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Alison Curdt mixes a mental approach into her golf lessons to help students improve their overall games.
Alison Curdt mixes a mental approach into her golf lessons to help students improve their overall games.
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Alison Curdt was doing laundry at home in Woodland Hills when the call came. She didn’t recognize the number, from North Carolina, and she usually lets calls like that go to voicemail. But for some reason she decided to answer.

It turned out to be one of the best phone calls of her life.

Dana Rader, president of the LPGA teaching professionals, was on the line. She had good news. Curdt had been selected the 2015 LPGA National Teacher of the Year.

“My first thought was why is Dana Rader calling me,” Curdt remembered during a recent conversation at Wood Ranch Country Club in Simi Valley. “I remember sitting down on my bed and she was telling me how I won national teacher of the year. I was absolutely blown away.”

The award embellished an impressive resume for Curdt, a forward-thinking 34-year-old director of golf instruction at Wood Ranch. Entries on that resume include being one of only 11 women to become a PGA Master Professional; 2012 and 2015 LPGA Western Section Teacher of the Year; 2015 SCPGA Northern Chapter Teacher of the Year; 2016 SCPGA Teacher of the Year; and one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Instructors in America for 2016-17.

What separates Curdt from some contemporaries is a developing expertise in clinical psychology. That has helped define her teaching philosophy and enabled her to encourage students to achieve levels of performance they might not reach by focusing solely on the physical elements of the game.

Curdt received a golf scholarship at Florida State and graduated in 2004 with a dual degree in psychology and professional golf management. In 2011 she enrolled at Pepperdine and two years later earned her masters degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy. A licensed psychotherapist who sees patients in the evenings, she’s now halfway through her doctoral program with an emphasis in sports psychology from California Southern University.

“For me, teaching was working with human beings, not just about how you grip the club or swing it,” Curdt said. “You’re a person. If I can work with that person, work with their emotions, work with the relationship, that might exponentially change their physical responses.”

That approach has left its mark on her students.

Mikie Alpert, the reigning women’s club champion at Rancho Park Golf Course, liked what she had seen of Curdt in a Golf Channel segment and has been seeing her for about a year and a half. Her handicap has dropped from 7 to 4.

“I’m 100 percent better psychologically on the course.” said Alpert, 63. “I know what I need to do and I know what I need to do without Alison there with me. … She doesn’t just want to tell you what to do; she wants you to be able to articulate how you feel when you’ve done it correctly.

“She just has a really positive outlook on what the results can be and lets you know that your limitations are often caused by your own reluctance to get better.”

Bob Umeck, a 66-year-old retired teacher and golf coach who lives in Cherry Valley, has a daughter, Gina, who’s the women’s golf coach at Cal State Northridge. Gina suggested her dad get a lesson from Curdt after Curdt had become an assistant coach for her.

“I knew because of my experience over 30 years or so with golf teachers for Gina that Alison was something special,” said Umeck, who has gone from a 10 handicap to a 6. “She gives you a stability and confidence with her psychological approach; gives you the confidence that makes you believe you can score better.”

Curdt was introduced to golf by her father, Calvin, when she was 7 and living in St. Louis. Given only a 5-iron, she took to the game immediately and cherished the time she spent with her father when he would sneak her out on the back nine to hit some shots at their club, even though she wasn’t old enough to be allowed on the course. Playing in tournaments by 10 or 11, she remembers seeing a Lafayette High School golf bag, pointing at it and saying, “I’m going to do that,” then saying the same thing after seeing a college bag.

She was also a basketball player and discus thrower in high school but gave them up her senior year to concentrate on golf. After graduating from Florida State, she headed to Palm Springs, but an event outside her control in 2006 momentarily derailed things. Shortly after she had left her condominium across from the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, a fire that began in a neighbor’s unit destroyed everything she owned — clothes, clubs, all her golf mementos. She was left with nothing but what she was wearing and had in her car.

At the time, she said, her relationship with golf had become a bit “toxic.” So she returned to her family in Missouri to get back on her feet.

“I took some time away from the game but I couldn’t stay away long before I realized this is part of who I am,” she said. “And if I changed my relationship with the game, maybe there will be a different outcome. Sure enough there was, and I feel now that I’m doing better with how I handle adversity than ever before.”

She returned to California and in 2007 signed on as first assistant and head instructor at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. In 2014, she established her own teaching business — Alison Curdt Golf — and was briefly based at Angeles National before moving her operation to Wood Ranch.

She feeds her competitive spirit by playing in a couple of tournaments a month. Last year she was runner-up in the SCPGA women’s section championship, ninth in the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals national championship, regional LPGA champion and the SCPGA Women’s PGA Player of the Year.

Through it all, she maintains a schedule that would overwhelm many others.

“I would say there about five hats I fulfill throughout the day,” she said. “I teach from 7 to 2, transition and put on my therapist’s hat and see clients from 3 to 9. Sunday and Monday are usually my days off when I can catch up on schoolwork, read and write papers, plan some business things and practice. And when I have a tournament, I create my own plan for that. … You have to make the time; if I wasn’t passionate about competing I could definitely see never swinging a club except when I’m with students. But because I love that competitiveness, I make sure there is a time to fine tune my skill level.”

But she is clearly passionate about all of those disciplines.

“Everything I choose to do is fun,” she said. “I love teaching; I love working with clients; I love coaching; I love practicing and competing. There’s not anything that I put on my plate that is not fun to do, and that can be very empowering.”

She hopes to play on the LPGA Legends Tour, for players 45 and over, when that time comes. And she hopes after receiving her Ph.D. to focus her practice on performance, whether it’s to improve clients athletically, in the business world or the arts.

“I don’t feel like I’m ever there; there’s always more to do,” she said. “Even though I’m blessed to have gotten the recognition I have, there’s still more to do.”