Lauren Coughlin managed to get her redemption in just two weeks! At the Amundi Evian Championship, she finished in the 4th position, losing the title by just four strokes to Ayaka Furue. Fast forward to the next championship, the 31-year-old pro grabbed her first-ever victory on the LPGA Tour.

She defeated Mao Saigo by two strokes to lift the trophy at the CPKC Women’s Open on Sunday, scoring a 13-under at the Earl Grey Golf Club, despite smoke from wildfires in the area. Beside her stood her husband, who was her caddie and biggest supporter, as she took the last stroke.

John Pond and Laura Coughlin’s love story over football

John Pond and Lauren Coughlin are both alumni of the University of Virginia and also lived in the same dormitory. One of Coughlin’s friends had taken her out on a date, but they did not quite like each other as partners. Later, they went to a football Christmas party, where a mutual friend introduced her to John Pond.

They soon started bonding, as the footballer loved food, and Coughlin would take him to places in her car. They started dating in 2012. In 2016, after she had just won the ACC title, Pond took the mic at the post-match ceremony and asked her to be his life partner. She said yes, and they got married two years later, on January 20, 2018. John Pond has also been Lauren Coughlin’s biggest support both on and off the course.

Pond has even caddied for Coughlin on and off, whenever she needed his help. He was at her bag even at the 2023 US Women’s Open qualifier. “There’s no one who knows me better than him, so just kind of keeping me cool and relaxed out there and calm and not getting too far ahead of myself at times or too down on something that happened before,” says Coughlin about her husband. But this is not all. When Coughlin truly needed someone by her side, Pond made the biggest sacrifice just so that he could be by her side.

John Pond quit his job to caddie full-time for Lauren Coughlin

Lauren Coughlin parted ways with her long-time caddie after the Blue Bay LPGA in China back in March. John Pond had recognized her love and passion for golf a long time ago and wanted her to have the best support on the course. This was why he quit his full-time job at UVA. Initially, she was unsure of whether their relationship should undergo the challenges of professionalism. But then, she decided to give it a try. “Okay, I will have you caddie for me Palos Verdes, and then just see who I can get. Okay, I’ll give you these three weeks. I’ll know after three weeks if we can do it,” she said.

They entered the course together for the first time at the Seri Pak Championship, where she missed the cut. However, at the Ford Championship, she bagged a T8 and took a week off. It was entering the Chevron Championship that she announced him as her caddie. She said, “I know he can do all of the things that I need him to do. It’s more just — we’ve never spent that much time together, so it’s just like can I do that, can I have the boundaries that we need to have to where we’re not just constantly about me golf all the time, which of course I enjoy that he cares that much, but it’s just like I don’t always love it always being about me and my golf game specifically.”

Well, Pond’s full-time commitment to caddying for Coughlin has paid off, culminating in her first LPGA Tour victory and solidifying their partnership both on and off the course.