Jane Geddes played for 22 seasons on the LPGA Tour and recorded 11 tour victories, including two major championships at the 1986 U.S. Women's Open and the 1987 Mazda LPGA Championship. At age 46, Geddes, of Tampa, Fla., currently is completing her final 16 hours of classes at Stetson University's College of Law in St. Petersburg, Fla., where she will earn her law degree in December. Here is what Geddes had to say to Lisa D. Mickey on LPGA.com in the inaugural installment of the site's "Whatever Happened To…" series.

Q: When and why did you decide to leave the LPGA Tour to attend law school?
A: I played my last tournament on the LPGA Tour at Portland, Oregon in 2003. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I was in school at the University of South Florida in Tampa getting my undergraduate degree in criminology. I always wanted to go to law school, so I applied to a few schools and was accepted at Stetson's law school in the summer of 2004. The school is near where I live, so it was perfect. After that last LPGA event in Portland, I spent the next couple of years going to school full time.

Q: How scary was this decision to leave professional golf and go back to school?
A: It was very scary. I was 44 years old when I left the tour and I'm 46 now. Everybody at the law school is 25 to 27 and there are only three of us in our 40s. I wondered, "What if I flunk out?" The first one and half years I almost panicked because it was really hard and I kept saying, "I don't need this. Why am I doing this?" But then I finally said I'm going to do this because nobody thinks I can do it.

Q: Was it all about finding your next big challenge?
A: I looked for that next big challenge -- really searched for it. I thought a lot about what was going to challenge me. I didn't want to always be just Jane Geddes the golfer. I felt like I needed more credibility than that. I felt I needed more skills. And I was more motivated than I was scared to find my next challenge.

Q: Did you have any experiences that helped you know this was what you really wanted to do?
A: I worked as a clerk in a big law firm in St. Pete for about eight months. It was a really valuable learning experience to see how the process works and how to do real-world kind of things. I had never worked in a real office, so I wondered stuff like, "Where do I get a pencil?" And then I spent five weeks this summer as an intern at the LPGA's headquarters in Daytona Beach [Fla.]. I had always thought about certain issues on tour in a certain way, so it was interesting to go back with a new perspective, using the application of analytical thinking. Before, as a player, I might look at things and say, "Yeah, that's wrong." But now, even if I still think something's wrong, I'm thinking, "But maybe if we do X, Y or Z, we can make the problem better."

Dottie Pepper, Jane Geddes, and Patty Sheehan at the 2002 Solheim Cup.

Q: As you entered law school, were you thinking about using your degree within some area of the sports industry?
A: Well, I had a choice. I could be a complete peon in the legal world -- which I am anyway -- and start at the bottom with no knowledge of anything, or stay in sports, particularly in golf, where I do have some perspective. I felt like at my age, I needed to do something I knew a little bit about. I spent 20-plus years playing competitive golf, so I should know something about it.

Q: How different has this experience been from your playing days on the LPGA Tour?
A: It's been really eye opening. It made me revert back to when I was first on the tour. To be successful, you have to gain experience. You have to listen and watch and take chances and put yourself out there. Going back to school felt similar to the early part of my playing career. I felt like I was starting all over again, yet with a different skill base. Before, what I did was mostly physical with some mental effort, but now, it's all mental. The challenge now is to take what I have learned and apply the skills that I already have.

Q: How is Jane Geddes the golfer similar to or different than Jane Geddes the future attorney?
A: I think I'm the same person. I'm pretty quick, pretty efficient. Confidence is something that I have learned. And now I know the value of education and learning all sides to issues. You have to be educated to make good decisions and I've gained new skills that will give me confidence in a different way. The biggest difference is responsibility. Inside the ropes as a player, it was all about me. I could rise and fall, based on what I did alone. But when you are making legal decisions, now everything you do affects everyone. It's scary because there's a lot of responsibility there, but it's also very challenging. It's about a lot more than deciding to hit a 6-iron or a 7-iron.

Q: How do you think your past career will benefit you as you launch a new career?
A: Playing professionals don't realize how much they gain through competition. There are physical and mental demands. There are risks and rewards. Playing professional golf is intense, risky and rewarding and you gain so many skills and experiences in that process, which certainly can be used in other areas.

Q: Do your classmates in law school know that you have won 11 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including the U.S. Women's Open?
A: The women at law school didn't get it and the guys thought it was cool. I stayed completely under the radar during the first two semesters, but then somebody Googled me and "outed" me as a golfer in class.

Q: What do your former LPGA Tour peers think of you leaving the tour and entering law school?
A: Everybody's reaction has been like, "Wow!" I think they appreciate the difficulty of the decision to leave playing and going back to school. The fun part for me has been the different sort of respect I've felt. People are now asking for advice.

Q: How hard has it been to just walk away from the LPGA Tour now that tournament purses are better than ever?
A: I think both the beauty and the difficulty of golf is it's so hard to walk away from it. You can play forever. Life is good on tour. But mentally, I wasn't motivated anymore. The hardest thing for me has been that leaving the tour was like losing my family.

Q: Can you get fired up about practicing law like you could about playing golf?
A: Oh yeah. I'm excited to be able to do something else and to have a chance to do something that means something. In school, you do things for grades, but in a work setting, it's very exciting to apply what you have learned. And it's a challenge to keep learning and bettering myself.

Q: Do you want to stay in golf or take a different direction in law?
A: I'd love to stay in golf because I'm 46 years old and don't want to completely start over again. Of course, I'm still learning every moment of the day, either about myself, about the LPGA Tour or about law. It's like learning a new language. I'm on the other side of the ropes now, but it's still about women's golf and it all adds up. To have been a part of the tour's growth from the other side, and then to take my player's perspective and use my new skills as a critical thinker has been really exciting so far. I'm still passionate about golf and it's certainly what I know.

Lisa D. Mickey is a former senior editor at the Golf Digest Company, where she covered the LPGA Tour for Golf World and Golf For Women magazines. She is a co-author of “Champions of Women's Golf: Celebrating 50 Years of LPGA Golf” (2000) and was a contributing writer of The Solheim Cup coffee-table edition book (2005). She currently writes the web stories for and serves as director of communications for the Duramed FUTURES Tour.