When Monique “Mo” Gesualdi takes on a student, she’s sizing up the golfer for potential. It’s not about the kind of player the student is now, but what capabilities might lie down the road. That perspective, like much of her coaching philosophy, is heavily informed by Gesualdi’s experiences, including an enormous health setback in her mid-20s.
Gesualdi, the director of instruction at St. Johns Golf and Country Club in St. Augustine, Florida, received a liver transplant in 2012. A subsequent fungal infection called invasive aspergillosis required two subsequent brain surgeries. Gesualdi, now 39, beat long odds after those surgeries and made a full recovery.
“I’ve been through a lot personally and mentally, emotionally, physically, and so I think that creates a sense of resiliency and persistence from me and when I am coaching or teaching,” she said.
Gesualdi brings that kind of mindset to her work with students.
