EVANS, Ga. — Kaitlyn Schroeder started re-watching “The Last Dance” in recent months because she finds inspiration in Michael Jordan’s extreme competitiveness. Her father, Scott, thinks some of Kaitlyn’s competitive fire came from the summer camps he ran at the University of North Florida. Kaitlyn, who didn’t attend just one week of camp but all the weeks, didn’t like golf at the time, but she hated losing more, and Scott often split up the groups for mini competitions.
Now an 18-year-old, Kaitlyn, last year’s AJGA Player of the Year, loves every part of the grind this game demands and wants nothing less than to be the best player in the world. As the daughter of a men’s Division I college golf, she’s had the rare opportunity to watch PGA Tour player Philip Knowles and current UNF star Nick Gabrelcik go to work daily at the UNF practice facility, which essentially doubled as her second backyard.
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“It’s just seeing how hard they work,” said Kaitlyn. “Not hearing about it, but like literally seeing it.”
Kaitlyn is one of 37 players in the field this week making their debut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where just over half the participants are teenagers. She’ll have her father, Scott, on the bag, noting that she sometimes trusts him more than herself. Scott, a seven-time ASUN Conference Coach of the Year, played collegiate golf at UNF and his wife, Wendy, is a UNF Hall of Fame tennis player.
Scott notes that when Kaitlyn was growing up, former UNF All-Americans Travis Trace and Knowles didn’t let her win in friendly competitions. And none of them made excuses.
“In today’s society right now, everybody finds an excuse,” said Scott. “And for the most part, she’s really good about not making excuses: ‘I just played bad.’ If you’re going to be good, you’ve got to be willing to admit when you play bad and not blame somebody else.”
Kaitlyn, who was homeschooled long before she got serious about golf, graduated from high school last December and enrolled at Alabama as a redshirt freshman this spring. She’s currently taking 13 credit hours and transferred in with 12.
Knowing firsthand how difficult the transition can be jumping into the fall golf season while adjusting to college classes away from home, Kaitlyn thought she’d get her feet wet this spring, even though she can’t compete.
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“She brings a competitiveness and a leadership that’s going to be really valuable to us and our culture,” said Alabama coach Mic Potter of what’s to come. He also said that recruiting conversations with Kaitlyn were exceptionally easy given her passion for college football.
Looking back, Scott said Kaitlyn’s trip to the 2018 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, made a big impact because tournament rules allowed spectators to walk on the fairways, up to close to the action.
“I think that was probably when she decided, ‘I want to go do this,’ ” said Scott, “not just be good at golf, but be involved on a team and have a chance to do some of this stuff.
When asked how he knew when to pull back to allow Kaitlyn to grow in recent years, Schroeder said his coaching philosophy is to occasionally allow kids to fail.
“You don’t want them to fall off a large cliff, but you can let them fall off a short cliff,” he said. “Because sometimes they have to fail to be willing to listen more. If you’re only always telling them what to do, at some point, they’ll stop listening.”
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With so many potential ANWA competitions still on the horizon, Scott said they’re not putting too much pressure on this week. As Kaitlyn continues to improve, Scott finds himself saying less of the things he used to preach on a consistent basis.
He now coaches Kaitlyn similar to the way he coaches Gabrelcik, who is currently No. 12 in the men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Kaitlyn played her first AJGA event in the ninth grade and last year won both the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior and Junior PGA titles. While some of her junior friends have previous experience at the ANWA and Drive, Chip and Putt competition, Kaitlyn will see Augusta National for the first time this week.
The past two winners of the ANWA have been junior golfers, with then 16-year-old Anna Davis winning last year and Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani triumphing in 2021 at age 17.
Bailey Shoemaker, 18, teamed with Schroeder to reach the finals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball last year. Shoemaker went on to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur and made the cut in three LPGA starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open.
“I think we’re a little bit like Jordan (Spieth) and J.T. (Justin Thomas),” said Schroeder. “We love each other off the golf course, but every time we play, like whether it’s just playing for fun or playing, you know, in a tournament, we want to beat the crap out of each other.”
M.J. would be proud.
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