Moodie was born in
Glasgow. At age 11, she was taught to play golf by her mother, a former 6-handicap amateur, at Windyhill Golf Club in
Bearsden,
Scotland. At age 16, she left school and started working in a grocery store and Greaves sporting-goods shop in Glasgow. She had to postpone her college enrollment when her mother suffered a
brain aneurysm that left her with tunnel-vision blindness and for the next three and a half years Moodie worked in the winter (including a few weeks in a nightclub) so she could play competitive amateur golf in the summer. During this period she won the 1992 Scottish Women's Strokeplay Championship and represented Great Britain and Ireland in the
Curtis Cup in 1994 when her win over
Carol Semple Thompson in the final singles match secured a 9- 9 tie keeping the Curtis Cup in GB&I by virtue of the GB&I win in 1992. She also played on the victorious 1996 team in
Killarney,
Ireland and played in the 1996
Espirito Santo Trophy World Amateur Team Championship where she finished 2nd. Moodie enrolled at
San Jose State University to play collegiate golf for the Spartans, graduating in 1997 with a degree in
psychology. the 1996 Stanford Women's Intercollegiate and the 1997 Peg Barnard California Collegiate. She was
Big West Champion 1994-1996, Big West Athlete of the Year 1994-1996, was All-Big West 1994 and 1995 and finished in the top ten at the
NCAA Championships each year 1994-1997 thus earning First-Team All-American honours each year during 1994-1997. She posted the lowest scoring average on her team from 1996–97 and won the Golfstat Cup in 1996. She turned professional in 1997 and qualified for the
LPGA Tour by tying for 21st at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn non-exempt status for the 1998 season. ==Professional career ==