MUNSTER | Kamryn Klawitter has a red medal from the IHSAA. Playing on a state runner-up tennis team gives you such things.
But as the girls golf season officially tees off today, there is one more thing that the Munster senior is shooting for.
"It would be nice to get a blue one," Klawitter said.
In last year's state tournament at the Legends of Indiana in Franklin, Klawitter shot a 12-over 84 and failed to make the cut to Day 2. She was only eight strokes off the lead when her season ended.
Klawitter has played and caddied all summer at the Dunes Club in New Buffalo and at Briar Ridge. Her best 18-hole score this summer was a 78. She's competed in several American Junior Golf Association and Indiana Golf Mountain Dew Tour events.
She recently won the IGA event at the Valparaiso Country Club, shooting an 83.
"It's great just playing in competitive tournaments all summer," Klawitter said. "I am really looking forward to the start of the high school season. It's just great to play the game."
Such a thought was not always in Klawitter's mind. When she was young, her father, Tony, took her to the golf course to watch him play. It was not a Kodak moment.
"I thought it was the dorkiest game ever back then," Klawitter laughed. "Why? Because my dad was doing it. Anything that your dad does is dorky."
There is a home video of Kamryn swinging a golf club at the age of 3 in her driveway. None of her friends have had an opportunity of seeing the film, though.
"No," Klawitter said when asked if any of her friends have seen it. "I keep that one in the drawer."
Klawitter remembers her first par that she ever got as a youngster, it was at Aberdeen in Valpo. She will be playing there next week in one of the Region's top high school tournaments of the year.
"I have always been really competitive," she said. "When I got that first par I thought, 'This is kind of fun.' So I strove to be better every time I go out there."
She plans to go to college for academics first, and if she can also play golf for someone that would be bonus. Notre Dame is on the top of her list, but she is also up for the Western Golf Association's Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship.
If she wins that, then Northwestern will move to the top of her wish list. Klawitter plans to study finance and law, wherever she attends.
Klawitter is extremely proud of her ball striking that's evolved from her summer practice. She said her short game is coming along nicely, too. Like most golfers, putting is the one area where improvement must come.
But when she turns on her iPod, plays the soundtrack from Rudy and spends the next 45 minutes on the putting green, all is right with the world and the dream gets closer with each made putt.
Hard work like that is what gives her a shot when the state travels to Franklin in October.
"My goal is to be in contention for an individual state championship," she said. "Hopefully, it's the furthest you can go and that's what I want to shoot for. Winning as a team would be great, too. I came close a couple of times with the tennis team.
"But I would really like to get a blue one this time."
This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at steve.hanlon@nwi.com.
