Kaylee Gatlin, 10, sat stewing in the passenger seat of her father Spencer Gatlin’s truck as he pulled into the parking lot of Whisper Lake Golf Club, located down the street of their house in Madison, Mississippi. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that reached the U.S. that year, the sixth grader couldn’t play team sports with her classmates. She couldn’t even eat lunch or sit beside them in class, with lockdown in place. Instead, she was often holed up at the house, and when she left, she had to wear masks amid a public-health crisis that interrupted her childhood.
To top off her displeasure, her dad insisted on teaching her golf, which she had hated up to that point and considered an “old man” sport.
Grabbing their golf clubs from the trunk, the pair entered the clubhouse to check in. The clerk handed over keys to a golf cart, which Spencer passed to Kaylee, who picked out a cart and took her place in the driver’s seat like she always did on golf outings with her dad—something that made her feel responsible at such an age.
Kaylee pulled up to the first hole, and Spencer hopped out to prepare for her first swing of the day. The 10-year-old turned the cart off and unloaded her equipment, reluctantly walking his way. Spencer noted her premature boredom, knowing that golf wasn’t her favorite sport. However, he wanted to teach her the game the same way his father taught him. Golf had bonded them, and he wanted something similar for him and his daughter, if he could help it.
“You know, babygirl, you’re really athletic, and I think if you give golf a try, you have a lot of potential to be great,” he told Kaylee.
She nodded her head, but inside, she didn’t take him seriously. He was not the first person to try and encourage her to play golf, and she already played basketball, volleyball and softball, which took up so much of her time.
For hours, she and her father practiced on the course, mostly working to “get the softball out” of her swinging technique. Once she found her form, she switched to actually hitting the ball. The duo ventured over to the C course to work on short game before heading to the par-three course.
Repeated visits to the golf club led Kaylee to gradually build an appreciation for the game as her skill level increased. A fast learner, she picked up the sport within a couple of months.
“I’m really competitive, so I started practicing more, and I was like, ‘Maybe, this is something I can do,’” Kaylee Gatlin recounted to the Mississippi Free Press.
Later that year, the student began competing in local tournaments and in the U.S. Kids events, where she was able to test her abilities. She didn’t do as well as she thought she would, concluding that she needed to dedicate a lot of time on the golf course if she wanted to improve.
“I was so mad at my dad for making me go out there and play in tournaments, but sometimes your parents see stuff that you don’t see,” she said. “And in the long run, I’m super grateful that he made me do it because I wouldn’t be here in this position I am in right now.”
Frequent concussions forced Kaylee to quit basketball by her freshman year of high school. When her golf season moved to the fall, she found it hard to balance both golf and volleyball, so she quit the latter to focus solely on golf.
“That was a decision I cried over for months. … It was a hard choice,” she said. “Some days, when I was practicing golf, I was like, ‘OK, it was not a good day; maybe I should’ve stuck with basketball (or volleyball).’ But it eventually paid off, and I found that I made the right choice.”
Now, Kaylee Gatlin doesn’t try to get caught up in the results or let them define her. She plays for the love of the sport. As long as she did everything she could on the golf course, the outcome doesn’t matter to her because she did everything she needed to and because she understands that maybe that just wasn’t her day. These revelations took a long time to take root, but the mindset brings her more peace.
“There’s so many intricate details that go into playing golf. Everything comes down to the mechanics of it: your grip, your stance, your posture and that’s just the basics,” the now 15-year-old explained. “There’s so many little things you have to remember. All the rules, all the different types of grass, you have to look at the wind. … All of that affects your game.”
In 2024, Kaylee’s hard work paid off when she won the 7A State Championship. She presently ranks sixth overall in the state and second in her graduating class. The 15-year-old won the tournament at Patrick Farms in Pearl, Mississippi, a golf course she often struggled on when she was younger.
“When I finished, it was kind of surreal ’cause I never really thought until then that I had what it took to be a really good golfer,” the high-school rising junior said.
In 2024, she applied and was accepted to Steph Curry’s Underrated Golf Tour, which endeavors to provide equity, access and opportunity to student athletes, particularly those in underserved communities. Today, there are two Black men in the 100 worldwide rankings and one Black woman in the top 300 rankings.
Underrated Golf brings together golfers ages 12 to 18 from diverse communities and has them play with peers from across the country. The tour is hosted during the summer across four different cities and golf courses from June to August. This year, the tour will stop in four cities: Gainesville, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Galloway, New Jersey; and Los Angeles, California.
The camp concludes with the Curry Cup, a competition amongst 26 golfers taking place from Sept. 15 to Sept. 17, 2026, in Farmingdale, New York. This year will be Gatlin’s third tour, making her an upperclassman to the new class of upcoming golfers.
“The first year, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I was super nervous ’cause there were cameras everywhere and I didn’t know anybody. So we’re flying out to these places, and I’m having to meet all these new people. … I was nervous until after the first night. Everybody kinda hangs out in the player lounge, and so all the kids are super nice.”
During camp, young golfers spend four days in each city. At the opening banquet, newcomers and returning golfers meet and mingle. The camp has panels, and golfers practice around the green and occasionally do interviews. For every city they visit, the golfers participate in a tournament round, culminating in the Curry Cup at the end of camp.
“It’s all one big family now. It’s like when you go to a family reunion and you see your cousins that you haven’t seen in years. Everybody’s super close on tour, so that’s one thing I really love about Underrated,” Gatlin said. “Most of my friends on tour, they’re from California or Arizona. Some of them live in Florida. It’s really cool to see a bunch of different golfers that look like us ’cause you don’t see that a lot in my state at least.”
In the 75 year history of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, only eight Black women have earned full tour membership, with active representation remaining very low today. Some of the Black women in golf she looks up to are Sasha Avery, Mariah Stackhouse and Erica Payton, the niece of Walter Payton.
The high-school junior has goals to play on the college level and possibly play professionally. For now, she’s happy stepping into the mentor role to the next generation of Underrated campers.
“I would love to see more Black girls play golf, but I think it all comes down to what you grew up around. I didn’t know Black people played golf until my dad showed me. So, I would love to see more little girls play golf ’cause it is such a giving game,” Gatlin said. “You learn so much about yourself, and it’s 90% mental, so you’re gonna learn life lessons. And you meet so many amazing people in the sport of golf.”
Although Gatlin will only be attending two stops on the Underrated Golf Tour, she has plans to compete in the Curry Cup. The cup is eligible for the 26 students who score the top ten in points at the camp.
“ All of it is friendly competition. We love each other to death, but as soon as we get on the first tee, it is strictly golf,” she attested.
The Underrated Golf Tour kicks off across four states from June 30 to Sept. 17. To learn more about the tour or to apply, visit underrated.golf.
