With one swift swing, the numbers on the screen decide her rank. First place.

Winning the tournament with only 144 strokes, she finished her final round with an impressive score of 70.

Sophomore Kaitlin Kiew’s “exceptional” trait is playing golf, but she hasn’t always loved it.

“When I was in the early stages, I absolutely hated golf,” Kiew said. “When my dad tried to get me to play, I would start crying.”

Kiew’s dad was a self-taught player who seized the opportunity to live vicariously through Kiew. Unable to dedicate his own time to playing golf, he put his aspirations in the hands of his daughter.

Kiew practiced “solely” for her parents and competed when the stakes were relatively low. According to Kiew, it “wasn’t too serious at first.” But her view of the game changed when she began receiving private lessons from her current full-swing coach, Sammy Hanson.

It took a year of coaching and practice to remove the habits from her full swing she developed when she was 8 years old and had no professional coaching.

“On her takeaway, the club used to get stuck behind her body, and her hips would get way out ahead of her in the downswing,” Hanson said. “And now the swing plane is very zeroed out. Her swings are much more efficient.”

When her swing stabilized, her scores began to improve exponentially.

Kiew began to spend more and more time on golf, practicing for three to four hours every day after school, compared to just one or two before.

“Going home straight after school has always been kind of a privilege to me,” Kiew said. “That time doesn’t come by often, unless it’s raining outside. That’s why I like the rain so much.”

This intense schedule consumed most of Kiew’s spare time — however, it allowed her skill to skyrocket quickly and elevated Kiew from the younger golf divisions.

With a consistent devotion of time and energy, Kiew began to rise above players in the Prestige Tour, STPGA’s most elite and competitive level of junior golf, consistently shooting in the mid-70s in 18-hole tournaments.

“We’ve gotten rid of a lot of what I call “Junior Golf” habits that she was taught in the past,” Hanson said. “There’s not as much of a variance now between her low scores and high scores.”

Her efforts paid off when she won first in her division at the SwingJuice Jingle Bell Rock tournament in December 2024, which qualified her advancement to the 2025 Texas Cup Invitational.

Provided by Kaitlin Kiew

Kiew holds her championship trophy after shooting her winning round at the SwingJuice Tournament. The event was held at the Golf Club at Texas A&M.

Yet an accomplishment of that degree did not meet her own expectations. She knew she could still do better.

Bellaire golf coach Jorge Aranda describes Kiew as “too hard on herself,” but Kiew disagrees.

“A lot of the time, after I mess up a shot, like if I bogeyed the last hole, I’ll naturally get frustrated,” Kiew said. “Coach often tells me not to complain about myself. I don’t think that’s true, because I’m not complaining. I’m just being honest.”

Kiew believes her critiques aren’t negative, but rather beneficial to her improvement. Failure can be discouraging, but it also drives her and pushes Kiew to do her best.

“I feel like my expectations are reasonable, since I’ve been playing for so long and I practice so often,” Kiew said. “There are specific scores I want to shoot, and specific places that I would like to rank.”

However, her goals have become harder to reach. As like many other athletes, Kiew said she struggles to balance her sport and her studies.

“It’s kind of hard nowadays, [because] school has definitely taken my golf [playing] back a huge step,” Kiew said. “Sometimes I barely even practice for an hour and a half, and then I just go home because I have so much homework to do.”

Kiew tries to make the most of the little time she has to spend on practice, analyzing every detail and function of her movement.

“I like to think through every aspect of the swing, my takeaway, my downswing, my fall through and my finish,” Kiew said. “My full swing is what I need to work on the most, but then I run out of time and I have to go home without practicing my putting or chipping or anything else.”

Shortened practice times take away from her abilities to improve on other skills, and getting home and needing to switch immediately to thinking about the priorities of a busy student leaves her little time to worry about anything else. And the weekend provides no escape.

Kiew’s six-hour practice sessions on Saturdays and Sundays make it “hard” for her to spend time on her other hobbies and interests, such as video editing. She was inspired by others’ edits of her favorite music band online, which sparked her interest in becoming an editor.

“[Video editing] makes me so happy,” Kiew said. “I enjoy the process in general, and I love seeing my own creations. It makes me proud, thinking, ‘Wow, I made this.’”

But her long practice hours eat up most of the time she has to work on editing.

“I already don’t have that much time to do fun things like for myself, and videos take a huge amount of time to make, so it’s hard to just squeeze it in,” Kiew said. “That’s why I always stay up really, really late, until like 4 or 5 a.m. doing edits.”

But no matter how short the time, in both golf and video editing, her motivation to continue practicing and refining her skill comes from her own drive for self-improvement.

“My only thought is to play better,” Kiew said. “Just be better. Maybe if I work really hard, I can win an American Junior Golf Association tournament.”

For many golfers, winning a tournament of that level signifies their readiness to play college golf. For Kiew, that possibility translates into something much more meaningful to her — making her dad proud.

“I feel like he would just be so immensely [happy]. There’s nothing in the world that would ever make him prouder,” Kiew said. “It motivates me, but right now I just feel like that goal is so out of reach based on how much I practice.”

Her increasing obligations in school and her personal life have been discouraging, but she continues to find that motivation that drives her to keep going.

“It takes a lot of practice and dedication, so I’m really going to work on that, and perhaps I can get to that level someday,” Kiew said.

Others also describe how golf has shaped Kiew’s attitude towards other parts of her life.

“I feel like it definitely shaped her habits and the way she approaches new things,” said long-time friend and classmate sophomore Katy Wang. “When she starts a new hobby, she tries to explore all the perspectives, just like how you calculate which direction you need to hit a golf ball.”

Despite her initial dislike for the game, she’s found solace in the company of others and confidence in her abilities and breakthroughs.

“I think I grew into it,” Kiew said. “Before, I didn’t have any friends to play golf with, and I would only ever go practice by myself. But now, I’ve gotten to know a few people, and they made golfing more enjoyable.”

She also relies on her twin sister, Alexis, for support when the mental game gets tough.

“My sister is always wondering about my golf,” Kiew said. “She’s like, ‘Did you play today?’ or, ‘How was practice?’ It’s nice to have somebody who asks about that.”

She receives encouragement from friends and golf peers, but particularly from Coach Hanson.

“He’s probably the only person who has ever made it clear to me that I should not be comparing myself to anyone but me,” Kiew said. “He always says that one bad score doesn’t define me as a golfer, just like how one bad grade doesn’t determine whether you’re smart or not.”

Kiew’s pressure to do well for herself and her parents can sometimes compound those feelings of comparison, so that extra clarification helps to “take a bit of weight” off her shoulders.

“I used to constantly check the leaderboard while I’m playing tournaments, and when I see who’s in first place I get really nervous,” Kiew said. “But when he says not to worry about anyone else but me, it helps me focus on the shot at hand rather than thinking about what might come out of it.”

Using her coach’s advice, Kiew is able to fuel her focus into her passion and produce success. She finds pride in her achievements, and reflecting on her hard work and the journey she has taken, even when she feels down, builds on her progressive love for her sport.

While she sometimes spends more time on the course than anywhere else, Kiew couldn’t imagine her life without golf.

“I feel like golf is a big part of who I am,” Kiew said. “If I don’t practice, it doesn’t feel right.”