Story Links
March 29, 2007
Cavalier senior Leah Wigger has piled up 21 top-10 finishes during her impressive career. Last week she won her first collegiate tournament and was named the Golf World Player of the Week for her effort. A native of Louisville, KY, Let’s Play Through with Leah Wigger.
Question: What is your favorite overall golf course and why?
Wigger: My favorite course is Pinehurst No. 8. It is a challenging but fair course that tests every aspect of your game – tee shots, iron shots, short game, and most of all your patience.
Question: What is your favorite single golf hole and why?
Wigger: My favorite golf hole is No. 16 at Birdwood during the fall. I have played other pretty course, such as the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, Pumpkin Ridge, Harbour Town Golf Links, Valhalla, Pinehurst No. 2 and 8, etc.
Question: What is your favorite club in your bag?
Wigger: My favorite club is my sand wedge…I love to hit all kinds of shots with it.
Question: Who has influenced your golf game the most?
Wigger: My parents were the biggest influence in my golf game. They instilled in me the love and integrity of the game and also all my swing coaches in the past, particularly Dick Bradow.
Question: What is your earliest memory of playing golf?
Wigger: I remember playing in the evenings with my parents at our country club during the summer. We would play a few holes and then go inside the clubhouse to eat dinner.
Question: If you could play with any professional, who would it be?
Wigger: I would love to play with Greg Norman. He is a guy who is both successful on and off the golf course and I think I could learn a lot from him. Plus, I would get to listen to his Australian accent all day! (Adam Scott would be a very close second!)
Question: What is one golf rule you would like to change?
Wigger: I think the current rule for slow pace of play is that the whole group gets penalized after the first warning if time is not made up by the next checkpoint. I don’t think the whole group should be penalized when it may be just one person who is slow!
Question: What is your favorite shot to hit?
Wigger: I love to hit to any shot, whether it’s a great drive or a flop shot over a bunker!
Question: My favorite golf term is?
Wigger: It’s a bunker not a sand trap!
Question: The strangest thing I ever saw on a golf course was …
Wigger: My daddy’s swing. I don’t know how he does it! I would also like to mention that I have been hit in the head with a sand wedge, by my father, who decided to throw it after a bad shot! On a side note, the funniest thing that I ever saw on the golf course was my mother throwing her sand wedge into the woods at a golf course in Indiana after being in a bunker for the 14th straight hole. She must have thrown it at least 60 feet into the woods! And my poor father had to go fetch it out of the woods!
Question: What is the current song/artist you listen to prior to playing?
Wigger: I listen to just about anything just as long as it is not rap. Currently, I listen to artists such as Faith Hill, Josh Groban, Collective Soul, Snow Patrol, Chris Daughtry etc. – anything to keep me relaxed.
Question: What do you love most about UVa and why?
Wigger: I love the Grounds and how beautiful it is in the fall and spring. It truly is one of the prettiest campuses in the U.S.
Question: What is your favorite food that you rarely eat?
Wigger: I LOVE LAMB (just leave the mint on the side)!!! But I only get to eat it when I go out to restaurants with my parents.
Question: Who has your favorite nickname on the team?
Wigger: I like my nickname Biscuit but I don’t get called that very often.
Question: What do you want to buy with your first paycheck after you graduate?
Wigger: I would love to buy a house and be able to decorate it! However, that will take quite a few paychecks!
Question: What is your favorite movie line?
Wigger: Currently “Kiss my frozen tushie…kiss it…kiss it” – Happy Feet; I also love Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura 1 and 2, and Mel Brook’s movies, etc.
Question: Most people would be surprised that I …
Wigger: Have a twin brother (Kristen did not know for like a year that I had a twin brother)
Question: If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be and why?
Wigger: Coach Mann. I really wonder how much work she really does and how much she has to put up with us (we are girls so there is always something going on!)
Question: What class would you like to teach?
Wigger: I would like to teach a sports psychology class.
Question: What is/are your favorite sports team(s)?
Wigger: Virginia Cavaliers! (Professional athletes get paid too much to me; at least in golf you get paid based on your performance that week).
Question: If you could appear in any TV show it would be…
Wigger: Wheel of Fortune…I am not smart enough for Jeopardy. (When I was a kid I always wanted to be on the Nickelodeon shows Double Dare, Legends of the Hidden Temple, GUTS, Wild and Crazy Kids, or What Would You Do?
Question: If you could create your own major what would it be?
Wigger: Something that involves more sleep than I get right now! On a more serious not, it would probably be a mix between art and science.
Question: What is your lucky number?
Wigger: Seven but I also always start with a number two golf ball for every round.
Question: What is your greatest fear?
Wigger: I’m scared of heights, spiders, snakes, and the list could go on…
Question: If you could travel back in time, what era would you visit?
Wigger: I would like to travel back in time to when Jesus was here on Earth.
Question: If you were to be stranded on an island and you could only bring one thing, what would it be and why?
Wigger: A satellite phone would be good so I could call someone to come save me! (If I couldn’t bring any electronics…I would bring a knife so I would be able to make a spear, tent, raft, etc.)
Question: If you could have any superpower it would be?
Wigger :Being able to heal all those that are sick, no matter what the disease.
Question: If you could have lunch with any person in the world, who would it be and why?
Wigger: I would like to have lunch with the President of the United States. He’s one of the most powerful individuals in the world and I would love to meet him in a more relaxed setting.
Question: The one condiment I can’t live without is …
Wigger: Ketchup…honey mustard is a close second!
Question: My favorite toy as a kid was…
Wigger: Little toy cars
Question: Which actor/actress would you pick to play you in a movie?
Wigger: I would pick Ashley Judd. She’s Kentucky born and bred just like me!
Question: What is your favorite hobby?
Wigger: I love to read…but I don’t know if I would call that a hobby. Anything artistic will do too!
Question: What is your favorite character from a book?
Wigger: I L-O-V-E Harry Potter!!! I will be at Walmart at 12 am just to get the last book when it is released!
Question: What is the most embarrassing song on your iPod?
Wigger: I don’t have any embarrassing songs because they are all great to me!
Question: What is your favorite UVa tradition?
Wigger: The tradition of Honor at this school has always amazed me! It says a lot about our school if we can live by this Honor code and live our lives with as much integrity as possible.
Question: What is your most prized possession?
Wigger: I love my car; however, I do not technically own it. In fact, I really don’t own anything because my parents have bought just about everything (thanks mom and dad!!!)
Question: I would buy a ticket to go see…
Wigger: The Beatles if they were still around or Faith Hill
Question: The most exotic place I ever visited…
Wigger I wish I could say that I have been to an exotic place. I have yet to go anywhere outside the U.S. and I don’t consider a place like Hilton Head or Kiawah Island an exotic place.
Question: Best non-athletic talent…
Wigger: I have always been very artistic although I have never refined that talent.