Cupcakes with Kupcho

Colorado’s Jennifer Kupcho has been doing just fine

By Jim Bebbington

Westminster’s Jennifer Kupcho is 28 years old, married and trying to balance life and a career as a touring LPGA professional.

When her pro career began, she won three tournaments, including one major, right out of the gate. She has been part of the LPGA’s bigger names ever since and a member of the U.S. Solheim Cup squad twice.

But as the wins dried up for a few seasons, it was hard to watch Kupcho during interviews and come away with the thought ‘Now here is someone who is having an absolute blast!’ The grind of playing on either the LPGA or PGA Tour is well known, and it can take years for young players to find their balance between competing, performing well, and living the kind of life they want.

It turns out Kupcho has been just fine. It also helps that the wins returned, with her taking her fourth title this June at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. But as she reveals on her new podcast ‘Cupcakes with Kupcho, life on the LPGA Tour is just that – it’s life, but with golf.

Her podcast launched this spring as part of her sponsorship with Protiviti, a global management and financial consulting firm. She has also begun opening up on Instagram about her life outside of the course.

Her most common post this summer has been a series on the complex Lego construction projects that she undertakes when she is home. Her talks on ‘Cupcakes with Kupcho’ show that life as a travelling professional is a lot of logistics. She travels with seven or eight outfits, and does her laundry during back-to-back weeks. During her trips to Asia, she packs everything she needs.

“Going in Thailand or Singapore to a laundromat is not exactly the funnest thing,” she told her co-host in one of her episodes in which she discusses Tour life.

The travel for LPGA pros is notoriously a grind. Kupcho flies United commercial jets – private let travel is less common for the top LPGA players than on the PGA Tour. She confessed that she loves doing her own travel planning and logistics. In college, everything is set up for players by the coaches and teams; on the Tour, it’s up to the player. She and her husband, Jay Monahan, often travel together to tournaments. Monahan works as a caddie on the LPGA Tour, most recently hauling bags for 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz.

“I feel like the luck I have is so bad where the entire plane is quiet and the people directly in the row behind me are talking so loud!”

She is very clear – she likes silence, especially on planes.

“(Jay) likes to listen to music and stare into space; I like silence,” she said. “Everybody calls me a serial killer for just sitting there silently but it’s so peaceful.” White-knuckling is a new trend that millennials post experiences about in which they take flights without watching any videos, listening to music or even reading. Kupcho was waaaay ahead of the curve on this.
“Everybody thinks it’s so horrible but it’s actually the greatest thing ever,” she said.

During rounds, she has an important relationship with her caddie, Josh Udelhofen. While she is often quiet and reserved during competition, he is good at reading her mood and adjusting appropriately, she said.

“I can get pretty worked up on the golf course – angry worked up,” she said. “And he’ll try and talk to me and I’ll just give him a one-word answer and he’s like ‘OK…’ Then he’ll ask me another question and I’ll give him another one-word answer and he’ll just keep doing it until I talk to him because he knows that’swhat’s go- ing to help me.”

Of the course, she cherishes time for things away from the game – reading, watching a show, going to the gym, doing anything on her own. “Having hobbies and doing something for five, ten minutes a day (is important),” she said. Why Cupcakes with Kupcho? She says she is a ‘cupcake enthusiast’ and each episode features a new taste-test.

Her podcast is available on all major podcast platforms and on YouTube. New episodes drop about every two weeks.

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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