In the past, The Gregory School’s girls’ golf team has been led by Coach Jim Carlson. He has been coaching for 12 years and believes golf is about learning how to be resilient, independent, and how to problem-solve. This year brings a new addition to the team who will be co-coaching alongside Carlson: Coach Kris Hanson.
Kris has had an extensive golf career, beginning to play at the age of six. On a full college scholarship, she played at Texas Christian University and then went on to play professionally from 1985-2005. She competed on the Asian Tour, Futures/Symetra Tour, and the LPGA Tour.
The crowning achievement of her professional career came in 1988 when she finished 12th at the U.S. Women’s Open. She describes that experience as a thrill of a lifetime, saying “My goal was always to win the U.S. Open, but even to finish 12th, I get goosebumps just thinking about it because I got to live my dream."
Kris began coaching golf in 1991 and has been teaching on a part-time basis ever since. She has worked with some of the top-rated golf instructors in the world, including Harvey Penick, Dede Owens, Jim Flick, Mick Adams, Hank Haney, and Susie Meyers of Ventana Canyon.
She is driven by seeing progress in her students and says, “Seeing my students improve and have that 'ah-ha' moment, where they get it and the lightbulb turns on, or they hit one of the best shots of their life, that's it for me, that's what I love to see them do."
This year the girls’ golf team consists of six sophomores and one junior: Emilia Emami, Ella Sturtevant, Ashling Lee, Emarie Sooter, Hannah Monash, Sara Silverberg, and Dylan Greenhill. The players and coaches have many goals for this year, but of course, the main one is to enjoy playing golf and learn something each day that will give the players skills for a lifetime.
One of the players, Ashling Lee says, “We would eventually like to compete in the state tournament, but for now, we are focusing on improving and learning the game of golf.”
Girls’ golf season runs through mid-October, during which time the team will play matches against various teams such as Cienega, Desert View, Palo Verde, Marana, Rincon, CDO, and Sabino.
Written by Emilia Emami and Ella Sturtevant (staff reporters)