When your smile still shines brightly long after the sporting cheers have faded, might that be because you are living a life beautifully crafted and respectfully shaped?

When rekindled memories ignite a rush of pride and those few picked-over heartaches don’t provide deep regrets, might that be owed to the balance in your world and the dignity with which you have always carried yourself?

It is a proper introduction to Candy Hannemann, one of the most heralded junior and collegiate golfers of her generation, but even more impressive in real time as a woman who gracefully juggles motherhood, family, business, and the burning desire to give back to the game to which she owes so much.

“I always knew I’d have a life beyond golf. Golf would be part of my life, but I always knew I would re-invent myself,” said Hannemann, who was born and raised in Brazil but truly has always been wrapped in an inclusive global spirit thanks to golf.

Her early teen years? They were spent traveling with her father, Lutz, to play junior golf in the United States. (Lutz still lives in Brazil. Her mother, Lu, passed in 2018, and a brother, Alex, owns a restaurant in Switzerland. “That’s global,” she laughs.)

Her teammates on Duke’s national championship team of 2001-02? They hailed from Sweden, Spain, Thailand, Switzerland, and the heartland of the United States, Indiana.

Her dearest friends while traveling the LPGA between 2004 and 2008? They came from Colombia (Marisa Baena) and Mexico (Lorena Ochoa), from Spain (Paula Marti) and Sweden (Helen Alfredsson) and Australia (Karrie Webb).

“Candy is a true trail-blazer for Brazilian women playing top-level golf on the world stage,” said Webb, who first met Hannemann at the 2001 U.S Women’s Open. Webb, then 26, successfully defended and shared the tournament ceremony with Hannemann, at 21, the low amateur.

“It was a few years later that Candy and I became friends. She had a wonderful amateur career and was really starting to hit her stride on the LPGA . . . ”

Then, fate stepped in. Hannemann injured her right wrist in 2007, made it worse by trying to play through it, then had the first of three surgeries. The woman who had made the cut in nearly 70 percent of her 67 tournaments in 2004-05-06 missed eight of nine in ’07. A year later, the surgeries unable to relieve her of the pain, Hannemann struggled to play in 24 tournaments, missed 15 cuts, and walked away at the age of 28.

“I think had it not been for this injury, Candy would have had many more years at the top of the game,” said Webb.

Hannemann would likely agree with her friend but refuses to dwell on it and her coach at Duke, Dan Brooks, said she must not.

“She was great and I really enjoyed having her at Duke. But the interruptions were tough on her,” said Brooks. “A lot of things need to work out and it’s just plain tough (at the pro level).”

“I really wish I had won on Tour. I wish I was healthier for longer,” said Hannemann. “But there are no regrets. The game has given me so much and I’ve made so many friends. It gave me the independence to be myself.”

At 43, Hannemann has been settled in the Boston area for years. She is Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships at the UnitedHealth Group. Married to Adam Grossman, Chief Marketing Officer with the Boston Red Sox, they are the parents of daughters, Stella, 11, and Luiza, 8.

Hannemann cherishes the enthusiasm both girls put into their activities (Stella loves golf and hockey; Luiza is busy with theater, lacrosse, hockey and gymnastics) and credits them for helping her re-discover her passion for golf.

“I kind of pushed back against playing (after leaving the Tour in 2008),” said Hannemann. But after Luiza was born in late 2014, Hannemann was motivated by the dream of returning to Brazil as a 2016 Summer Olympian in Rio de Janeiro.

Her comeback in 2015-16 consisted of six LPGA tournaments and while the dream didn’t come true, Adam and the girls got swept up in the enthusiasm and Hannemann re-discovered her love of golf.

There are days when she walks the Primrose Course at The Country Club, where Hannemann and her family are members, and gets swept up by the beauty and tranquility. “To play golf, it’s so therapeutic,” she said.

It is through a wide lens that you best can measure the joy of Hannemann in a golf setting. From hitting balls at a nine-hole course in Santa Cruz da Sul, 1,000 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, to bursting onto the scene with AJGA and Western Junior Amateur success, to joining a Duke program that would enable her to flourish, Hannemann played with passion, with flair, but most of all with a warm and engaging spirit.

“I think I did so well at Duke and in juniors because I had a very balanced life,” said Hannemann. “Golf wasn’t everything. It was huge, but I had other interests.”

And to really make it at the next level?

“You have to be really selfish to be a professional golfer,” she said. “I couldn’t be as selfish as you needed to be.”

There were exceptions, of course. Webb for sure and most definitely Ochoa. “Having that balanced life, it worked for Lorena. She was the best, always balancing friends with golf,” said Hannemann.

Which isn’t to say that Hannemann sold herself short, because she poured herself into the LPGA pursuit. “You have to fall in love with the grind, and I fell in love with the grind,” she said.

But to see a world of achievement, passion, and balance, study Candy Hannemann who might be 25 years removed from her first year of Duke, but she’s every bit as energetic and encompassing now as she was then.

She threw herself into volunteer work at the 2022 U.S. Open, helping colleagues start the Lee Elder Internship Program “from scratch.” Her professional career is thriving and recently Hannemann was asked to serve on the AJGA Board of Directors.

“The AJGA was impactful to my life, so to be involved and to help give back is so great,” said Hannemann.

When she plays with Stella, it’s easy for Hannemann to harken back to that nine-hole course in Brazil where she often got the chance to play with adults.

“They were people who were wiser, they were bridging generations,” said Hannemann. “I love that about golf. It felt comfortable for me.”