Emma Allen might live an ocean away from her hometown, but she’s never felt more at home.

The freshman golfer from Southampton, England, found good old-fashioned Midwestern hospitality upon her first visit to Mizzou, and she was struck by the friendliness of athletic staff, students and faculty.

“I went over to the (Mizzou Athletic Training Complex); I had people come up to me like, ‘Hey, what’s up? Come look at what we’re doing,’” said Allen, who attended the Wildern School in Southampton before seeking out colleges in the U.S. “It was just a really good environment, it just suited me really well.”

It was all but a foregone conclusion that Allen would come to America.

“I was pretty set, actually,” she said. “I didn’t look at any other universities in England. It was just America, really.”

Allen visited several colleges in the U.S., including Baylor, Southern Methodist, Ohio State and Southeastern Conference schools Auburn and South Carolina.

When Allen visited Mizzou, it was a done deal. She committed to the team in 2015.

“This campus is so pretty,” Allen said. “It’s the prettiest campus I’ve ever been to. All the people I met were so friendly.”

Her skills and considerable experience in golf bode well for the Mizzou women’s squad this season.

“I’d say now she’s on pace, if she continues to play like this, then you know she could be Freshman of the Year for us, set a new (freshman) stroke average — we keep track of all those things,” coach Stephanie Priesmeyer said. “And just make an impact overall, help our team move up the ranks.”

Speaking of rankings, Allen’s excellent summer has catapulted her up the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Allen has moved up to No. 324.

Allen has made the lineup for both of the Tigers’ tournaments thus far and qualified “pretty easily,” Priesmeyer said.

“(Qualifying is) … the transition for a freshman,” Priesmeyer said. “They’ve never really had to qualify before and now they’re having to qualify for a spot, and she’s not been fazed by that at all.”

Allen’s impact was felt in the Tigers’ first tournament of the year, as she shot a 2-under par 70 in the last round of the Sunflower Invitational on Sept. 8.

“I knew it was a lot steadier, because I had kind of a dodgy start,” she said.

Competitive practices for the team have been a major reason for the team’s and Allen’s consistency.

“We’ve done loads of on-course drills, we’ll go play nine holes and if you aren’t within two club-lengths or flag-lengths of a certain section, you have to pull (the ball) off the green,” she said. “It’s pressure practice, really, which is obviously really relevant to the amount of golf we’re gonna be doing in those kind of situations.”

With these drills done under pressure, Allen is able to simulate how her tournament rounds might play out, giving her the ability to fix certain areas in preparation.

Priesmeyer voiced how pleased she was with Allen’s first tournament as a Tiger.

“She’s a good little player,” Priesmeyer said. “I think that’s the type of player she believes she is. I think she’ll definitely have those expectations of herself to be winning tournaments or shooting par or even under par.”

Allen does note a few differences between Columbia and Southampton.
“It’s quite different over here; you play 36 holes consecutively,” she said. “My first round was six hours long. It was such a long day. I was like, ‘Just get used to it,’ and in the last round, I was used to it.”

Having played golf since she was in primary school, Allen said she has been impacted by the sport she loves. She played as an amateur for the England Training Squad and the English Girls Team in the last few years.

“I played my first major competition in England,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Wow. This is so much fun.’ I’m traveling all around different places playing a sport that I like. I do, all the time. I love it. At that moment, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

Although she hopes to either play or work in professional golf, Allen declared a history major for her time at Mizzou.

“History is my favorite subject,” she said. “I’ve done it ever since I can remember, all my school career. It’s always been my favorite subject, so I thought I’d pursue it. I’m not really sure career-wise where I want to go with it, but I just know that history is kinda my thing.”

Maybe it’s fitting that Allen is a history major. She has put her talented past and her young life behind her, coming to the U.S. in search of new experiences, academic and athletic successes. She’s here at Mizzou, a school proud of its history. And the way she’s playing, it seems almost predestined that she’ll be making her own.