist Ladies Open. These two accomplishments, along with solid performances throughout the season, earned me the title of Rookie of the Year for 2018 (the best up-and-coming player on the tour) as well as a move up to the European Premier Division, the tour I have been playing on ever since.

How do you view your profession today?
For me, being a professional golfer is much more than a profession; it is a passion, a lifestyle. Being a top-level athlete means going beyond conventional working hours. Personally, I eat, sleep and breathe golf. It is a passion that consumes all my energy and thoughts. It is more than a passion; it is who I am. It is unlike other sports I have played, in which the period of effort and concentration was much shorter, like when running 100m, or with many more actions and reactions that left less time to think between two actions, like with handball. With golf, I am left to myself for five hours, with my emotions, my thoughts, my stress, my fears, my motivations. My main opponent is myself. Even if I am facing a hundred other players in indirect confrontation, the real obstacle is myself. There are those days when I am in harmony with myself and my golf, I am in the ‘zone’, in which for once everything seems easy and works in my favour. It's a pretty unique and confusing feeling because every golfer is always looking for that zone and that's what fascinates me about the sport. Being a professional sportswoman is so much more than the sport itself! There are so many other things: administration, physical and mental preparation, nutrition, marketing, I feel like I have many other professions!  Especially since, in the world of women's sport, we have to do a lot of things by ourselves because of the lack of funding. But there is nothing else in the world that I would rather do and it is thanks to the support of the Porosus fund that I have the opportunity to pursue this passion, this lifestyle.

How do you see yourself in five years? in 10 years?In the next five years I would like to move back to the US and play on the LPGA. I would also like to win another tournament, but at a higher level, like the LET or why not the LPGA. My ultimate goal is the Paris Olympics in 2024, as I'm passionate about sport in general and there is nothing more magnificent for me. It's hard for me to see myself 10 years down the line but I would love to be able to live off my golf for that long and be competitive for that long. There are few sports where such longevity is possible. But it was, and still is extremely difficult, so it would be a dream.

This interview was conducted in 2021
Photography credit: Julia Grandperret