By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Kylani Gathers, at age eight, is hooked on the game of golf, with tournament play that runs the gamut from local and regional contests to her first invitation to the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
“I like the short game,” said Gathers, a student at Winthrop Charter School in Riverview, who received her first golf clubs on her birthday at age seven (if you don’t count the plastic Fisher-Price clubs she received at age three). “I like putting and chipping best. And I win a lot of holes because I practice, and I drive the ball really far.”
Gathers is among a growing number of youngsters who are finding their stride in the sport of golf through tournament tours run by U.S. Kids Golf, whose stated mission is “to help kids have fun learning the lifelong game of golf and to encourage family interaction that builds lasting memories.”
That was the case for Kylani and her father, Corey Gathers, who watched with his daughter “The Short Game” documentary on Netflix, then pursued the matter further after his daughter told him, “Dad, I want to do that.”
Set in 2012, the documentary features 1,500 seven- and eight-year-old golf prodigies, representing 60 countries, and their quest to ace the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship at Pinehurst, where Gathers placed 43rd overall in her age division in 2021.
“I love the competition,” Gathers said, about her passion for competitive junior golf, which hit its stride with spring, summer and fall seasons in the Tampa Bay area in 2021. “And I love meeting new friends.”
Gathers is backed by a family of supporters, including her mom, Vanessa; her brother, Khalil; and her sisters, Kayla, Kiyana and Kori. As for her biggest hands-on fan, look no further than her daddy, who also is her caddy. Cory Gathers said he modeled a love for the game with his own golf outings, although nowhere near the prodigy status of his daughter.
“I started playing when I was in the U.S. Army,” Gathers said. “Networking through golf was advised for career advancement, but I was terrible at it. When I got off active duty, I went back to competitive golf as a way of bonding with my father-in-law.”
Now, it’s a way of bonding also with Kylani, who, after expressing an interest in golf, attended a few clinic lessons. Following the advice of her daughter’s instructor, Corey Gathers researched the world of junior golf and signed up his daughter, who played her first U.S. Kids Golf tournament in January 2021 at Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course in Orlando.
“She placed almost dead last, but it was a good experience,” Gathers said. “You would expect most kids would say I don’t want to do this anymore, but she had the opposite mindset. She said, ‘I want to do it again, and I want to win.’ She became the season champion for the summer of 2021 in the Tampa local tour.”
Gathers said his plans for his daughter are that she “utilize her golf talents to get a college scholarship and further her education, as long as she loves it.”
He launched a web site to chronicle her experiences, which includes Kylani’s golf career from early outings to competitive play, starting with her first PGA League match to her latest U.S. Kids Golf regional tournament. Included in the mix are tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay area, including at the Summerfield Crossings Golf Club, Sandpiper Golf Club in Sun City Center, Westchase Golf Club, Cove Cay Golf Club in Clearwater, Clearwater Golf Club, Crescent Oaks Golf Club in Tarpon Springs and the Bay Palms Golf Complex at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
Her home base is the golf course in Bloomingdale, the town where she also earned her stripes as an all-stars softball player.
Ask Kylani Gathers to choose her favorite sport, and she has a lot to consider, given her experiences in softball, soccer, dance, gymnastics and, now, also golf.
From the ripe old age of eight, Gathers said it’s okay to rule out gymnastics and ballet because “they were like years ago.”
And while it’s still a toss-up for softball, soccer and golf, it’s clearly evident that her dreams of becoming a pro golfer are getting stronger with every drive, chip and putt.
“I want to be a really strong player,” Kylani Gathers said. “I want to have strength. And I want to have a great golf mindset.”
As for her words of advisement for other junior golfers, Gathers said they should go at it. “I want a lot of kids to play and get better,” she said, “because golf is a good sport for kids to play.”
For more on Kylani Gathers, visit www.KylaniGathers.com and at Instagram @kylanigathersgolf/. Visit also www.uskidsgolf.com/.