LPGA Tour player Madelene Sagstrom first shared her secret five years ago. For 16 years she pretended nothing had happened. She immersed herself in golf and created an identity on the course.
But in March 2016, while preparing for a Symetra Tour event, Sagstrom couldn’t hold onto it any longer. She had to find out that she was sexually abused by an adult male friend in Sweden when she was 7 years old.
In an LPGA Drive On video released Monday, Sagstrom, 28, shared her story of childhood sexual abuse and the healing that took place after she decided to talk about what happened to her.
Madelene Sagstrom’s story is difficult to read, but important to hear. Every ninth girl under the age of 18 is sexually abused by an adult.
She is telling her story here in the spirit of helping others.
Neither of us is alone https://t.co/nFG6lw6mRZ#DriveOn pic.twitter.com/ilkJ5RZMAd
– LPGA (@LPGA) February 22, 2021
Sagstrom, who has been on the LPGA Tour since 2017 and won the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA, is returning to the tournament starting Thursday at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida.
Throughout the process of helping Sagstrom share her story, LPGA officials said they learned a lot and started conversations about the resources and support the tour provides for current and future gamers regarding sexual abuse.
Roberta Bowman, LPGA’s chief brand and communications officer, said the tour of LPGA / USA Girls Golf, which reaches nearly 100,000 girls a year, was to ensure that Girls Golf leaders had the resources they need. The tour continues to follow SafeSport protocol and worked closely with RAINN, the National Sexual Assault Hotline, as it prepared to tell Sagstrom’s story.
And this week the LPGA will be handing RAINN resources and support to the leaders of the USGA Girls Golf. Some of these resources include tips for adults on protecting children from sexual abuse, identifying the care warning signs, and being safe on social media.
Additionally, some of the resources for the girls include what to do if something happens that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
In the video and her accompanying first-person essay, Sagstrom explained how she first shared her story with her mentor Robert Karlsson, a former Ryder Cup player she met through the Swedish national team. After struggling with her emotions on the course, Sagstrom turned to Karlsson for help. In return, Karlsson encouraged them to dig deep and try to find out the root of their struggles.
“I had this thing in my head. At first I didn’t think it was important. But it kept coming back,” said Sagstrom in her essay published on LPGA.com. “I thought, ‘Maybe there is something. Maybe I should tell Robert.'”
While preparing for a tournament in Greenwood, South Carolina, Sagstrom told Karlsson that she was sexually abused as a child. In the LPGA video, Sagstrom said telling Karlsson helped her feel free.
“I didn’t want to tell anyone,” said Sagstrom on Sunday. “It was a story and it was an experience that was hidden deep within me and I never wanted to share that with anyone and when I started working with Robert I realized that it changed me. It made me made who I am today. “
Sagstrom won her first LPGA title with Gainbridge LPGA last year. She then posted a letter to her younger self on her Facebook page, in which she revealed more about her childhood and her journey to that point.
Prior to this post, Sagstrom said she also shared her story on Facebook in 2017. At this point, the LPGA was aware of Sagstrom’s experience of sexual abuse. Until then, the main goal of the LPGA was to represent and protect Sagstrom and its history.
“It was at the height of Madelene’s career success after Gainbridge last year and she just watched how she acted after that, the thoughtful responses to the media questions, and then she did something very interesting, and she kept on writing your Facebook page was a letter to little Madelene, and that became the signal for us that there was a growing sense of comfort in spreading this story, “Bowman said.
For more than a year, LPGA and Sagstrom have worked together to reveal the full story of Sagstrom’s past as part of their drive-on initiatives.
“It was an ongoing situation,” said Bowman. “But we really had to convince ourselves, Madelene and the LPGA, that she was ready for it.”
Sagstrom said she feels ready to go public with her story on a larger scale, and her greatest hope is that she can help others realize that they are not alone.
“Over the years my platform has grown. As a 2020 winner, the door has just opened that I know I can share more of myself and will reach more people,” said Sagstrom. “I thought it was the perfect timing. The LPGA was fantastic with all the support. We worked on it for a long time and I think the timing is great. I just wanted to help someone out there.”
By telling Sagstrom’s story, the LPGA hopes to have challenging but impactful conversations on and off the golf course.
“There are so many layers to this particular story,” Bowman said. “If your life has been traumatized to have this conversation and reach others. If you are lucky enough to be spared that, you may be in the role of Robert Karlsson and make that judgment right now, and to have this conversation about how we can value and support people who are going through their own changes. “
With the release of Sagstrom’s Drive On video, she wants the focus to be on the steps she has taken since she first shared her secret and went public with her childhood sexual abuse. She also hopes that she can be a guiding light for others who may need resources and support.
“I’m telling the story, but what I want to focus and share is the steps I took after that, the choices I made to grow,” said Sagstrom. “It’s not about what happened, it’s about how I grew out of it, how I became the version that I am today.”
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