From Junior Golf to U Club: Catching Up With Kailyn Hellwege
Kailyn Hellwege
High School: Sheldon (Class of 2014)
Oregon Junior Golfer: 2012-2014
College: Oregon State University
Year, Major: Junior, Computer Science
How did you get started in golf?
My dad is kind of a golfer, he has golfed throughout his life. I remember when I was younger we golfed a couple times but really not that much at all, maybe once every one or two years, just going to the driving range. It wasn’t until high school that I started to take golf a little more seriously, my dad was like, “you should do golf,” and I didn’t’ really have any reason not to and so I started playing on the [high school] golf team. I think I started [Oregon Junior Golf] the summer after my freshman year or the summer after my sophomore year.
Did you have siblings or any other family that played?
My sister was in 7th grade when I started doing the OGA stuff so my dad signed us both up for a bunch of tournaments. It was a little bit difficult the first year because we were still fairly new to golf, so both of us, I remember, were very frustrated because we got paired up with people who shot like 85 and we were shooting 120 or higher. We had just begun golfing. It was still fun though to play at all the different places.
What did you enjoy about Oregon Junior Golf?
My favorite part was that you got to play so many different courses. One thing that I notice now is that there is a lot more limitations to where you can golf, you know, you can’t go to the private courses. [Also, now] you don’t go two to three hours out of the way to play golf, without tournaments. So you run out of places to go that aren’t way too expensive. So [Oregon Junior Golf] was really cool because you got to play a bunch of private and much nicer courses for not as much money.
You grew up in Eugene, why did you choose to go to Oregon State in Corvallis?
Actually both my parents went to Oregon State so I’ve always been a Beaver fan. It was hard growing up in Eugene because everyone always got upset that I wasn’t a Duck fan. They have really good engineering programs here and so I didn’t want to go too far away for college either. So it just worked out that it was out of Eugene but still close and had a good computer science program.
How has your college experience been?
Corvallis is a small town with a lot of people so there’s a lot of traffic. But overall it’s been a pretty good experience, a good place to go to college. I haven’t been involved with a ton of stuff, I’ve been to a few volleyball and basketball games here and there, but the main involvement I’ve had on campus is that I play on the club volleyball team.
What enticed you to sign-up and get involved with U Club, the golf club for college students?Golf is really expensive when you’re not a junior…[with U Club] I saw that you get $7 9-hole rounds and $10 18-hole rounds. I figured for [$19.99] plus the free round at the OGA Golf Course, we actually already did play at the OGA Golf Course for free which was really fun, that alone actually covers the cost of the card. So even if I didn’t use the card a single time other than that it still paid for itself. But I just thought it was a really cool idea to make it a lot cheaper for people in the U Club.
What are you looking forward to with the U Club program?
I’m definitely planning on using it this summer and fall. It’s always easier right when you get back from summer, you don’t’ have as much work right at the beginning of the term, and it’ll be nice so I’m hoping there will be some good opportunities to golf. Also, Eugene is not that far from Corvallis so it’s possible this summer that I’ll come up a few times to golf [at Trysting Tree].
What advice would you give to an Oregon Junior Golfer who is looking toward college and fitting golf in with a busy schedule?
Take advantage of golf in high school as much as you can because once you turn 18 it gets expensive and there are a lot less opportunities. I wish that I started golfing before high school … and gotten a lot better, good enough to play at a higher level. So I think definitely golf as much as you can while it’s still cheap.
Published / Last Updated On:
06/05/17
