By 5:30 a.m., Juana Diaz Cristobal has already started her daily check-in meeting with her team at Bonita Bay Club. She's the golf course superintendent and oversees a grounds crew in an industry where that position is rarely held by women.

Diaz Cristobal grew up in a small town in Mexico that she said offered few opportunities to get ahead. On Dec. 19, 2000, she said she was 14 when a man from her hometown kidnapped her, planning to force her into marriage.

"They tied my hands. They took me to a place in the woods where nobody could see me," Diaz Cristobal said.

She said a police officer searching the area passed by without finding her. She said she eventually persuaded her captor to let her go by agreeing to the marriage — on the condition that she goes home to tell her parents first. Once inside the house, she said, she did not leave.

"The situation in Mexico is difficult. The law isn't easy," Diaz Cristobal said.

The following year, at 15, she left Mexico on foot, crossing into the United States through what she described as a tumultuous terrain.

"It was difficult. You have to bring your own food, and you walk through areas where nobody's around. You risk your life," she said.

When Diaz Cristobal arrived in the U.S., she moved in with her older brother, who was already living in Naples. She began working at American Farms, a local flower nursery. Some of the people living with her brother were already working at a local golf course, she said, and that was how she first learned about golf.

"They'd come home talking about raking bunkers, mowing greens. I started wondering what they were doing, and the more I asked, the more I thought — I have to go apply," she said.

She got a job at a Naples-area course called Hideout, starting at the bottom of the crew raking bunkers, she said, as one of the only women working there at the time.

"I asked my boss if I could have an opportunity to learn more. I started learning more about the fairways and spraying," Diaz Cristobal said.

Rising into a management role meant earning the respect of a crew that was almost entirely male, Diaz Cristobal said, in a field where women remain uncommon. Now 42 and working as a legal U.S. resident, she oversees a crew of about 15 women working alongside men at Bonita Bay. Diaz Cristobal said she tries to pass along what she has learned to the people she manages.

"Anything is possible. If you work hard, and if you have discipline and dedication, I think it's possible," she said.

By late morning, the day's watering plan is set. Diaz Cristobal and her crew move on to the next task.

"And then we clean the shop," she said.

WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.