I don’t remember life without golf. I grew up in a house on a golf course with parents who loved (and still love!) golf. They rigged a car seat in their golf cart so I could ride around with my older sister while my parents played. My earliest golf memory is when I hoped my parents would hit their balls in a sand trap so I could play in the sand and rake the trap. 

Within our country club’s junior golf program, I gradually moved from playing 4 holes, to 9 holes, to 18 holes. When I turned 8, I began playing in the Washington Junior Golf Association (WJGA). My first out-of-state tournament was at age 14 when I qualified for Junior World at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, California. I began traveling around the country with the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) and national tournaments. At age 16, I was awarded the MVP of our team in the America’s Cup in Alberta, Canada.

My four years of high school, since there was not a girl’s golf team, were spent on the Bellarmine Prep boys’ varsity golf team in Tacoma, WA, winning the girls’ Washington High School State Championship my senior year. I earned a 4-year Division 1 NCAA golf scholarship to Pepperdine University and played there for my college career. After graduating, I opted to say “good-bye” to the years of fierce competition and finally just play golf for fun! 

My sister, mother, and I had given golf lessons to my father – an excellent golfer – almost every day due to his compulsion to hit the ball well every time. He always had us look at his swing to help him “fix” the problem. After we told him what he needed to change, he would say, “Okay, I got it,” go out and play a phenomenal few holes, hit a couple misses and say, “I lost it,” giving up entirely on what we had told him to do, which only led to more family lessons in the middle of the fairway. I therefore fully credit my father with my ability to see areas of improvement in golf swings.

My husband and 4 children love living in beautiful Oak Harbor, and we appreciate the excellent indoor golf options on the island for the wet, colder months!