FRISCO, Texas — Lauren Coughlin can tell you the exact moment she fell in love with Metallica.

“It was right after COVID, and I was back at my parents’ house, and I was driving in my old 2008 Scion TC. That was my car from high school,” Coughlin remembers. “It doesn’t have any fancy radio or anything, so I was listening to the radio, and the song “Unforgiven” came on, and I was like, ‘Who is this? I’ve never heard this song.’ I looked it up, and it was Metallica.

“And I was like, ‘Wait, this is not what I thought Metallica was.’ It led me to do a deep dive, and pretty much, ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with them.”

At first glance, Coughlin and heavy metal rock bands might not be considered synonymous. The 32-year-old is fairly composed both on and off the golf course, contentedly going about her business with a reassured sense of self that keeps her from leaning into any nonsense that encourages her to change anything about herself to fit in with the crowd, even something as simple as her music taste.

While her LPGA Tour counterparts are eagerly waiting for Taylor Swift midnight releases or jamming out to the pop powerhouse that has become Chappell Roan in recent years, you’ll find Coughlin rocking out to heavy metal, something she had the opportunity to do in person the Saturday before the season’s third major tournament.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being contested this year at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco, just outside of Dallas, Texas, and when Coughlin found out that Metallica would be playing in Houston a couple of days before she needed to arrive in the Lone Star State to prepare for her 12th event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, she jumped at the opportunity to secure tickets.

“This couple that I'm really good friends with, Casey and Jon Landman, I go to Pearl Jam and Metallica with them every time pretty much,” said Coughlin. “I was looking at the schedule and I was like, Houston, NRG Stadium, Metallica, Saturday before KPMG, really easy. I can go see them with my parents and get up from Dallas easily from Houston. It ended up working out last minute, and it was really, really fun.”

Luckily, one of Coughlin’s sponsors, NRG Energy, also owns NRG Stadium, which is where Metallica’s concert was being held on June 14, and they were able to hook Lauren up with seats in the famous Snake Pit, giving her a front-and-center view of her favorite band. Coughlin even got to bring her father to the show, something that made the experience that much more special, particularly considering Father’s Day was on Sunday.

Lauren Coughlin

The concert was Coughlin’s second time seeing Metallica live and her first since she went to one of their shows in 2022, which was held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. She’s also an avid listener of Pearl Jam, guest DJing for SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio last October, an unforgettable experience for the rock-obsessed Coughlin.

And when it comes to her favorite Metallica song, “Unforgiven” is certainly up there, as it was the catalyst for her fascination with the heavy metal group, who were founded in 1981. But Coughlin would classify another of the band’s tracks as her all-time favorite, even though she’ll often list a litany of different projects and albums on which Metallica has worked if you ask her to choose just one song as her most well-loved.

“My favorite is “Bleeding Me,” which they actually just remastered the Load album, which is the album that (has) that,” Coughlin explained. “They have played with the San Francisco Symphony twice. They’ve done two concerts with them. Then, in 2019, they did this song off that same album called “The Outlaw Torn,” and the live version of it is unbelievable.”

Coughlin had a breakout year in 2024, capturing her first two career LPGA Tour titles in just under a month’s time at the CPKC Women’s Open and ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open, two wins that helped qualify the Virginia native for her first U.S. Solheim Cup Team in September. She then went undefeated as a Solheim Cup rookie at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., not too far from her hometown, helping lead the Americans to their first victory in the biennial team competition since the 2017 season.

And while many people might only know Coughlin because of her accomplishments on the golf course and have several pre-conceived notions about who she is when she’s not teeing it up in an LPGA Tour tournament, Lauren’s Metallica obsession is a good reminder of an athlete’s depth as a human being, a good reminder that there is a person behind all of the accolades, an individual with interests and passions that make them much more than just a number on a scorecard.

It reminds us that a professional golfer can also be a Metallica fan.

Rock Fan Lauren Coughlin Attends Metallica Concert Ahead of Season’s Third Major

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