Mimi's fine form can be traced back to her final year in college, which culminated with her pacing her Wake Forest team, the defending champions, at the 2024 NCAA Championships. In an international field of the best women collegiate players, she finished T10th and earned All-American honours. 

The summer saw her compete in her final British Amateur Championship, record a T3 as an amateur in her first LET Access event in Sweden and be named in Catriona Matthews GB&I Curtis Cup team to face the USA. It was an achievement she marked by recording top-15 finishes in her next two LET Access events. 

In the biannual matches at Sunningdale in early September, Mimi partnered her younger sister Patience in the opening foursomes, losing for the first time ever as a pair. But on the final day in the singles, she provided one of the defining moments of the match with a long par putt on the 17th that all but secured the trophy for the home team.

The next step was to turn pro. In just her second round in the paid ranks, Mimi shot 64 on the way to finishing 5th in the Rose Ladies Open. Less than two weeks later, she closed with another 64 to score her maiden victory at the Lavaux Ladies Open in Switzerland. 

Recently, and perhaps most impressively, Mimi fired a final-round 65 to finish joint top at the LPGA Q:Series Qualifying Stage. After 72 holes of high-pressure stroke play, she tied for first place with 2024 NCAA individual champion Adela Cernoucek, ahead of a roll call of aspiring tour pros and college standouts. 

Mimi began using Clippd at Wake Forest, where Associate Head Coach Ryan Potter describes it as major factor in the Deacs' first ever national championship. As a pro, she is still using the platform to track her game and guide her practice, sharing her dashboards with her coaches. ‘It's really important to have them checking in on me now that I'm in this world all by myself,’ Mimi says. 

No doubt those coaches like what they’re seeing.

‍What did your four years at Wake Forest give you as a player?

‍Mimi Rhodes: People ask me, do I miss Wake Forest? I tell them I wish I could be there my whole life. Wake just means family. In those last four years I connected with so many people, it just holds a really special place in my heart.

It's been really hard to move on from there, honestly. When I first started at Wake Forest, I was a completely different person. I was independent but not in the sense of my golf. They've moulded me into someone who can take care of my scheduling of the day and make sure I get my workouts in and short game and all the areas of my game. 

Thinking back, I feel like I took it all for granted because all they were doing was trying to make us better for this exact moment when you decide to turn professional and take things on to the next level. 

‍Your final act as an amateur golfer was to secure the Curtis Cup for GB&I. How do you reflect on that week at Sunningdale?

‍Mimi Rhodes: I don't even know where to start! The minute I got there I had a feeling it was going to be a great week, and it ended up being one of the best weeks of my life.

To be captained by Catriona [Matthew], the legend, and our other captains, was incredible. We all just meshed so well. We all knew each other from college golf but we'd never all been on the same team. It was kind of weird at the start but once we had those first couple of days, we got on like a house on fire. It was just so much fun being with them for the last event of my amateur career. 

“All of the adrenaline and emotions. You know, I just love playing under pressure”

It was the little things the captains did that made the difference. They put gifts in our room after every day with a motivational quote on a card. It's just incredible everything that Catriona did for us. She told us that she got her best people helping us and it was honestly like we were playing at the Solheim Cup.

Honestly, it was Catriona’s speech to us the night before the last day that did it. She told us not to focus on the other matches but just to focus on your own match. 

The day after, when I was three down, I looked at the board and thought to myself, this is my last event as an amateur. I need to give it my all. I wanted to put the singles point on the board for myself and that's when I came clawing back. 

I don't even remember so many people being around me because I was just so focused, especially on the putt on the 17th. I hadn’t putted my best all week and I hadn't really holed a putt longer than 10 feet. That putt was 21 feet and my caddy just said, ‘You got this’. I wasn't even nervous. 

And it just went in and that's when I thought to myself, this is why I play golf. All of the adrenaline and emotions. You know, I just love playing under pressure. That was probably one of the most pressurised moments of my career and I was grateful to be put in that position and grateful it went my way.

‍You have been on an amazing roll. Do you feel like your game has moved up a level in these last few months?

‍Mimi Rhodes: Yeah, definitely. I wasn't expecting all of this since turning professional. I didn't put any expectations on myself. At the Rose Ladies, I just wanted to play my best and have fun. That was pretty much the most important thing. It was my first pro event and if this is going be a long career, I need to learn how to enjoy it. That was a really amazing week and an incredible start to my pro career. 

“I feel that I'm really trending right now at the right time”

Travelling to all these different events is really helping me learn about different things and not just on the golf course. I feel that I'm really trending right now at the right time. 

It's a dream that I've started this way and it's given me the confidence that I need right now. I’m really excited to play 2025 on whichever tour I make it on. I know I'm going to have a fun time because I've had a fun time already. I'm just really happy with the people around me and everyone who I'm meeting on the road.

‍Your Mum, Penny, has been on the bag in your first few months as a pro. Is the plan for her to continue?

‍Mimi Rhodes: I'm just grateful that she's always with me. It's really nice having my Mum on the bag, supporting me and chatting with me, making sure I'm having fun. If I have a bad day, she's always there to lift me up and move on to the next. 

While I do worry I’ve kept her away from my dad for too long, she'll definitely be travelling with me to all these cool places. She always looks at the schedule and if the tour is going to China or South Africa, she says how much she’d like to go. She'll definitely be tagging along, but I'm not 100 per cent sure yet that she's going be on the bag for the tournament days.

‍Tell us about your grandmother, who encouraged you and your sister Patience (2021 English Amateur champion, currently playing at Arizona State) to take up the game.

‍Mimi Rhodes: She was golf crazy. She had two holes in one in a single round and was in the newspaper. She’d always show us that newspaper cutting. Every time we went over for a Sunday roast, there would be an LPGA event on TV in the living room. My grandmother would say, ‘That's where you're going to be one day.’ 

Patience and I were playing golf by then and it was really special to have someone give us that drive. She never really pushed us to love golf, it was always really fun. 

“It was always our grandmother’s dream to watch us on TV”

When I won the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship [in 2019], my first big win, she was over the moon. She loved Justin Rose. She started crying. 

We've always wanted to make her proud because we know it was always her dream to watch us on TV. I know that she's always watching over us and giving us that extra grit.

‍Your grandmother’s dream took another step towards becoming a reality when you recently finished joint first Stage 2 of the LPGA Q-Series. How much pressure did you feel?

‍Mimi Rhodes: I would say I felt very prepared going into Stage 2. My swing was back where I wanted it and I had been in Phoenix practising with my sister for the week prior to the event. I was able to get in all the practice and preparation I needed to have a good week. 

I treated it like another other event: I’m there to try and win. When they announced that the top 35 make it through to the next stage, I thought to myself I’m going to try and win instead of trying to get top 35. 

In most cases that might put more pressure on myself but in this scenario it took my mind off of finishing inside the cut. Over time, I’ve learnt how to deal with high pressure situations and now I can have more fun in them!

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