Leaving her homeland of Rennes, France, Louise Depadt came to Stephenville, Texas, with one dream: to continue her golf career at the collegiate level and eventually thrive at the highest competitive level of women’s professional golf.
Now a student-athlete at Tarleton State University, Depadt continues to break records one after another. With passion, dedication and countless hours of practice, she has built a reputation as one of the program’smostdetermined competitors.
But along the way, Depadt faced a setback.
Suddenly, an injury forced her to step away from the game she loved most. A meniscus knee surgery stopped everything.
One moment she was competing, traveling and chasing victories. The next, she was sitting in her room, hearing from afar as her teammates prepared to leave for the next tournament. Everything felt distant. Voices were there, but they barely registered.
“I was super sad, mad and angry, to be honest,” Depadt said. “I felt a little hopeless, because I always think about the worst.”
For an athlete whose life revolves around competition, the fear was overwhelming. “The fear of not being able to play what you love most is really hard,” she said.
“Golf is a really big part of my life if not the biggest. Without it, I didn’t really feel like myself.”
For Depadt, the feeling was similar to hitting what seemed like the perfect shot, only to watch a sudden gust of wind push the ball off its line and take a bad bounce into the water.
One moment, everything is flying exactly where it should. The next, it disappears beneath the surface. The momentum stops instantly. What once felt like steady progress suddenly vanishes.
In that moment, it felt like being underwater herself. Everything slowed down.
Sounds became distant. The world above seemed far away.
“It felt like while everyone else was advancing, I was stuck,” Depadt said.
For months, recovery replaced competition. Hours of rehabilitation replaced rounds on the course. Instead of preparing for tournaments, she worked daily to regain strength and balance in her knee.
But slowly, progress returned.
“When I was finally able to walk normally again, rebuild my muscles, and regain balance, that was a huge moment,” she said.
Then came the moment she had been waiting for: the green light from her surgeon to return to golf.
“I was really, really happy,” Depadt said. “I was also scared at first to play again, but that feeling didn’t last long.”
Her comeback would soon prove something even more powerful than resilience. She hadn’t lost her game.
“It meant that even with an injury and time away from the course, I didn’t lose much of my level,” Depadt said. “It took a lot of pressure off my shoulders.”
Returning to the course never felt better. While fear lingered, the discipline she built during three long months of recovery gave her the confidence to do what once seemed impossible.
On Feb. 2, 2026, Depadt broke the single-round record in the Tarleton women’s program, shooting 8-under par at the Texas State Invitational. She also set the program’s 54-hole record at 11-under, with rounds of 70, 64 and 71.
The achievement proved one thing: the injury may have stopped her for a moment, but it never took away the reason she came to Texas in the first place.
To compete. To grow. And to keep chasing the game she loves.