‘I felt like a complete failure’: LPGA pro shares emotional discovery 

Struggle less. To Lindy Duncan, her sister’s thought was as welcome as a 10-putt. 

That would mean accepting struggling, and that was unacceptable. Instead, she ground. “Work till you drop,” was how Duncan put things, and she’d made a good living off of that. Ahead of this year, she’d made 172 starts on the LPGA since 2016, made 114 cuts and posted eight top 10s. Those are fair results. But she continued to push. She chased more. 

Then last week, at the Chevron Championship, the year’s first major, she nearly won. Through 72 holes at the Club at Carlton Woods, Duncan tied for low score with four others, but Mao Saigo’s birdie was best in overtime. That night, Duncan said she couldn’t sleep. That’s hard to do when you can’t stop smiling. 

Eventually, though, you reflect. For about a year, she said she’d been thinking about her journey. About struggling. And struggling less. She said she talked about that with family and friends.

Tuesday, Duncan shared that with everyone. She posted to Instagram, and her words are below. 

They’re worth your time.    

“Struggle less. Fight harder. Never quit.

“My sister gave me this mantra in 2017 and I didn’t understand it at all. Back then struggle felt like failure, not something to embrace.

“For a long time, my core beliefs sounded like this: Struggling means you’re weak. Work until you drop. Punish every mistake so it never happens again. Hide behind practice and gadgets. You should be having better results. Don’t feel, just push.

“But the harder I worked on the wrong things, the more I fought myself. I thought I was protecting my dream, but I was suffocating it. Eventually, I lost my way completely.

“When I finally accepted the truth, that I was the one creating this pain, I was heartbroken. The disappointment cut deep.

“I felt like a complete failure, not just as a golfer, but as a person. I wanted to disappear.

“It took me years to understand that even a strong spirit doesn’t protect you from self-doubt. But every step forward, no matter how heavy was proof: Doubt is a choice. And just like doubt, belief is a choice.

“That mantra my sister gave me, ‘struggle less,’ finally makes sense. It doesn’t say you should not struggle. It means believing in yourself so completely that struggle no longer owns you. It means replacing self punishment with self trust. It means fighting for something, not just against everything. Also, it means striving towards purpose, not hiding from the world.

“Last week, I finished T1 in a major championship. I was nervous. Uncertain. Unsure how I’d handle it. But I stayed in it, even when it hurt.

“Because somewhere along the way, I stopped fearing the struggle. I stopped believing that doubt had the final say. I chose to trust the quiet resilience that had always been there, not loud or perfect, but steady and real, waiting for me to stop chasing perfection long enough to finally hear it.

“Change doesn’t arrive all at once. It sneaks in quietly, one brave moment at a time. Until one day, you realize you didn’t just survive.

“You became.

“Thank you to the Chevron Championship, Carlton Woods, the volunteers, LPGA staff and officials, and all the fans that came to watch. Thank you to my sister McKenzie for helping me write this.”

This week, Duncan’s back at it. She’s playing the Black Desert Championship, where a reporter asked her about the post. 

Her sister asked her questions, she said, and they found the words. “She’s the incredible writer,” Duncan said. She said she’s still not sure how she feels about sharing. 

“But I’m glad I did.”