Women of Golf · Ted J. Odorico and Cindy Miller

Women of Golf - Season 13 Episode 5 | Rising Star Mariel Galdiano

April 7, 2026·58 min·4 clips

Mariel Galdiano tells amateur golfers: when you feel distracted on the course, feel the ground under your feet — and ask yourself why you're playing golf at all.

1. Women of Golf Season 13, Episode 5 interviews Mariel Galdiano, a Honolulu-born Epson Tour professional and former three-time UCLA All-American, about her development, mental game, and race for the 2026 tour card. 2. Hosts are Ted Odorico and LPGA professional Cindy Miller; Galdiano joins remotely from Central Florida, where she has been based since April 2021. 3. The episode's central question is how early phenom status — a US Women's Open debut at 13, six major appearances, a UCLA single-round record of 62 — translates into sustained professional success. 4. Galdiano grew up at Punahou School in Honolulu (the same school as Michelle and Barack Obama), competed across Hawaiian islands in the state Junior Golf Association that launched in 1998, and names Michelle Wie as part of the first major wave of talent that inspired her generation. 5. She identifies the convergence of Tiger Woods' peak form around 2008, affordable junior programs, and year-round perfect weather as the 'perfect recipe' that produced an unusually competitive cluster of Hawaiian junior golfers. 6. She moved to Central Florida in April 2021 after weighing Texas, Arizona, and Nevada, drawn in part by her aunt already living there; she practices at Grand Vista and works with coach Tony Siegler at Kings Point. 7. At the inaugural Orlando Health Championship, Galdiano shot a first-round 67 in windy conditions and held the overnight lead; she describes the second day as harder because leaderboard awareness was unavoidable despite her usual practice of ignoring scores. 8. Her coping strategy for day two was to reduce each hole to a single comparison with the previous day — was she in the fairway or the bunker this time? — and treat each incremental improvement as its own win. 9. On the final round, she describes playing freely and aggressively alongside eventual champion Maddie McCrary, making a 60-foot eagle on the final hole without knowing exactly where she stood in the standings. 10. Galdiano describes her best competitive state as 'smiling, laughing, free, open,' contrasting it with the tension-driven constrained play she sees in players who are hunting a score or protecting a lead. 11. She recommends that amateur golfers use physical grounding — feeling the ground underfoot — to return to present-moment awareness during play, a technique a friend shared with her. 12. She also recommends asking 'why do you play golf?' as an antidote to score fixation, recalling a friend left speechless by the question who had been unable to identify any enjoyment in his game. 13. She says picturing herself as an eight-year-old asking a professional golfer for an autograph helps her reset perspective when results start to feel like the only thing that matters. 14. Galdiano has conditional LPGA status and describes losing her full LPGA status after last season as a learning experience rather than a failure; she compares her path to Lauren Coughlin, who went through the same process. 15. After the main interview, Cindy Miller argues in the 'no BS zone' that protecting a tournament lead is by definition playing scared, and that the only correct approach is to play smart golf within your natural game. 16. Miller illustrates the caddy-communication risk with a personal story: her caddy (husband Alan Miller, a five-time Masters competitor) suggested a lay-up she had not been considering, the thought locked her arms, she chunked the lay-up and hit a poor third shot. 17. Miller says players watching Sunday leader coverage should observe that even elite players miss shots under pressure and make bogeys at the 18th — specifically citing a European player who yanked his approach in Houston while Gary Woodland hit iron safely down the fairway. 18. The episode is conversational and loose in tone, with hosts and guest joking about poke bowls, Disney trips, and Galdiano's reluctance to admit she likes working out in front of Cindy Miller. 19. Competitive golfers interested in mental-game techniques, women's professional tours, or the Epson-to-LPGA development pipeline will find the interview substantive. 20. Listeners not interested in golf or looking for sports news coverage will find little of relevance here.

As heard by us

A grounded tour interview about pressure, patience, and the grind behind a pro golf career.

Mariel Galdiano gives this Women of Golf episode its center of gravity. She talks through the push for the card, the work of building a pro career on the Epson Tour, and the mental discipline it takes to stay in the mix.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a real look at Mariel Galdiano's race for the card, plus the mental grit it takes to protect a lead when the field is chasing.

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