Kailey Kleinatland is 9 years old, and she already loves golf.
Besides practicing and playing, she loves what comes afterward.
“The fun part is you get trophies,” she said.
Not everyone wins trophies when they hit the links, but not everyone has Kleinatland’s skills.
In just two years, the Lutz resident has won tournaments at places like Westchase Golf Club, Carrollwood Country Club, Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club, Belleair Country Club and Crescent Oaks Country Club.
And her prospects are looking even better since she has been accepted into the USA Junior Team program.
While golf is a challenging — and potentially lucrative — sport, it’s also quite expensive.
After getting off to a great start with her first coach, Bill Monical, it became clear that Kleinatland would benefit from high-level training that can cost hundreds of dollars per session.
Because her family isn’t wealthy, making the junior team was the only way she’d be able to get that training.
When she qualified, her father, Howard Kleinatland, saw it as a sign that their faith continues to reap dividends for their family.
“It just seems like whenever she needs something provided, God has always provided it for her,” he said. “She’s very strong with her faith and involved with our church.”
In addition to attending Revolutionary Life Church in Lutz, Kailey does a lot of volunteer work and hopes to get involved with Special Olympics, Howard explained.
Her older brother, Codey, has a disability, making that area of volunteering a personal one for her family.
If the Kleinatlands were unsure if Kailey would qualify for the USA Junior Team, they shouldn’t have worried. Her new coach, Brad Brewer, saw something in her immediately.
“She’s just a natural,” Brewer said.
And with decades of coaching experience, specifically with golf academy programs, Brewer is an expert at knowing what to look for in a young golfer.
She had to go through profile testing on a series of skills, and Kailey qualified for the “junior stars” category in most of them. In the others, she was closer to the higher “elite” category, despite being younger than a lot of the other students.
In addition to her physical abilities, Brewer said he also is impressed with her mental approach to the game.
Some children put unhealthy pressure on themselves, but Kailey takes the good — and the bad — in stride.
“She’s like a kid just having fun, just trying to do the best she can, and I love that about her,” Brewer said.
Kailey said having fun was the reason she began playing golf in the first place. Her best friend, Jaida, started playing, so Kailey wanted to join her.
It’s still fun, Kailey said, but she also now has a more rigorous schedule.
Mondays are a combination of volleyball and golf after school.
On Tuesdays, she travels to Orlando for a 90-minute session with Brewer. Wednesdays are taken up by church and more golf, Thursday means another trip to Orlando, and Fridays are reserved for dance lessons.
And the weekends?
She often competes in two-day tournaments, and she often comes home with a trophy.
She often has to do homework on the drives to Orlando, but she enjoys learning from Brewer. He provides advice and makes sure she grasps the lesson.
“When he gives us the information and we don’t understand it, he’ll repeat it in a new way,” Kailey said.
The coaching skill might be rubbing off on Kailey.
Her dad said he began swinging clubs after he saw that Kailey had a knack for it.
After studying her dad’s swing, Kailey observed that he still has a way to go before he’ll bring home trophies of his own.
“Since he’s a little older, he’s not as flexible as the younger kids. So he can’t turn his shoulder all the way around,” Kailey observed.
Kailey’s mother, Tracy, is not a golfer, so it looks like Kailey may be the one member of the family who might make waves in competitive golf.
Brewer, who has been working with Kailey just a short time, would not put limits on what the 9-year-old may be able to accomplish as she develops as a golfer.
“I’ve helped players get all the way to the tournament. I’ve worked with major champions,” he said. “Certainly nothing is out of possibility with someone like this.”
Published April 22, 2015
