SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A week ago, Symetra Tour pro Danielle Lemek was helping her parents get water out their basement in Doniphan, Nebraska after 12 inches of rain.
She almost decided not to play in this weekend’s GreatLife Challenge.
“One of the reasons I was thinking of not coming back to play here was that family is a lot more important than a golf tournament,” Lemek said. “Life is so much bigger than these small things. Even though it’s my passion, it’s my career, it’s my life and childhood dream.”
She said her father convinced to go ahead the play this weekend.
“Had to convince me to just go,” she said. “I was bailing water, moving furniture. It was a stressful day–actually stressful days.”
Another obstacle she had to overcome was that her small Nebraska town did not have a high school golf team until her freshman year. Her mom made that happen.
“We filled the team right away,” Lemek said. “We had to get at least eight girls on the team or we wouldn’t be able to have it.”
They ended up getting 12 people for the team.
She went on to a successful college golf career at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.
This is her rookie year on the tour. So far, she’s won $5,303 over her career.
The Symetra Tour is the qualifying tour for the LPGA. The GreatLife Challenge tees off Thursday at the Willow Run Country Club east of Sioux Falls.
(Craig Mattick, KWSN, contributed to this report.)
