Podcast #11 – The Drive to Greatness with World-Ranked Golfer Farah O’Keefe

Doug Dvorak (00:01.866)
Hello Mission Podcast community. I’m your host, Doug Dvorak, and I’m extremely excited to bring you inspiring stories from incredible guests. These individuals are on a mission.

to create remarkable possibilities that not only enhance their own lives, but also make a lasting impact on the communities around them and the individuals they impact. Stay tuned for some truly amazing conversations. My guest today is Farah O’Keefe. Hi Farah, how are you?

Farah O’Keefe (00:47.086)
doing great, Doug. Thank you for having me on. I’m excited.

Doug Dvorak (00:49.76)
My pleasure. Farah is a very talented and accomplished amateur golfer. Currently, she is playing on the University of Texas at Austin Women’s Golf Team on a scholarship.
Farah is ranked number 13th in the world according to the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Welcome, Farah.

Farah O’Keefe (01:28.27)
Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be on this podcast and to chat with you about upcoming season and all that kind of stuff. I’m excited.

Doug Dvorak (01:36.306)
Excellent. Well, we’re excited and I know the Mission Podcast community is excited as well. I’ve known your dad for probably 10 years. He worked for me as my marketing director when I was in Austin. I got to know you loosely, but it was really cool in terms of seeing your trajectory and your accomplishments. And in researching for today’s podcast, I found your personal statement and I’d like you to share it with our listeners.

I’ll just read it briefly. really impressed me because you were 10 years old, right, when you wrote this personal statement.

Farah O’Keefe (02:12.686)
Yes, it’s been updated as I’ve gotten older. I actually, think that that specific statement was written when I was, I think 16, maybe 17, when I was going.

It’s been updated since then. It’s nothing concrete, but it’s just lists of goals and all that kind of stuff.

Doug Dvorak (02:33.812)
and most of those goals came to fruition. I’d like to read your personal statement for our listeners when you were 10. Here it is. Ever since I wrote a list of goals when I was 10 years old, winning a D1 national championship title has been a major driving force in my continuing improvement as a golfer. At the time, my aim was to win the individual title. However, being part of a highly competitive high school program has helped you appreciate the value of winning as a team.

So you recently updated this list, as you said when you were 16, after finishing T56 at the LPGA Volunteers of America Classic last year. Your ultimate goal is to play full time on the LPGA Tour. Before that happens, however, you’d really like to cross off your collegiate goals off your list and earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology. That is just so awesome. At 10, you did your personal mission statement. It was fluid. You updated it.

and your goal was to win a high school D1 championship, which you did there in Austin. You then wanted to play collegiate golf at UT Austin. You did that, you enjoyed a scholarship. How can a young person like you be so focused?

Farah O’Keefe (03:49.162)
It’s funny, when I look back at when I was getting into golf, I played a bunch of different sports growing up. I played basketball, played flag football, I did all of the typical Texas sports. And then my dad introduced me to golf when I was really young. And so it had always kind of been around and I’d always played it and really enjoyed playing. And then when I was about 10 or 11 years old was when the Netflix documentary, The Short Game came out.

featured players like Allan Kournikova and Alexa Pano and Amara Avery. And I was watching the show, the documentary, and I realized, like, I’m the same age as these kids. Like, there’s, you know, they’re going competing and they’re accomplishing great things and they’re eight, nine, ten years old. I’m like, I’m behind. Like, I need to, I need to create some goals. I’m behind. And so I think I actually came home from school one day and I told my mom, I was like, I need to

created a list of goals. I need to write something down. And it was in a Word document. I used all these cool Word art and all that kind of stuff, old school. And I created this really long list of life goals and what I wanted to accomplish. And the first couple were like, win a US Kids Golf Tour Championship, and all these different things. And they were really small, but they seemed really big to me at the time.

And then, know, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve kind of updated my list, but I still have the original one and a piece of paper on my wall at home in my childhood bedroom. Which is, you know, I look at it every once in while, I’m like, yeah, I got to cross a couple of those things off, which is pretty cool. It’s a great feeling when you get to go in with a red marker and just cross the whole thing off. But yeah, that’s kind of how my motivation started and how I really wanted to

know, begin my journey and trying to achieve greatness and do great things. And it’s not even close to over. I’m not anywhere near where I, you know, I dream and hope for myself to be in five or 10 years down the road. So it’s, every day is exciting and every day is a little adventure on its own.

Doug Dvorak (06:02.065)
Excellent. So you were inspired for a number of reasons. Your dad was a great golfer. You were exposed to it early. You saw that Netflix documentary. You wrote your personal statement goals and you’ve had that as a fluid document and updated it. You alluded to it briefly, Farah, but can you share with our listeners the story of how you first got into golf and what inspired you to pursue it? Because you mentioned you played a number of different sports, but how did you get introduced to golf and why did you

choose to pursue excellence in the sport of golf.

Farah O’Keefe (06:35.512)
So right after I was born, my mom was pretty sick. She had some health issues going on. She had like this weird full term pregnancy kind of morning sickness. Now it’s a real, like there’s a real diagnosis to it, but back then I guess there was like, it was super rare and nobody knew anything about it. And so after I was born, she was kind of on bed rest and

you know, like you have a screaming toddler or baby, like, what do you do? Just take it to the golf course with me. That’s what my dad thought. And so I would sit in the stroller on the driving range at Grey Rock Golf Club, which back then was Circle C. And I would, you know, I would just sit as a baby and I would just watch him hit balls. I was, you know, I probably was just sitting back there taking a nap, to be honest. But as I got older, you know, I like a kid.

I could sit up and all that kind of stuff. He would sit me behind a hole in a green and he’d kind of have me return the balls to him. All the putts that he was missing, because he never made anything. I’m kidding. I’d roll back the balls and that kind of… He claims that that taught me the hand-eye coordination to learn how to putt. But that only goes as far as he can say. And then when I was two years old, he…

cut down a seven iron or something, or he found one from Academy, and took me out to the driving range. the first time, the story goes, the first time he teed one up for me, I walked up, knew how to grip the club already, already knew how to set up for the ball. I just, first swing just whack, and it went 20 yards in the air. And he was like, okay, you’re playing golf, that’s it. And then as time went on, I think I played my first event when I was six.

Doug Dvorak (08:23.167)
you

Farah O’Keefe (08:30.998)
And I played, you know, I played a bunch of like rinky dinky, like just around the club kind of stuff. And I’d go out and play with him on Saturdays and that kind of stuff. And then when I was six, he actually signed me up for my first real tournament with like, you know, real stakes and like medals and trophies and all that kind of stuff. And I went out and I’m pretty sure that I was so scared and so jacked up on adrenaline. He’s even as a six year old on the very first hole, I pulled a driver and I

It’s only a hundred yards and I like hit it over the green and it and it was you know, it was incredible and everybody in my group be like what the heck this girl can hit it so far and then it took me five to get down from there and I made like a double bogey in the first hole and that was that was the start of my golf career. So you know and I’ve learned from them obviously maybe maybe don’t pull a driver from a hundred yards. It’s not the best club choice.

Doug Dvorak (09:06.248)
Wow.

Doug Dvorak (09:27.369)
So you’re involved at your first tournament, you’re jacked on adrenaline, first hole you take a driver, it over the green 100 yards, then you have an incredibly successful high school career culminating in winning a state championship, which was one of your goals.
So here you are, you graduated from high school, you have a D1 state championship, Farah’s on the market, other colleges, universities are drooling to recruit you. Why did you choose the University of Texas at Austin?

Farah O’Keefe (10:18.062)
It’s funny, when I was going through recruiting, I was actually, I flew way under the radar according to other coaches that I now get to talk to and hang around during tournaments and that kind of stuff. Because I only played local events. I really only played within the confines of Texas. And I played like one or two AJGAs outside of Texas. I played in a US girls junior in Kentucky.

But I really hadn’t shown my face anywhere else. And so I think that some other coaches were skeptical about my ability or the ability of my game to translate onto different kinds of golf because Texas and central Texas is very just, you know, blueprint golf. It’s like one golf course looks exactly like the next. And so I think they were kind of like, we don’t really know how her game travels. Like, we’re not going to take that risk.

And then I played in, well actually I won the Texas Girls Invitational, which is a pretty big event and I think it’s the second biggest girls event in Texas and it’s considered a major on the Legends Junior Tour and I won that event by shooting 66 in the second round and it was my lowest score in a tournament up to that point.

And I got a call like a week later from Kate Golden, who was the assistant at Texas at the time. And she was like, hey, we’d love to have you on a visit. And I was like, yeah, count me in. I’ll be there. And I think a week later, a week after my first visit, I committed. I went back to the, and I said, I’m going to come to Texas. I’m going to be a Longhorn. And then after that, I think I kind of kept it on the down low from what I remember. And

Doug Dvorak (12:00.211)
Wow.

Farah O’Keefe (12:12.236)
We qualified for state and we went to the state championships. And I think I committed like the Friday before state. it was, it was very, everything was very jam packed. And we won the state championship and in an interview with the Austin American Statesman afterwards, I really said I was going to go to Texas and I committed to Texas. But my whole recruiting journey was super irregular. I’ve never heard anybody else who’s only had one offer.

I mean, they were my only offer. had other interests from schools like Houston or Arkansas, but I’d never had an official offer. And then Texas fronted me with an offer and I said, I’m gonna take it because it’s home and I’ve always been a Longhorn fan. so it’s a dream come true. Why not take that chance and go show the world what I have with the resources and everything at the University of Texas and that you won’t get anywhere else.

Doug Dvorak (13:08.177)
Excellent. So it’s been a positive experience thus far. And I remember you and your dad sharing with me that when you went to the locker room the first day and opened your locker, you were overcome with emotions. Would you unpack that story and experience for us?

Farah O’Keefe (13:26.37)
For sure. Yeah, opening that locker for the first time, it still makes me emotional because when I was growing up, my family kind of dealt with some financial issues. We didn’t really have the kind of resources that other golf families had. I had friends that were traveling every weekend and getting practice rounds and going out of state and…

on airplanes and doing just crazy things, playing internationally. And I just had to kind of sit back at home and play local events. There’s nothing wrong with that. I love playing Texas events that are super competitive. you know, it kind of felt like I was missing something, like I was missing out, kind of had the fear of missing out going. And when I got to Texas, I graduated high school early and I went to go do a red shirt semester to kind of sharpen my tools and get ready to compete.

in the collegiate atmosphere. And when I got there, I opened my locker and, you know, it has my name at the top and you have your code, open the locker. And I’m also, I mean, the whole time I’m just thinking like, this is surreal. Like I’ve never, I didn’t even know that I could have dreamt of this. Like it was something that I was just oblivious to. And I opened my locker and it’s just packed with like clothes and shoes and golf bags and like everything that, you know, just golf galore.

And I start opening stuff and I’m like, and I started to realize like I had never really had like brand new golf clothes before. And like everything that I had was either from like, you know, Goodwill or like hand-me-downs from other family members or something like that. Or it was discounted and all of these different things. I’m opening it. like, I’ve never had brand new golf clothes before. I’ve never taken the wrapper off of a polo. I’ve never taken the tag off of something like that’s

brand new from the store. And it was just, you know, I was just overcome with emotion. I think I started crying and my coach was in there and so was our director of ops and they were kind of looking at me and they didn’t, I don’t really think that they fully understood why I was feeling all of those emotions. And our director of ops at the time, like she started crying and I was like, why are you crying? And she was like, well, I’ve never seen anybody have this reaction before. And I was like, yeah, I’ve.

Doug Dvorak (15:42.91)
you

Farah O’Keefe (15:48.014)
I told him, was like, I’ve never had brand new golf clothes before. I’ve never had, you know, $180 pair of golf shoes. Like it just, it’s never, it was incredible. That first, like first emotions of, you know, welcome to Texas. It was like, I just couldn’t believe it. And it was, I don’t know. It’s a moment that stands out in my mind for sure. was like, taking videos, I was like, there’s no way, there’s no way that they have.

Doug Dvorak (15:56.989)
It overwhelmed you.

Farah O’Keefe (16:17.014)
eight pairs of golf shoes. I’ve never seen anything like it. But yeah, it was really cool. And now it’s like, it’s so funny because I’m two years into it now and you know, we get, it’s funny to say like, yeah, we get new shoes like every semester, but it’s like, I cannot take that for granted. It’s unbelievable. It’s really such a blessing and I’m just so lucky to be where I am right now. And it’s like, it’s just really cool. It’s really cool.

Doug Dvorak (16:44.799)
And it comes across to me through the microphone and the camera how grounded, humble and appreciative you are. Farrah, were there any pivotal moments in your golfing journey that shaped you as an athlete?

Farah O’Keefe (16:57.442)
That’s a good question. I think that winning the state championship with my high school team is something that really stands out in my mind. I also think that making the cut in my first LPGA Tournament was a very, very big deal as a 16 year old. You know, I will briefly say, like, mention to somebody like, yeah, I played an LPGA event when I was 16. And they’re always like, that’s a huge deal.

Like you can’t just skip over that. But in my mind it was like, oh, well I just went out and I played my game. You I did everything that I could. And it’s like, when I look back at it, if any other 16 year old right now were to go make a cut in LPGA Tournament, I would be like, that’s a fricking stud right there. Like that kid needs to be recruited. Like that’s a real golfer. Like that’s somebody who knows the game. And so when I look back at those two moments, it’s winning the state championship.

It’s the pivotal moment that happened to state championship is that I made bogey on 17, which was the second to last hole of the tournament. And I teed off on 18 and it’s a drivable part five. I hit a really good tee shot and my coach comes up to me. He’s a very cool, calm and collected guy. He’s not gonna spill the beans. He’s not gonna say anything.

And I was nervous, so I looked at him and I said, where do we stand? Like, what do I need to do right now? And he looked at me, he’s like, yeah, we’re going back. We’re going back. And I said, okay, so I have to make Eagle to win for the team. And it’s kind of one of these holes where there’s trouble everywhere around the green. The green kind of snakes up to the right. There’s a bunker short of the pin. The pin was back right.

Doug Dvorak (18:33.779)
Mmm.

Farah O’Keefe (18:52.654)
There’s a bunker, there’s water, there’s a tree, there’s OB, there’s everything that you could imagine to go wrong. And all I knew was I have to go make Eagle. I have to try to make Eagle to give my team the best chance. And there’s people all around the green. There’s probably like 200 people there. And it was in between a four iron and a five wood. And so I decided to go with five wood and take the aggressive play. And I hit it and I just remember thinking over the ball like…

I’ve done this 10,000 times, like, I’m fine. You’re gonna hit a great shot. And I hit it and I kind of caught it a little low on the face and I thought like, that’s spinny into the wind. Like, it’s not gonna make it. And I guess I was so pumped up on a drillin’ again that it carried all the way to the flag and because I had so much spin on it, it stopped right where it was, 10 feet for eagle. And I missed it by this far, but it was enough to win by one stroke because there was a…

Doug Dvorak (19:42.718)
Wow.

And you made it.

Farah O’Keefe (19:51.598)
there was a scoring difference in the group in front of me. so we thought we were one behind, but we were really tied. And so looking back on it, I’m like, well, I wish I would have known that we were tied, because then I probably wouldn’t have taken that big of a risk. But it all worked out in the end anyways. But that was something that kind of boosted my confidence and changed how I viewed my game and how, just looking back at my game and seeing like, okay, I went from

being a kid that would, you know, at six years old, drive it over the green and take six shots to get down and to turning out to be somebody who, you know, forces somebody else to make a birdie to win a state championship. That’s unbelievable growth in, you know, 10 years. And so it really, it gives me hope that, you know, the next 10 years, like what are the next 10 years going to be like? Maybe, maybe my, if I continue down that path, my growth will, you know.

kind of mirror that or reflect that. And it just makes me excited to think about those two moments, playing in a professional event and then winning a state championship.

Doug Dvorak (20:58.836)
Thank you, that’s very exciting. So you competed at the highest high school level, then you go to the University of Texas, and you’re competing at the collegiate level. What’s it like competing at the collegiate level representing such a prestigious women’s golf program?

Farah O’Keefe (21:15.734)
It’s competitive. Even qualifying. We have a new coach this year and so she does qualifying a little bit differently. She doesn’t give anybody an exemption based on their past tournament play. So if you win the last tournament and you come home, that’s cool. You got to turn around and qualify for the lineup. There’s no, there’s no carrying over. And so when I come home, I’m always like,

looking forward to the next day and ready for the next qualifier, ready for the next event. And I think that’s really helpful for me and our other girls because we’re able to put the past behind us and continue to look forward to the next day and getting better the next day and, you know, just chopping away at our goals. But actually competing and going out and playing in tournaments and traveling with a big group, it’s exhilarating. It’s so much fun.

I’ve never been around people, I’ve never traveled with people before college that weren’t my family. And so to go and travel with people, your friends, it kind of turns them into your family because there’s always a one or two travel crisis that you run into. Like, oh no, somebody left a skirt at home. Somebody didn’t bring underwear or we don’t have socks. And so it’s kind of, it’s…

Like you get in trouble from the coaches like if you don’t bring socks. But it kind of riles everybody together and you makes you laugh about it and enjoy the time that you have together. And so it’s it’s draining but it’s also so fun and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s been a really really cool experience so far and I’m really excited for for the next couple of years and and what we’re going to do here with this program because I think I think we’re trending in the right direction.

Doug Dvorak (23:12.667)
Excellent. Farrah, how do you balance academics, practice, and competitions? Any tips for managing such a packed schedule?

Farah O’Keefe (23:20.088)
Calendar, use a calendar. My Google calendar is very colorful at the moment. have a lot of different, know, we have, our coaches will send out like a month long calendar and they’ll say, these are the days that we have mandatory practice. You have workouts on these days, be here at this time. You know, on time is late and that kind of stuff. And so it’s a lot of just the first semester I was here, I

I was such a noob, I had no idea what I was doing. I would show up 10, 15 minutes late for workouts and I would, you know, I’d have to run a mile or whatever it is. And it was like, I was just getting used to having to do stuff without being told. And then, you know, as I matured and kind of grew through the last two years, I realized, okay, I need to kind of almost be a parent to myself and write down things that I have to do or get on myself for.

Doug Dvorak (24:14.943)
Hmm.

Farah O’Keefe (24:18.798)
you’re spending too much time on your phone, you need to go do homework or you know, something like that. But I also think having coaches and having a support group that’s right there every day is very, very helpful. Because if I’m struggling with something, I can just talk to my teammates or I can talk to my roommates or I can go talk to my coaches. And they’re going to find ways to help me and not just say, well, that sucks, do better. Like they’re going to be like, okay, well, maybe we need to implement this strategy or…

Maybe you need to start saying timers or something like that. So it’s very difficult to balance the student and the athlete side of things. it’s like the more that you are in that environment and the more that you grow and kind of acknowledge the fact that like I’m doing a really hard thing, but there’s no reason that I can’t be great at this. And so.

I’ve grown in that respect and I’ve figured out how to do both things and be great at both things at the same time. It’s hard. I’m not saying it’s not hard, but it’s…

Doug Dvorak (25:27.263)
But having that support system, having those mentors, the coaches, but ultimately being responsible for the decisions you make and how you deploy your time discipline. It’s taught you even higher levels of discipline. That’s incredible. Cause it really is two full-time jobs. I know when I was in college taking a full load, it was a full-time job and I had to work full-time. So you’ve really got two full-time jobs.
Farah, what’s your favorite memory or highlight from your time as a Longhorn so far? Give me one. Top greatest memory.

Farah O’Keefe (26:33.006)
Last year we won the Big 12 championship and our coach last year was kind of a little bit uptight, kind of type A. And we walked off the golf course and we were like, well, we won. The thing that you always have to do is you have to go dunk the coach, get him with water. And so we kind of snuck off on him with water bottles behind our backs and all this kind of stuff.

and we just soaked him. Like, he was drenched. He couldn’t even, you know, he’s wringing out his hat, like all that kind of stuff. Typical, just Trey out of a movie. And so, for us and our girls, I think after a season where we’ve gone through the highs, we’ve gone through the lowest of lows, it was really cool that at end of the season, you know, we get to kind of get back at our coach and not really punish him, but like, you know, hey, you did all the right stuff and just spray him with water. So that was really cool.

Doug Dvorak (27:24.287)
Well, he dealt out a lot of, barked out a lot of orders and run if you’re late or this or that. So culminating in winning the big 12 championship and having a little fun, that’s a great story. Let’s talk about the mental and physical preparation. Golf is as much a mental game as it is physical. How do you stay mentally sharp during tournaments?

Farah O’Keefe (27:46.828)
Golf is, I would say, % mental. Once you get the physical side down, you’re halfway there. You’re not even halfway there. That’s the easiest part of the game, is hitting the golf ball. But how you think about how you’re gonna go play or how to deal with pressure, those are so many, there’s just so many different components that go into the mental side and being able to perform and produce your best.

result at the end of the day, even on a day where maybe you’re not hitting the ball that well. So I do a lot of visualization practices where I will run myself through the golf course the night before a tournament, or there’s a lot of different things that I’ll say to myself during a round. Like I have kind of like markers throughout the round to turn to myself, like kind of turn to myself and tell myself different things. So like hole 12 for me on any golf course for whatever reason.

I get to hole 12 and either my brain shuts off or all of a sudden I start feeling pressure. And so, because I either have a really not great round going and my brain is just like, we’re done, or my round is going fantastic and all of a sudden I start thinking about the score and how I want to finish that last third of the round. So I’ll always turn to myself and I’ll say, look at all of these things that you’ve done in the last 12 holes. You’re doing a great job. Just keep chopping wood.

That’s if the round is going well. Just keep doing what you’re doing. There’s no reason to change what you’re doing. You don’t change anything that works, right? That’s like the golden rule of sports. Don’t change anything that works. And if the round isn’t going too well, I’ll say, look at these couple of holes where you did something really good. Like I’ll probably have at least one birdie in there. And I’ll say like, what did you do on this hole? What was different about this hole compared to all of the other ones? And that’s when I’ll say, okay, like finish strong. You have six holes left.

Let’s see if you can hit every shot with determination and a specific target and all these different things and just really just hyper-focus and block everything out and just, you know, stay focused on your target and just hit a good shot. And as soon as you hit the ball, let it go. There’s nothing that you can do as soon as you hit the ball. It’s, you know, it’s a game of preparation. It’s not so much a game of result. The more and more that you put into the shot and the more that you stress out about where the shot’s going.

Farah O’Keefe (30:14.466)
the worst it’s gonna get. So you just have to trust your process and trust that you’ve done all the hard work and then you know step up there just whack it and let it go.

Doug Dvorak (30:24.255)
One of my favorite speakers and authors is Tony Robbins. And I love what he said, when you’re in your head, you’re dead. How do you prevent yourself? There was some great, great suggestions, tips, strategies that you use.

But if you’re in your head too much, how do you get out of it? Because I don’t think that’s a good thing.

Farah O’Keefe (30:56.462)
Yeah, I start singing a song, personally. I think that I played in the Western Women’s Amateur over the summer and I actually ended up winning. But throughout the whole event, and I don’t really think I fully processed this until a few months later when I was thinking about I had the song Delta Dawn stuck in my head. And the whole tournament. And so anytime that I started thinking about the score, you know.

how the match was going or whatever, I would just start humming Delta Dawn. And it was just me, I had no caddy. I was just walking along, of moseying on this really nice green Chicago golf course. And I would just start humming Delta Dawn. And I think that that, you know, looking back that calmed me down and got my head out of the shot that I just hit or the shot that I had to hit next. And instead of being…

stressed out and panicky about the result, I was able to get myself to stay grounded and present in the moment. And so I’ve kind of started to try to do that more and more. Maybe it’s a different song. If I have a song stuck in my head that day, I’ll just start humming that song. And it kind of shuts my brain off. Yeah, it stops the overthinking. I think I’m an overthinker. And so it kind of gets my brain to

Doug Dvorak (32:14.975)
comes you down, brings you into the present and that’s a.

Farah O’Keefe (32:23.15)
you know, shut up for a couple minutes.

Doug Dvorak (32:25.329)
Excellent great suggestion. Let’s shift to challenges and motivation. What’s the biggest challenge you faced as a golfer and how did you overcome it?

Farah O’Keefe (32:34.958)
That’s hard to think about because the biggest challenge that comes to my mind is going back to the financial struggles that we had when I was younger. I would always play against the same girls, so I didn’t get to see how I played against other players or all that kind of stuff. That kind of went all the way through into being recruited for college. I will admit that during

Right at the beginning of recruiting, when all my friends were getting phone calls on the very first day that the window opened on, I think it’s June 15th, I was very sour because I had nobody calling me. I had no interest. Nobody knew who I was. And so I was very sour. I was very, you know, I wasn’t excited for them as I wish I would have been because they were my teammates and they were my friends and I wanted to be happy for them. But it was

difficult for me because I was like, I just don’t have, you know, I didn’t have the resources. And I give a lot of credit to my dad, right on that day, I think. He kind of looked at me and said, you know, like, maybe we don’t have the resources, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t go and outwork all these people and become better than them. Like, don’t self-pity, don’t dig a hole and sit in your hole, just get better.

and get a little bit better every day and then the results will start showing themselves and will start getting you attention.

Doug Dvorak (34:08.337)
and clearly they have. And I remember, I think it was last summer when I was talking to your dad on a work-related issue, he said, I’m gonna need seven days off, I’m gonna be caddying for my daughter Farah at Augusta. Talk to us about that experience playing at Augusta and having your dad as your caddy.

Farah O’Keefe (34:29.152)
It’s something that is irreplicable. Like you can’t compare it to anything else. I’ve played in the US Open and I would say that playing at a Guts is on a completely different level. You can’t even compare it. It’s something that even going and playing the practice round when there’s nobody out there, was just my mom and my brother watching our group. It’s something that just is like, it’s literally you walk through the gates, you go down Magnolia Lane.

and you walk through the clubhouse and you see the golf course and it’s like you’ve entered heaven. It’s like the pearl gates, know, the pearly white gates are opening, it’s like birds are chirping, there’s just like, ah, and this is, it’s seriously something that you can’t, you won’t be able to get anywhere else. And I don’t know if that’s because of just how gorgeous it is or the fact that there’s so much history and legacy that has been written there for the game of golf. And so,

Doug Dvorak (35:01.823)
Hmm.

Doug Dvorak (35:09.082)
Hahaha

Farah O’Keefe (35:27.182)
Being able to compete there is just, I’m just so grateful for the people that have initiated that event. And I think they announced it in 2018 and have allowed it to be kind of this staple in women’s amateur golf. it’s just so fun. It’s really just a really cool event. It’s also probably the best run event I’ve ever played. The people that organize the event.

They take care of all of the activities. There’s so many different things that you can do throughout the week. It’s just really, really cool and makes you feel kind of, you know, really highly appreciated and all these different things. And it’s just, I don’t know, you can’t really put it into words, to be honest. It’s more of like a feeling.

Doug Dvorak (36:11.987)
I know your emotion and your positivity is palpable coming through the microphone and the camera. And I remember talking to your dad when I was on the phone with him. Shortly thereafter, was on Cloud 9. So that’s cool. Let’s morph quickly to fun and personal. What’s one thing about you, Farah, that people might be surprised to learn?

Farah O’Keefe (36:33.474)
I was in orchestra for like six years. I played the stand-up bass and I had my own jazz solo. Yes, the big one, I know. I was in jazz band, I had my own jazz solo. was, you know, I was a complete Orchadork, as they say. Yeah.

Doug Dvorak (36:41.471)
Stand up bass, this one, wow, the big one.

Doug Dvorak (36:52.904)
Orchadork, I never heard that. An Orchadork. Cool. Farah, who are your golfing idols and have you had a chance to meet any of them?

Farah O’Keefe (37:18.784)
My biggest idols in golf are Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, and Annika Sorenstam. I’ve met Annika. We played at her event in my freshman year. was our very first event, and I got to meet her. She also was at the national championship last year, and I got to talk to her for a little bit. And she’s very nice. She’s very nice. She has a lot of really good thoughts on the game, and especially the women’s game and where it’s headed.

And then I have not met Tiger and I was this close to meeting Scotty. I was this close. We had a alumni event at UT Golf Club where they invite all of the really big alumni back to play in a scramble format tournament with donors and that kind of stuff. So like Jordan Spieth was there. Gosh, who else was there? Like all of these different people. Caitlin Papp.

like, you know, I got and all of these different people, I got Lene and like all of these different people that are on tour and they’re doing really great things. And Scottie Scheffler was there and we had a tournament and I did not get to meet him, but all of my teammates did. And so I, I, but actually coach Fields came up to me later. He’s the men’s coach and he was like, I heard you’re a really big Scottie fan. And I was like, yes, like I love him. I want to meet him. I want my game to be like his.

He like, well, I have something for you. And he handed me like this signed coaster. I actually have it over there and has Scotty’s signature on it. And so like, I haven’t even taken it out of the plastic bag. I’m like, I’m not touching that. I’m gonna keep that for so long.

Doug Dvorak (38:54.9)
Hahaha

your brush with greatness. That’s a great story. So let’s talk about advice and insights. Farah, what advice would you give to younger golfers hoping to follow in your footsteps?

Farah O’Keefe (39:08.906)
Dream big. I think that a lot of people don’t have big enough goals. You know, you, but there’s always a process to dreaming big. think like you write down your big goals and you say, you know, I want to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur or I want to win the Masters or something just that seems totally outlandish. And then what you do then is you say, okay, how that’s cool. Like I have those goals, but how am I going to get there?

How am I gonna achieve those things? And that comes through a lot of trial and error and willingness to do whatever it takes to get to that next step. And sometimes doing whatever it takes to get to the next step is actually trying less or getting yourself to calm down in a moment where you think that you should be all tough and strong and muscle through it. sometimes it’s the exact opposite.

So that’s my biggest advice is, you know, fail a lot. then, but learn from it. Don’t just pity it, know, self pity in your fail. Fail a lot, learn from it, grow from it, and then turn around and do better the next time. And maybe someday you’ll get to cross off those really big goals.

Doug Dvorak (40:24.371)
Yeah, BHAG, Big Hairy Aggressive Goals, I love that. Farah, how has golf shaped who you are outside of the sport?

Farah O’Keefe (40:33.612)
I think that it’s changed how positive I am with other things. I think that with golf, it’s really, really easy to be negative and get down on yourself and say like, I did all these things terrible today. Even though I had a pretty decent round, I still need to improve all these things. I did really bad. And I think that I’ve learned to kind of tell myself like,

Okay, maybe you need to get a little better here, maybe you need to do some different things here, but overall pretty good. Stay positive. And so the way that that translates into everyday life is there’s so many times where something’s gonna kick you down or you’re gonna make a mistake and you’re not gonna have the outcome or the result that you want, whether it’s with school or your job or maybe your car breaks down and it’s so easy to get…

so like amped up and stressed out where I think that I’ve been through golf, I’ve been able to teach myself how to stay level headed in those kinds of situations and not get too stressed out and always try to look for, you know, the bright side or the, you know, the silver lining or something like that. So that’s, I think that’s the biggest lesson that golf has taught me so far.

Doug Dvorak (41:54.25)
Yeah, and obviously you’re committed to excellence. And I love a quote from Vince Lombardi, a football coach of the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. said, the quality of your life is directly proportional to the commitment of excellence you make in your chosen field of endeavor. Your chosen field of endeavor is golf, commitment to excellence. But that mindset, that thinking big, working hard carries over into your scholastics, your school.

everything else, so it’s, and I like to hang around people smarter than me, more motivated than me, because it raises me up. Excellent. As we look ahead, what are your goals for the rest, stop, three, two, one. Farah, as we look ahead to your career, what are your goals for the rest of your time at UT and beyond?

Farah O’Keefe (42:47.48)
Well, as you said with my list of goals, I still want to win a Division I national championship moving forward. You know, we have a new coach. We have a really strong team. have three girls that have been invited to compete at Augusta this spring. It’s very competitive. We have a good team. So I would love to win a Division I team championship and an individual championship. I would also like to win the U.S. National Women’s Amateur. That’s up there for sure.

Doug Dvorak (43:02.068)
Wow.

Farah O’Keefe (43:16.27)
maybe US Women’s Am and then I really want to make the Curtis Cup team in a couple of years. So that’s kind of my immediate goals with the rest of my amateur career. And then as I graduate and I fulfill my degree, I want to turn professional and I want to go play on the LPGA tour and write my name into the history books there. So that’s kind of, those are really big goals. Like I said, those are really big.

Doug Dvorak (43:42.739)
really big goals, but you’re achieving them. What’s your dream tournament or course you hope to play on one day if you haven’t already?

Farah O’Keefe (43:51.468)
I would say Augusta, but I have played there, which is total blessing. But the only one that I have left in the big three of golf, I’ve played Pebble Beach, I’ve played Augusta, so I have to go play St. Andrews. So that is on my list. That’s where I want to go next.

Doug Dvorak (44:11.249)
Any tournaments in your near term future that would bring you to Scotland and St. Andrews?

Farah O’Keefe (44:17.774)
They are having, well I guess actually they just hosted the Women’s British Open. I think that there’s another one in a few years that they’re gonna have there. But they do have a collegiate event every year where they have four teams go and compete at St. Andrews. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my coach decides to play in that one next year.

Doug Dvorak (44:39.72)
Excellent. Well, this has been, boy, the time has flown, Farah. So thanks so much. It’s been a high honor and privilege to have you on the Mission Possible podcast. Now we’re gonna end with the rapid fire question round. Are you ready? I’m gonna ask you a series of rapid fire questions and you’ll respond with a one word or short phrase. Here we go, you ready?

Farah O’Keefe (44:52.974)
Okay, I’m ready.

Farah O’Keefe (45:02.894)
I’m ready, let’s do it.

Doug Dvorak (45:04.339)
Favorite golf club in your bag.

Farah O’Keefe (45:06.606)
7 iron.

Doug Dvorak (45:07.795)
Dream foursome, who’s in it?

Farah O’Keefe (45:10.21)
Tiger Scotty Annika.

Doug Dvorak (45:12.529)
One more. you’re the fourth. okay. Got it. You can tell I’m not a golfer. Best snack to have during a round.

Farah O’Keefe (45:14.966)
I’m the fourth.

That’s it, bar.

Doug Dvorak (45:23.87)
A what?

Farah O’Keefe (45:24.926)
That’s it bar. It’s like a fruit bar.

Doug Dvorak (45:26.769)
Okay, that’s it bar. Favorite course you’ve played on so far? What’s your go-to hype song before a tournament?

Farah O’Keefe (45:30.455)
Augusta.

Farah O’Keefe (45:35.019)
shoot, Delta Dawn?

Doug Dvorak (45:37.801)
Delta Dawn, answer. Most embarrassing moment on the golf course.

Farah O’Keefe (45:42.636)
My dad picking up the wrong golf bag.

Doug Dvorak (45:45.391)
my gosh. One word to describe your golf game.

Farah O’Keefe (45:49.506)
Competitive.

Doug Dvorak (45:50.621)
If you weren’t a golfer, what sport would you play?

Farah O’Keefe (45:53.336)
Basketball.

Doug Dvorak (45:54.473)
Favorite post-tournament meal.

Farah O’Keefe (45:57.048)
Barbecue.

Doug Dvorak (45:59.338)
What actress would play you in a movie about your life?

Farah O’Keefe (46:21.238)
Jennifer Lawrence.

Doug Dvorak (46:22.895)
All right, pre-tournament ritual or superstition.

Farah O’Keefe (46:52.77)
Black socks.

Black socks. Farah, if you could go back in a time machine 10 years, what piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Farah O’Keefe (47:02.606)
Stay patient and don’t over complicate things.

Doug Dvorak (47:07.039)
Excellent. Farah, high honor and privilege to have you on the Mission Possible podcast. Time has gone and I really enjoyed it I know our listeners will enjoy getting inside the life, the mind of a very accomplished collegiate golfer. We wish you the best of luck. Mission Possible podcast community, check us out at missionpossible.biz. Thanks for your time and Carpe Diem.