Paige Mackenzie, the former University of Washington star, does not need to return to the LPGA Tour next year.

She certainly doesn’t need the job, not with a blossoming career as a television personality on The Golf Channel.

And the 31-year-old says she has nothing to prove to others, or even to herself, after playing on the top tour for seven seasons.

Despite that, Mackenzie is returning to competition in 2015 after back surgery earlier this year. And the reason can be stated in one word.

Fun.

“I enjoy the game, I love playing on the Tour, the people and the travel,” she said. “It’s going to be about having fun, but I will work hard. I don’t want to feel as if I can’t win. But it’s going to be more about having fun and less about a job.”

In February, Mackenzie underwent a procedure in which doctors harvested her bone marrow, pulled out stem cells and re-injected them into her ailing back discs. They were the same troublesome discs that forced her to redshirt her sophomore season at Washington and not swing a club for 10 months.

“It does give me confidence having gone through this before,” Mackenzie said. “I learned at 19 how to be patient and that sometimes rest is the best thing you can do, which is hard for any athlete to do.”

Mackenzie said she has been pain-free since October and is now feeling better than she has in years. She has full-time LPGA Tour status this year after getting a major medical extension. She plans to play in the Tour’s season opener the final week in January, and the time away has given her time to think about her game.

After graduating from UW in 2006 as the top-ranked college player in the country, she seemed destined for stardom. As a junior at UW, Mackenzie was 13th at the U.S. Women’s Open. She has maintained her Tour card since leaving UW, but her best finish in an LPGA event is eighth and she freely admits she has underachieved.

Mackenzie has looked back on her time at UW, when she knew less about the golf swing. She would look at the target, react to it and hit. With increased knowledge, Mackenzie said she began thinking too much and became too mechanical.

“I’m excited to come back because I know I can do it,” she said. “I want to feel the shot, see the shot and just react. I just need to go back to playing like I did in college. My ball striking actually got better with the increased knowledge, but it took away what made me great.”

Mackenzie was a four-time All-Academic Pac-12 honoree at UW. She said public speaking in school as a representative of the athletic department helped prepare her for TV. But it wasn’t a career she sought.

In the fall of 2012, in the last LPGA event of the year for Mackenzie, The Golf Channel asked if she would be interested in working on the “Golf Central” evening recap program.

“I am not good at saying no, so I did it, but I really didn’t think I did very good,” Mackenzie said.

But six months later, Mackenzie was contacted about working on the “Morning Drive” show during the U.S. Women’s Open.

“I agreed to do it, but on the flight to Orlando, I was kicking myself for saying yes,” she said. “Why should I be talking about a tournament that I should be playing in (but had failed to qualify for)? But I loved doing it, and I was able to look at it objectively without having feelings of discontent about not playing in it.”

Her profile at The Golf Channel has steadily risen, and in addition to being a regular on “The Morning Drive,” she was also the co-host of “Big Break Myrtle Beach.” Mackenzie will continue working on TV while she plays and said she is very happy that she has a career that she can seamlessly transition to after she retires from playing.

“I never saw myself still playing when I was 40, or even 35,” she said. “And the TV career only started because I said ‘yes’ when they asked.”

For now, she is fully committed to playing and isn’t the only member of her family making a comeback. Older brother Brock, also an all-American at UW, has regained status on the Web.com Tour after two seasons of playing on PGA Tour Canada.

Paige and Brock live together in Arizona in the offseason.

“I am so happy for him because he has put in the time and the effort, and it’s so nice to see that hard work get rewarded,” she said.

Washington coach Mary Lou Mulflur thought Paige Mackenzie had the talent to win a U.S. Open, and her thoughts haven’t changed on the player she calls “the best representative you could have for the program.”

“She’s had the game taken away from her a couple of times, where all she could do was visualize great shots,” Mulflur said. “When she came back for us after being hurt, she won right out of the chute. No wants to go through an injury, but she has made the best out of it. I think she will do well.”

Scott Hanson: 206-464-2943 or shanson@seattletimes.com

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