ASU golf’s Farr-Kaye: Linn Grant, former Sun Devil golfers will ‘thrive’ in Olympics

TEMPE — Arizona State women’s golf coach Missy Farr-Kaye is filled with pride for the five golfers she coached in Tempe before they reached the Paris Olympics.

Swedish 25-year-old Linn Grant, who golfed for ASU from 2019-21 and won a tournament on the LPGA Tour in 2023, recently completed the largest comeback ever in a golf tournament in which she won from entering the final round back 11 at a DP World Tour event in June after becoming the first woman to win the same mixed event two years earlier. No more have done it since, Farr-Kaye pointed out to reporters Wednesday.

“It’s amazing, Linn’s the only female to have ever won with men competing in the DP World Tour and there’s nobody better to do it because there’s nobody that has that very confident strut of like ‘I’ll show these guys how to play.’ That’s the Grant,” the coach said.

Grant will be joined in Paris by Italian Alessandra Fanali, German Alexandra Försterling, and Spaniards Azahara Muñoz and Carlota Ciganda.

Ciganda has won twice on the LPGA Tour, as many times as the rest of the group combined. Försterling won her first in May. Each were All-Americans when they golfed for ASU.

“This is the type of environment that Linn Grant excels in, as do they all. That elite player that just turns up their internal nob just a little bit, I’ve seen it in all of them,” Farr-Kaye added. “And so each of them, they are gonna be ready to go and give it their best to win a gold medal.”

She joked it’s between Grant and Fanali for which of the group gets the Olympic rings tattoo first, betting on the latter and demanding a picture when it happens.

“Each and every one of them, their success has not been a straight line. … I can remember those spaces for each and every one of them. So to have been just a little part of trying to believe in them when they had trouble believing in themselves, to watch them grow as women and to see just the rock stars that they all are, it’s really cool,” Farr-Kaye, who has won national titles as a player, assistant coach and head coach, explained.

“Rings and national trophies really help a lot of things, but I am so excited when each of them graduate and go onto have families and become moms and do all kinds of cool things,” she later added. “But this is such a great external validation of how hard they work and what they do … and they don’t get enough credit for what amazing students they are on a daily basis.”

The coach also took note of some of the other ASU ties in the Paris field, which includes nearly 20 Sun Devils besides the women’s golfers.

“I can’t wait to watch (swimmer) Léon Marchand. I keep telling everybody, ‘Hey this French kid is amazing but he’s a Sun Devil,'” Farr-Kaye said.

“The fact that we have five (Olympic golfers), I’ve looked at some other really good schools and what their numbers are and I haven’t seen any fives,” she later added. “So it’s really a huge point of pride for us that we have so many.”