Golf wasn’t readily available for Ludovica Farina growing up in the southern part of Italy, with most of the major courses and top players clustered in the northern section. But that didn’t stop her from making the Italian National Team at 12-years-old and ultimately putting together a highly successful four-year career in College Park. 

Growing up, Farina’s father was always a big sports guy and he had her try her hand at several different ones as a young girl in Siracusa, Italy. Farina was admittedly awful at most of them until she discovered golf. By the time she was six, Farina was playing on a makeshift driving range on her family’s land during the week and traveling two hours up and back with her dad on the weekends to play 18-holes on real courses in Northern Italy.