June 8, 2022 • 29 mins
In this episode of The Birdie Bunch Podcast, Kennedy touches on some of her basic background information, her accolades throughout Junior Golf, and her introduction to the recruiting process. She also discusses her transition from high school athletics to college athletics.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a presentation of the College Athletes Network.
Can you can you ja? Hey, everybody, this is Kennedy
(00:36):
Swan and you're listening to the Bertie Bunch on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
via the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can find
me on Instagram at can you dig It or on
my website at www dot Kennedy Swan dot com. At
(00:58):
the bottom of that website there a contact form that
you can put in your email contact info, uh leaves
me comments, any questions, uh anything that you might like
to hear on the podcast, Any questions that you have
about my journey or maybe the journey that you're going through. UM,
so feel free to reach out. I'd love to hear
feedback from you guys. So on today's podcast, I'm just
(01:20):
gonna give you guys a little bit of history about me,
who I am, UM, what I'm going through right now, um,
and then kind of my uh my journey through junior
golf and uh, how I got started in the recruiting process,
what tournaments I've played in growing up, um, just about
that kind of stuff. So a little bit about me. UM.
(01:41):
I started playing golf when I was about ten years old. UM.
And then I ended up committing to play for Clemson
my junior year of high school. UM. So I would
have been about sixteen or seventeen at the time. UM.
And then I played two and a half years for
Clemson and transferred my junior year UM of college to
(02:03):
Old Miss and finish up my my undergrad at Old Miss.
I actually had three minors math, education and sports and
rec UM. And then I got the opportunity with COVID
to stay for my fifth year at the University of
Mississippi and obtaining my master's degree in Business administration. UH.
(02:25):
So I stayed UM to finish that out. And some
of you guys might know my team and I won
the national championships this last year in so that was
a really cool way for me to go out without
being my fifth year UM. And then let's see, I
want the east Lake Cup both with my team and
as an individual in as well. UM. And then I
(02:48):
won the Madina UM Championship in twenty nineteen. So I've
got a couple of collegiate wins under my belt. And
uh I turned pro this last August and August of
twenty funny and uh, I'm trying to play now. So
I I went to Stage one of Q School, made
it through easily, UM, finished top ten there and then
(03:09):
made it to Stage two of Q School and missed
it by one. So I will be playing full time
on the EPSOM Tour now UM formerly known as the
Semetra Tour. It's basically the equivalent of the corn Ferry
Tour but for women. UM. We actually just got some
new sponsorships and everything UM through that tour, So we're
(03:30):
really excited about partnering with EPSOM. That's gonna be great. Uh.
And then especially this SeeMe my rookie year, I think
it's gonna be awesome. So anyways, UM, a little bit
about how I got into the game of golf. So
when I was ten, my uh my mom got sick
and tired of me being in the house, so she
recruited my dad UM to take me out to the
(03:54):
golf course. We lived on a little UM kind of
like semi public, semi private golf course called Gray Rock
back in Austin, Texas. UM. And so one day he
just took me out and UH said, here's a golf
club UM start sling in and uh, I fell in
love with it instantly U and so UM, my dad
(04:14):
signed me up for lessons and you know, I probably
had about a year or two of UM, just kind
of intro to the game, thinking lessons, maybe competing in
like you know, some really small like club tournament or
stuff that like my dad would just take me to. UM.
And then when I was eleven, I started playing US
Kids Golf UM, which I'm sure some of you guys
(04:36):
are familiar with. UM. It's a great way to get
into the game. UM. There's also UM Junior PGA League
UM that I played a lot of drive ship and
putt UM had just came out when I was I
think twelve or thirteen, So I played in a couple
of those UM. But yeah, and then UH, you kind
of build up status throughout junior golf UM, especially with
(04:59):
US Kids, so if you win enough tournaments and you
have enough point to end up being exempt into like
the World Championships UM, which is out at Pinehurst, North
Carolina every year. UM. And so I went every year
starting from when I was eleven too when I was fourteen,
and I wanted when I was fourteen UM, so that
(05:22):
was a really cool experience. I think that was like
my first UM intense, real type of tournament situation. You know,
US Kids Golf, Like the local qualifiers are really great
UM for just kind of an intro, but then once
you get towards like that World Championship, it definitely is
UM a lot more pressure passed, a lot more competitive.
(05:43):
You know, you're not going out and finishing top three easily.
You know, you actually have to to learn how to
compete UM. And so that's kind of where I got
my start. And then UM I moved on to uh
T j g T, which is Texas Junior Golf Pool
a UM, which is kind of one step above UM
(06:04):
US Kids Golf, and I got pretty lucky with that
because they were amazing, and that's really where I learned
to compete and where I really got my competitive start. UM.
And they kind of pressed you for a j g A,
which is American Junior Golf Association, and that is going
to be the biggest, probably best junior golf league that
(06:25):
you could compete in. UM. It's the closest thing that
has UM, the closest thing that has gotten me UM
towards being prepped for playing collegiate golf. UM, so those
events were amazing. UM. The way that you earn points
and stuff, you kind of go from um, you know,
(06:47):
like points on US kids UM to t J G T.
You kind of get into every event and then you
migrate more towards stars, which is kind of a weird process.
But you get a certain number of stars for every
event you finish, for every event you play in based
on your finish, So it's real similar to professional golf.
(07:07):
You know, you win a certain amount of money. UM,
after you know you make to cut you uh, you finished, well,
you're gonna earn x amount of dollars And a JJ
is the same way. If you finished top twenties, you
get x amount of stars. You finish top ten, you
get x amount of stars and then um, if you
win an event, you're what's called fully exists and so
(07:29):
that basically gets you into every A j G A event,
including like the special Invite so like the Rolette Tournament
of Champions and um. But there's one in New York
City as well that I played, um, oh, the Rolette
Girls Championship as well. UM. And those were as close
to collegiate events that you could get to in junior golf. Um,
(07:51):
and so I'm extremely grateful that I got to play
um those events, you know, kind of starting when I
was fifteen or sixteen, and uh it's almost a little sad.
I really got good and got um got better at
playing those events um and started getting into like all
the special invites and everything, um, right as I was
getting ready to go towards that go to college. So um,
(08:15):
but that kind of transitions me into the next segment. Um,
I'm gonna be discussing my recruiting process, UM how I
went about, um reaching out to college coaches, um, you know,
going on unofficial visit, um, committing to Clemson and uh
that type of thing. So yeah, again you're listening to
(08:35):
the Bertie Bunch. I am Kennedy Swan and this is
the College Athletes Network. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the
(09:20):
Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. This is Kennedy Swan.
Make sure to subscribe to my podcast so you don't
miss the show again. You can find me on social
media at can you dig it? Uh, Instagram is gonna
be my main uh platform, and then you can also
find me on www. Kennedy swan dot com. Again, I
(09:41):
have that contact form at the bottom. If there's anything
you'd like to hear, questions, comments, concerns, feel free to
reach out. I'd I'd love to connect with you guys. UM.
So as the UM first part of my podcast, I
was talking about kind of introduction to me and an
intro to junior off. Now I'm going to kind of
transition into the recruiting process how I went about that, UM,
(10:06):
Especially for any fellow collegiate collegiate athletes that are thinking
about transferring out there, or UM any high schoolers that
are wanting to play collegiately. I think this will kind
of be a good intro for you guys just to
kind of learn about UM, learn about the process a
little bit more so. UH, I would say I was
probably about fifteen when I started the recruiting process. UM.
(10:29):
I knew that I wanted to play collegiately, and I
honestly think playing in a J G A S and
those types of events, you know you see college coaches
out there watching. UM. Also, I played in a couple
of US J Girls Juniors UM, which is kind of
where I got my start because college coaches were out
there watching and it kind of forced me to think about,
(10:52):
you know, where I might want to go, what I
might want to do UM. And you know, the recruiting
process can be really tough UM, especially if you don't
know really kind of where you want to go, whether
you want to stay close to home, if you want
to go somewhere far from home. You know what you're
looking for in a program UM, And so I think
(11:12):
the most important thing that helped me I made a
list of expectations UM before I took any unofficial visits,
before I took any official visits, UM, before I started
even communicating with coaches. I made a list of things
that were important to me in a college UM, in
a college athletics program. So for me, UM, I was
(11:37):
I was pretty smart in high school and so academics
were a big factor to me. I wanted to go
UM to a school that had a release solid academic program.
You know, I feel like there's some colleges out there
that you get a degree from. Man, you know, it
might uh, it might be definitely more of an athletic
school that to college degree doesn't uh doesn't translate as well.
(11:59):
Where as you know, UM, going to Clemson or going
to Old Miss. You know, those schools are rated pretty
highly on the academic scale. UM and so that was
a big influencing factor for me. Another big influencing factor
was the coaching staff. Uh. You know, I wanted to
be pushed and challenged by by my my coach and UH,
(12:21):
I really wanted a coach that would believe in me
and pushed me to be the best that I could be. UM.
And then I think another big factor was team bonding.
You know, I I am a very social person. I
like to be around very positive, happy people, and UH,
it was very important for me to feel at home
and feel a part of the team UM and steel
(12:42):
welcomed by the girls that I was going to be
playing alongside with. So with those uh kind of factors
in mind, I created a UM junior golf resume that
had all the tournaments that I had played in UM,
starting from probably like US Kids World, I would say.
So I created the resume when I was fifteen. It
(13:03):
probably started with UM, you know, kind of my T
J G T Days and Worlds when I was maybe
around thirteen. UM and so created that resume and started
just emailing out to coaches, you know, to possible universities
that I might have an interest in going to just
to get my name out there. Um. And then another
important aspect to have in that resume is going to
(13:26):
be your tournament scheduled because and this isn't just for golf,
this is for all sports, um, all collegiate sports, because
it gives that coach basically an invitation to come watch
you at whatever event you're playing in, whether it's the
soccer math or a football game or a tournament, you know,
whatever it may be. Um, the coaches kind of have
(13:46):
an idea um of when you're gonna be playing and
how they could come watch you. Because there's also so
many rules in c double A has so many weird
rules of when collegiate coaches can contact you. And that's
an other big influencer for me was that I was
the first one to reach out to these coaches because
they're not allowed to contact you. I think it's, uh,
(14:09):
I think it's September of your junior year now that
they can't uh can't contact you till. I'm not entirely
sure on that because a lot has changed since I
went through, like the high school recruiting process. Um. But yeah,
in that resume. It's great to have a tournament of
a schedule of tournaments. UM. And then once I got
that out to coaches, I kind of made a list
(14:30):
of coaches that had responded back to me that might
be interested in my game and having me play for them,
and I narrowed it down to three schools. So I
went on my family and I went to unofficial visit
UM to Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Clemson. So I kind of
narrowed it down to somewhere in the Southeast, and I
(14:50):
made contact with all of these coaches. These coaches were
more than happy to have me on unofficial visits UM.
And then I made a list of questions kind of
like I did UM, the list of what's important to me.
You know, when I was picking schools that I might
want to visit. Before the visit, I made a list
of questions of everything that I would want to act.
And now me personally, I'm a very inquisitive person. UM.
(15:12):
My golf team has always nicknamed me the question er,
and uh, I've been told it gets a little annoying
and a little over the top sometimes, but I like
to know what I'm doing and all the information that
I can possibly have. So I think that really helped
UM when I went on these unofficial visits, you know,
asking key questions like, UM, what is it gonna look
(15:34):
like if I come to school here? You know, what
opportunities do you have for subjects that I might want
to get my degree it? You know, UM, what does
a typical practice day look like? UM? Anything along those
lines that UM that can uh that are going to
contribute to you wanting to attend the school. UM. And
(15:55):
so as I visited, I loved the UM. I love
the van Derbilt campus. UM. It was amazing academics or
rigorous at Vanderbilt UM. But the thing that I didn't
quite like about it was the team. At the time,
they had twelve girls on the team. Now, I don't
know if you guys know much about like qualifying for tournaments,
but typically only five girls get to go to events,
(16:18):
sometimes six if they have spots for individuals. But competing
with twelve girls for six spots would be kind of
hard to travel. And I wanted a school that I
knew I was going to be able to travel and
play full time with. So UM that kind of caught
me off guard, and uh kind of extend Vanderbilt out
for me. UM. And then I went to Auburn and
(16:40):
I I fell in love with Auburn. Loved the campus. UM,
same thing, very rigorous academics. UM. The scholarship money was
a little bit tight there, which UM was definitely gonna
affect me. You know, I come from a kind of
low middle class family. UM, so I was gonna be
putting myself through school on a scholarship. You know, my
(17:01):
parents definitely were going to help me out some. But uh,
I needed to have definitely upwards of like of a
scholarship to be able to go to whatever school I
decided to, especially out of state, which out of state
tuition is out of this world. UM. So that kind
of limited my options as well. UM. And so Auburn
(17:22):
we were kind of waiting to hear about the the
scholarship and that kind of stuff. UM. And then I
went to Clemson and I fell in love with the
coach at Clemson. I love. UM. The coach at the
time when I visited was JT. Horts, and he was
just he felt like a family member, you know. I
was so instantly drawn to him and instantly drawn to
(17:44):
the girls that hosted me on my unofficial as well
that I decided within a week I was going to Clemson. UM.
And so once I committed to Clemson, it was a
huge way off my shoulders. UM. You know, it felt
so nice to go back to playing these A J
G A events and say, you know, I'm committed to
(18:05):
the school and I'm going there. I don't have to
worry about how I play. I don't have to worry
about them dropping me. You know, it's just this weight
of you get to go play freely because there's no
pressure of oh, I have to get a scholarship. Oh
I have to play somewhere, you know, I have to
impress all these coaches. UM. And then it was really
cool to have the communication after UM with my coach UM,
(18:28):
you know, because you start to develop that coach player
relationships UM pretty early. So that was a really nice
weight off my shoulders. And Uh, I definitely like the
recruiting process I look back on. It was a ton
of fun, but it was definitely a little bit stressful. UM.
So with that being said, in the next segment, I'm
(18:48):
going to kind of discuss the transition from high school
golf to college golf kind of my first UM, first
impressions at Clemson UM and kind of everything that went
on there. And yes, so you're listening to the Bertie
Bunch again. I'm Kennedy Swan and this is the College
Athletes Network. H welcome back to the Bertie Bunch on
(19:47):
the College Athlete Network. This is Kennedy Swan. Please remember
to subscribe to my PODCASTE don't miss a show again.
You can find me on Instagram at can You dig
It or on my website at www dot Kennedy Sawon
dot com. Would love to hear your feedback, questions, comments, concerns,
(20:07):
anything that you might want to hear about on on
this podcast. So I'm kind of new to this whole thing. Um.
You know, this is my first podcast that I posted
by myself, So I've been on a lot of podcasts,
but uh, I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys.
So in the first couple of segments, I walked you through, um,
(20:28):
how how about or how I went about like the
junior golf um good junior golf events and when I
kind of kind of started taking it seriously in the
recruiting process and uh, my commitments to Clemson and now
I'm going to kind of walk you through, UM, the
transition from high school golf to college golf. And I
think that's something for me that was really tough because
(20:51):
in junior golf, I was a big fish and a
little see, which kind of means, you know, I was
one of the top five players in Texas is UM.
You know, I would finish top five at state every year.
And you go from being this great collegiate act or
very high school athlete to being this eighty little bitty
(21:13):
fish in a really really big see of tons of athletes.
So when I got to Clemson, I didn't realize how
difficult it was gonna be. You know, you go to
tournaments that you easily would have finished in high school,
you know, top ten, and all of a sudden, you're
finishing forty and fiftiest UM. And I think this was
a really tough transition, UM. Just adjusting your expectations, UM.
(21:37):
And then another tough transition for me. So the coach
that I committed to, j K. Horton, unfortunately got let
go right before my freshman year, and uh, I had
graduated high school semester early because JT had asked me
to come in the spring of seventeen UM to kind
of help out the team because he had some some
(21:59):
seniors that were grabbed waiting and they needed more players.
So he's like, if you could come in the spring,
that would be awesome. You would really help us out. UM,
And they were able to up my scholarship for that spring,
which was a huge helping factor. UM, and I was
kind of ready to move on from high school anyways.
So uh, I found out about two months before that
(22:20):
first semester that UM j C had gotten let go
and I was gonna be playing for a different coach now,
the coach at Clemson. She is a great person, UM,
She is a great collegiate coach. But I would just
say we didn't necessarily see eye to eye. We had
very different personalities, and I found my game struggling and
(22:42):
that I wasn't quite being pushed to the potential that I,
uh I could get to UM. And so this was
a hard transition for me because I came from you know,
expecting a coach that I had been in a relationship with,
you know, coach player relationship with for three years before
I got into Clemson, and everything just kind of got
(23:03):
turned on a dime. And that was definitely a hard
transition for me. UM. Kind of finding my footing UM
with a coach that I wasn't necessarily comfortable with. UM
another very difficult transition. UM. I was definitely more of
a player in junior golf than a practice er. I
would say that I'm still that way. UM. I've learned
to practice a lot better. UM. But I definitely used
(23:28):
to play like a time in junior golf. You know,
I'd never really go beat balls for three or four hours.
I would go hit balls for an hour and then
go play nine or UM, you know, go play a team.
So I think having team practices that were every day,
you know, you had five days on, two days off
a week. And Uh, I think that was a tough adjustment.
(23:49):
You know how much time being a collegia athlete actually takes. UM.
You know they have the time restraints through n C
double A that I believe it's only twenty four hours
a week, UM that you can have your players out there.
It's either twenty or twenty four. UM. But that was
a lot more than I was used to. You know,
I also didn't really work out, UM in junior golf.
(24:12):
You know, I worked out with my high school teams UM,
but that I mean, that wasn't anything compared to working
out with a collegiate trainer UM. And that was three
days a week at five forty five am. And I
was not used to waking up that early unless I
was going to be playing in a tournament. So I
think that was a difficult adjustment to UM trying to
(24:33):
juggle school and golf, especially So I was pre med
my my first two years, and that was horrible. Once
I got to UH biochemistry, I just I ended up
deciding from there's no way I'm gonna be able to
do this and golf, uh because my g p A
dropped from a three eight to a two seven after
(24:55):
my freshman year. So I ended up changing majors, which
I think definitely helped UM. You know, if you're really
looking at competing UM on a on a D one
collegiate athlete team, I think you kind of have to
know if you want to have a very intense major,
something like premed or engineering or anything among those lines,
(25:18):
you know you're it's really going to be tough to
balance your time UM, and you have to have your
priority straight and UH, for me, you know, I was
I was pretty chill in high school. You know, I
didn't really uh, I guess, go out much or do much.
You know, I had my social group. But when I
got to Clemson, it was definitely an adjustment as well.
(25:38):
You know, everyone's going out every night and uh, you know,
I made some some friends that weren't necessarily athletes, and
it was kind of tough because they would be going
out and doing things and you know, getting dinner, grabbing
drinks or doing whatever, and um, I had workouts the
next morning. So it was hard to balance the social
(25:59):
aspect x as well. UM. So I think it's really
important to stay organized. UM. You know, make sure that
you have your priorities straight before you start all of that. UM.
And then I was kind of thrown right in the
deep end when I got there. Qualifying started within a
week UM. And so collegiate qualifying kind of normally works like, UM,
(26:21):
you have your team and you play for five spots. UM.
So at the time, I think we had eight on
the Clemson team and I qualified for the first event
UM and actually played pretty well at the first event UM,
which was which was a lot of fun UM and
it kind of gave me a good start to my
freshman year. Um. And then um, once I got through
(26:45):
that first semester, the next year, my sophomore year was
really difficult for me. Um. I found my game struggling.
I didn't really know why. I didn't know what I
was doing wrong. You know, I I think my practice
ethic and work work ethic kind of went downhill. UM,
and I found myself finishing like bottom third of most
(27:09):
collegiate tournaments. You know, I don't think I had a
single top ten that year. Um, and my game was
just kind of in a rut. And honestly, I felt
like my game hadn't really improved from my junior year
of high school to my sophomore year of college, which
that's kind of an issue. So, uh, you know, I
kind of had to take a hard look at myself
(27:29):
and decide, you know what I what I wanted to
do and what was my next step. And so junior year,
I kind of made the decision that I either needed
to kick my butt in year or I needed to
quit because I wasn't you know, my heart wasn't in
it anymore. And uh, my parents flew me home and
(27:50):
she said, get your butt on a plane. We're going
to talk about this in person, and uh, they sat
me down and they said, Kennedy, you need to finish
what you started. And so I made the decision to
transfer to Old Miss. Probably the best decision I've ever
made my entire life. Uh you know, I've got a big,
fat natty ring to show for it. So I think
that definitely attribute to to that being a good decision.
(28:14):
And uh, next week, I'll I'll make sure to tell
you a little bit more about my decision to transfer. Um.
I was actually the first transfer ever in the transfer portal,
which is the kind of cool thing to say. Um,
how I went back into getting back into that recruiting process. Um,
you know, that was definitely difficult after being at a
(28:37):
school for three years and having these relationships and friendships,
um with everyone there that you're gonna uproot and all
of a sudden moved a completely different states. So that
was definitely a little bit difficult. But yeah, i'll kind
of walk you through next week how I went about
that and uh kind of the transition from Clemson to
Old Miss. What was different from Clemson the Old Miss,
(28:59):
and uh, what I think was um a huge factor
in my key to success and why I'm playing professionally
now um so. As always, thank you for listening to
the Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe
to you don't miss an episode. Feel free to reach
out to me on Instagram or my website can you
(29:20):
dig It or www dot Kennedy swan dot com. Uh
and thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to
you soon. Have a great one. Can you can you
do J? Don you dij. This has been a presentation
(29:48):
of the College Athletes Network.
The following is a presentation of the College Athletes Network.
Can you can you ja? Hey, everybody, this is Kennedy
(00:36):
Swan and you're listening to the Bertie Bunch on the
College Athletes Network. Please subscribe to the podcast so you
never miss a new episode. This can easily be done
via the I Heart Radio app. Also, you can find
me on Instagram at can you dig It or on
my website at www dot Kennedy Swan dot com. At
(00:58):
the bottom of that website there a contact form that
you can put in your email contact info, uh leaves
me comments, any questions, uh anything that you might like
to hear on the podcast, Any questions that you have
about my journey or maybe the journey that you're going through. UM,
so feel free to reach out. I'd love to hear
feedback from you guys. So on today's podcast, I'm just
(01:20):
gonna give you guys a little bit of history about me,
who I am, UM, what I'm going through right now, um,
and then kind of my uh my journey through junior
golf and uh, how I got started in the recruiting process,
what tournaments I've played in growing up, um, just about
that kind of stuff. So a little bit about me. UM.
(01:41):
I started playing golf when I was about ten years old. UM.
And then I ended up committing to play for Clemson
my junior year of high school. UM. So I would
have been about sixteen or seventeen at the time. UM.
And then I played two and a half years for
Clemson and transferred my junior year UM of college to
(02:03):
Old Miss and finish up my my undergrad at Old Miss.
I actually had three minors math, education and sports and
rec UM. And then I got the opportunity with COVID
to stay for my fifth year at the University of
Mississippi and obtaining my master's degree in Business administration. UH.
(02:25):
So I stayed UM to finish that out. And some
of you guys might know my team and I won
the national championships this last year in so that was
a really cool way for me to go out without
being my fifth year UM. And then let's see, I
want the east Lake Cup both with my team and
as an individual in as well. UM. And then I
(02:48):
won the Madina UM Championship in twenty nineteen. So I've
got a couple of collegiate wins under my belt. And
uh I turned pro this last August and August of
twenty funny and uh, I'm trying to play now. So
I I went to Stage one of Q School, made
it through easily, UM, finished top ten there and then
(03:09):
made it to Stage two of Q School and missed
it by one. So I will be playing full time
on the EPSOM Tour now UM formerly known as the
Semetra Tour. It's basically the equivalent of the corn Ferry
Tour but for women. UM. We actually just got some
new sponsorships and everything UM through that tour, So we're
(03:30):
really excited about partnering with EPSOM. That's gonna be great. Uh.
And then especially this SeeMe my rookie year, I think
it's gonna be awesome. So anyways, UM, a little bit
about how I got into the game of golf. So
when I was ten, my uh my mom got sick
and tired of me being in the house, so she
recruited my dad UM to take me out to the
(03:54):
golf course. We lived on a little UM kind of
like semi public, semi private golf course called Gray Rock
back in Austin, Texas. UM. And so one day he
just took me out and UH said, here's a golf
club UM start sling in and uh, I fell in
love with it instantly U and so UM, my dad
(04:14):
signed me up for lessons and you know, I probably
had about a year or two of UM, just kind
of intro to the game, thinking lessons, maybe competing in
like you know, some really small like club tournament or
stuff that like my dad would just take me to. UM.
And then when I was eleven, I started playing US
Kids Golf UM, which I'm sure some of you guys
(04:36):
are familiar with. UM. It's a great way to get
into the game. UM. There's also UM Junior PGA League
UM that I played a lot of drive ship and
putt UM had just came out when I was I
think twelve or thirteen, So I played in a couple
of those UM. But yeah, and then UH, you kind
of build up status throughout junior golf UM, especially with
(04:59):
US Kids, so if you win enough tournaments and you
have enough point to end up being exempt into like
the World Championships UM, which is out at Pinehurst, North
Carolina every year. UM. And so I went every year
starting from when I was eleven too when I was fourteen,
and I wanted when I was fourteen UM, so that
(05:22):
was a really cool experience. I think that was like
my first UM intense, real type of tournament situation. You know,
US Kids Golf, Like the local qualifiers are really great
UM for just kind of an intro, but then once
you get towards like that World Championship, it definitely is
UM a lot more pressure passed, a lot more competitive.
(05:43):
You know, you're not going out and finishing top three easily.
You know, you actually have to to learn how to
compete UM. And so that's kind of where I got
my start. And then UM I moved on to uh
T j g T, which is Texas Junior Golf Pool
a UM, which is kind of one step above UM
(06:04):
US Kids Golf, and I got pretty lucky with that
because they were amazing, and that's really where I learned
to compete and where I really got my competitive start. UM.
And they kind of pressed you for a j g A,
which is American Junior Golf Association, and that is going
to be the biggest, probably best junior golf league that
(06:25):
you could compete in. UM. It's the closest thing that
has UM, the closest thing that has gotten me UM
towards being prepped for playing collegiate golf. UM, so those
events were amazing. UM. The way that you earn points
and stuff, you kind of go from um, you know,
(06:47):
like points on US kids UM to t J G T.
You kind of get into every event and then you
migrate more towards stars, which is kind of a weird process.
But you get a certain number of stars for every
event you finish, for every event you play in based
on your finish, So it's real similar to professional golf.
(07:07):
You know, you win a certain amount of money. UM,
after you know you make to cut you uh, you finished, well,
you're gonna earn x amount of dollars And a JJ
is the same way. If you finished top twenties, you
get x amount of stars. You finish top ten, you
get x amount of stars and then um, if you
win an event, you're what's called fully exists and so
(07:29):
that basically gets you into every A j G A event,
including like the special Invite so like the Rolette Tournament
of Champions and um. But there's one in New York
City as well that I played, um, oh, the Rolette
Girls Championship as well. UM. And those were as close
to collegiate events that you could get to in junior golf. Um,
(07:51):
and so I'm extremely grateful that I got to play
um those events, you know, kind of starting when I
was fifteen or sixteen, and uh it's almost a little sad.
I really got good and got um got better at
playing those events um and started getting into like all
the special invites and everything, um, right as I was
getting ready to go towards that go to college. So um,
(08:15):
but that kind of transitions me into the next segment. Um,
I'm gonna be discussing my recruiting process, UM how I
went about, um reaching out to college coaches, um, you know,
going on unofficial visit, um, committing to Clemson and uh
that type of thing. So yeah, again you're listening to
(08:35):
the Bertie Bunch. I am Kennedy Swan and this is
the College Athletes Network. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the
(09:20):
Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. This is Kennedy Swan.
Make sure to subscribe to my podcast so you don't
miss the show again. You can find me on social
media at can you dig it? Uh, Instagram is gonna
be my main uh platform, and then you can also
find me on www. Kennedy swan dot com. Again, I
(09:41):
have that contact form at the bottom. If there's anything
you'd like to hear, questions, comments, concerns, feel free to
reach out. I'd I'd love to connect with you guys. UM.
So as the UM first part of my podcast, I
was talking about kind of introduction to me and an
intro to junior off. Now I'm going to kind of
transition into the recruiting process how I went about that, UM,
(10:06):
Especially for any fellow collegiate collegiate athletes that are thinking
about transferring out there, or UM any high schoolers that
are wanting to play collegiately. I think this will kind
of be a good intro for you guys just to
kind of learn about UM, learn about the process a
little bit more so. UH, I would say I was
probably about fifteen when I started the recruiting process. UM.
(10:29):
I knew that I wanted to play collegiately, and I
honestly think playing in a J G A S and
those types of events, you know you see college coaches
out there watching. UM. Also, I played in a couple
of US J Girls Juniors UM, which is kind of
where I got my start because college coaches were out
there watching and it kind of forced me to think about,
(10:52):
you know, where I might want to go, what I
might want to do UM. And you know, the recruiting
process can be really tough UM, especially if you don't
know really kind of where you want to go, whether
you want to stay close to home, if you want
to go somewhere far from home. You know what you're
looking for in a program UM, And so I think
(11:12):
the most important thing that helped me I made a
list of expectations UM before I took any unofficial visits,
before I took any official visits, UM, before I started
even communicating with coaches. I made a list of things
that were important to me in a college UM, in
a college athletics program. So for me, UM, I was
(11:37):
I was pretty smart in high school and so academics
were a big factor to me. I wanted to go
UM to a school that had a release solid academic program.
You know, I feel like there's some colleges out there
that you get a degree from. Man, you know, it
might uh, it might be definitely more of an athletic
school that to college degree doesn't uh doesn't translate as well.
(11:59):
Where as you know, UM, going to Clemson or going
to Old Miss. You know, those schools are rated pretty
highly on the academic scale. UM and so that was
a big influencing factor for me. Another big influencing factor
was the coaching staff. Uh. You know, I wanted to
be pushed and challenged by by my my coach and UH,
(12:21):
I really wanted a coach that would believe in me
and pushed me to be the best that I could be. UM.
And then I think another big factor was team bonding.
You know, I I am a very social person. I
like to be around very positive, happy people, and UH,
it was very important for me to feel at home
and feel a part of the team UM and steel
(12:42):
welcomed by the girls that I was going to be
playing alongside with. So with those uh kind of factors
in mind, I created a UM junior golf resume that
had all the tournaments that I had played in UM,
starting from probably like US Kids World, I would say.
So I created the resume when I was fifteen. It
(13:03):
probably started with UM, you know, kind of my T
J G T Days and Worlds when I was maybe
around thirteen. UM and so created that resume and started
just emailing out to coaches, you know, to possible universities
that I might have an interest in going to just
to get my name out there. Um. And then another
important aspect to have in that resume is going to
(13:26):
be your tournament scheduled because and this isn't just for golf,
this is for all sports, um, all collegiate sports, because
it gives that coach basically an invitation to come watch
you at whatever event you're playing in, whether it's the
soccer math or a football game or a tournament, you know,
whatever it may be. Um, the coaches kind of have
(13:46):
an idea um of when you're gonna be playing and
how they could come watch you. Because there's also so
many rules in c double A has so many weird
rules of when collegiate coaches can contact you. And that's
an other big influencer for me was that I was
the first one to reach out to these coaches because
they're not allowed to contact you. I think it's, uh,
(14:09):
I think it's September of your junior year now that
they can't uh can't contact you till. I'm not entirely
sure on that because a lot has changed since I
went through, like the high school recruiting process. Um. But yeah,
in that resume. It's great to have a tournament of
a schedule of tournaments. UM. And then once I got
that out to coaches, I kind of made a list
(14:30):
of coaches that had responded back to me that might
be interested in my game and having me play for them,
and I narrowed it down to three schools. So I
went on my family and I went to unofficial visit
UM to Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Clemson. So I kind of
narrowed it down to somewhere in the Southeast, and I
(14:50):
made contact with all of these coaches. These coaches were
more than happy to have me on unofficial visits UM.
And then I made a list of questions kind of
like I did UM, the list of what's important to me.
You know, when I was picking schools that I might
want to visit. Before the visit, I made a list
of questions of everything that I would want to act.
And now me personally, I'm a very inquisitive person. UM.
(15:12):
My golf team has always nicknamed me the question er,
and uh, I've been told it gets a little annoying
and a little over the top sometimes, but I like
to know what I'm doing and all the information that
I can possibly have. So I think that really helped
UM when I went on these unofficial visits, you know,
asking key questions like, UM, what is it gonna look
(15:34):
like if I come to school here? You know, what
opportunities do you have for subjects that I might want
to get my degree it? You know, UM, what does
a typical practice day look like? UM? Anything along those
lines that UM that can uh that are going to
contribute to you wanting to attend the school. UM. And
(15:55):
so as I visited, I loved the UM. I love
the van Derbilt campus. UM. It was amazing academics or
rigorous at Vanderbilt UM. But the thing that I didn't
quite like about it was the team. At the time,
they had twelve girls on the team. Now, I don't
know if you guys know much about like qualifying for tournaments,
but typically only five girls get to go to events,
(16:18):
sometimes six if they have spots for individuals. But competing
with twelve girls for six spots would be kind of
hard to travel. And I wanted a school that I
knew I was going to be able to travel and
play full time with. So UM that kind of caught
me off guard, and uh kind of extend Vanderbilt out
for me. UM. And then I went to Auburn and
(16:40):
I I fell in love with Auburn. Loved the campus. UM,
same thing, very rigorous academics. UM. The scholarship money was
a little bit tight there, which UM was definitely gonna
affect me. You know, I come from a kind of
low middle class family. UM, so I was gonna be
putting myself through school on a scholarship. You know, my
(17:01):
parents definitely were going to help me out some. But uh,
I needed to have definitely upwards of like of a
scholarship to be able to go to whatever school I
decided to, especially out of state, which out of state
tuition is out of this world. UM. So that kind
of limited my options as well. UM. And so Auburn
(17:22):
we were kind of waiting to hear about the the
scholarship and that kind of stuff. UM. And then I
went to Clemson and I fell in love with the
coach at Clemson. I love. UM. The coach at the
time when I visited was JT. Horts, and he was
just he felt like a family member, you know. I
was so instantly drawn to him and instantly drawn to
(17:44):
the girls that hosted me on my unofficial as well
that I decided within a week I was going to Clemson. UM.
And so once I committed to Clemson, it was a
huge way off my shoulders. UM. You know, it felt
so nice to go back to playing these A J
G A events and say, you know, I'm committed to
(18:05):
the school and I'm going there. I don't have to
worry about how I play. I don't have to worry
about them dropping me. You know, it's just this weight
of you get to go play freely because there's no
pressure of oh, I have to get a scholarship. Oh
I have to play somewhere, you know, I have to
impress all these coaches. UM. And then it was really
cool to have the communication after UM with my coach UM,
(18:28):
you know, because you start to develop that coach player
relationships UM pretty early. So that was a really nice
weight off my shoulders. And Uh, I definitely like the
recruiting process I look back on. It was a ton
of fun, but it was definitely a little bit stressful. UM.
So with that being said, in the next segment, I'm
(18:48):
going to kind of discuss the transition from high school
golf to college golf kind of my first UM, first
impressions at Clemson UM and kind of everything that went
on there. And yes, so you're listening to the Bertie
Bunch again. I'm Kennedy Swan and this is the College
Athletes Network. H welcome back to the Bertie Bunch on
(19:47):
the College Athlete Network. This is Kennedy Swan. Please remember
to subscribe to my PODCASTE don't miss a show again.
You can find me on Instagram at can You dig
It or on my website at www dot Kennedy Sawon
dot com. Would love to hear your feedback, questions, comments, concerns,
(20:07):
anything that you might want to hear about on on
this podcast. So I'm kind of new to this whole thing. Um.
You know, this is my first podcast that I posted
by myself, So I've been on a lot of podcasts,
but uh, I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys.
So in the first couple of segments, I walked you through, um,
(20:28):
how how about or how I went about like the
junior golf um good junior golf events and when I
kind of kind of started taking it seriously in the
recruiting process and uh, my commitments to Clemson and now
I'm going to kind of walk you through, UM, the
transition from high school golf to college golf. And I
think that's something for me that was really tough because
(20:51):
in junior golf, I was a big fish and a
little see, which kind of means, you know, I was
one of the top five players in Texas is UM.
You know, I would finish top five at state every year.
And you go from being this great collegiate act or
very high school athlete to being this eighty little bitty
(21:13):
fish in a really really big see of tons of athletes.
So when I got to Clemson, I didn't realize how
difficult it was gonna be. You know, you go to
tournaments that you easily would have finished in high school,
you know, top ten, and all of a sudden, you're
finishing forty and fiftiest UM. And I think this was
a really tough transition, UM. Just adjusting your expectations, UM.
(21:37):
And then another tough transition for me. So the coach
that I committed to, j K. Horton, unfortunately got let
go right before my freshman year, and uh, I had
graduated high school semester early because JT had asked me
to come in the spring of seventeen UM to kind
of help out the team because he had some some
(21:59):
seniors that were grabbed waiting and they needed more players.
So he's like, if you could come in the spring,
that would be awesome. You would really help us out. UM,
And they were able to up my scholarship for that spring,
which was a huge helping factor. UM, and I was
kind of ready to move on from high school anyways.
So uh, I found out about two months before that
(22:20):
first semester that UM j C had gotten let go
and I was gonna be playing for a different coach now,
the coach at Clemson. She is a great person, UM,
She is a great collegiate coach. But I would just
say we didn't necessarily see eye to eye. We had
very different personalities, and I found my game struggling and
(22:42):
that I wasn't quite being pushed to the potential that I,
uh I could get to UM. And so this was
a hard transition for me because I came from you know,
expecting a coach that I had been in a relationship with,
you know, coach player relationship with for three years before
I got into Clemson, and everything just kind of got
(23:03):
turned on a dime. And that was definitely a hard
transition for me. UM. Kind of finding my footing UM
with a coach that I wasn't necessarily comfortable with. UM
another very difficult transition. UM. I was definitely more of
a player in junior golf than a practice er. I
would say that I'm still that way. UM. I've learned
to practice a lot better. UM. But I definitely used
(23:28):
to play like a time in junior golf. You know,
I'd never really go beat balls for three or four hours.
I would go hit balls for an hour and then
go play nine or UM, you know, go play a team.
So I think having team practices that were every day,
you know, you had five days on, two days off
a week. And Uh, I think that was a tough adjustment.
(23:49):
You know how much time being a collegia athlete actually takes. UM.
You know they have the time restraints through n C
double A that I believe it's only twenty four hours
a week, UM that you can have your players out there.
It's either twenty or twenty four. UM. But that was
a lot more than I was used to. You know,
I also didn't really work out, UM in junior golf.
(24:12):
You know, I worked out with my high school teams UM,
but that I mean, that wasn't anything compared to working
out with a collegiate trainer UM. And that was three
days a week at five forty five am. And I
was not used to waking up that early unless I
was going to be playing in a tournament. So I
think that was a difficult adjustment to UM trying to
(24:33):
juggle school and golf, especially So I was pre med
my my first two years, and that was horrible. Once
I got to UH biochemistry, I just I ended up
deciding from there's no way I'm gonna be able to
do this and golf, uh because my g p A
dropped from a three eight to a two seven after
(24:55):
my freshman year. So I ended up changing majors, which
I think definitely helped UM. You know, if you're really
looking at competing UM on a on a D one
collegiate athlete team, I think you kind of have to
know if you want to have a very intense major,
something like premed or engineering or anything among those lines,
(25:18):
you know you're it's really going to be tough to
balance your time UM, and you have to have your
priority straight and UH, for me, you know, I was
I was pretty chill in high school. You know, I
didn't really uh, I guess, go out much or do much.
You know, I had my social group. But when I
got to Clemson, it was definitely an adjustment as well.
(25:38):
You know, everyone's going out every night and uh, you know,
I made some some friends that weren't necessarily athletes, and
it was kind of tough because they would be going
out and doing things and you know, getting dinner, grabbing
drinks or doing whatever, and um, I had workouts the
next morning. So it was hard to balance the social
(25:59):
aspect x as well. UM. So I think it's really
important to stay organized. UM. You know, make sure that
you have your priorities straight before you start all of that. UM.
And then I was kind of thrown right in the
deep end when I got there. Qualifying started within a
week UM. And so collegiate qualifying kind of normally works like, UM,
(26:21):
you have your team and you play for five spots. UM.
So at the time, I think we had eight on
the Clemson team and I qualified for the first event
UM and actually played pretty well at the first event UM,
which was which was a lot of fun UM and
it kind of gave me a good start to my
freshman year. Um. And then um, once I got through
(26:45):
that first semester, the next year, my sophomore year was
really difficult for me. Um. I found my game struggling.
I didn't really know why. I didn't know what I
was doing wrong. You know, I I think my practice
ethic and work work ethic kind of went downhill. UM,
and I found myself finishing like bottom third of most
(27:09):
collegiate tournaments. You know, I don't think I had a
single top ten that year. Um, and my game was
just kind of in a rut. And honestly, I felt
like my game hadn't really improved from my junior year
of high school to my sophomore year of college, which
that's kind of an issue. So, uh, you know, I
kind of had to take a hard look at myself
(27:29):
and decide, you know what I what I wanted to
do and what was my next step. And so junior year,
I kind of made the decision that I either needed
to kick my butt in year or I needed to
quit because I wasn't you know, my heart wasn't in
it anymore. And uh, my parents flew me home and
(27:50):
she said, get your butt on a plane. We're going
to talk about this in person, and uh, they sat
me down and they said, Kennedy, you need to finish
what you started. And so I made the decision to
transfer to Old Miss. Probably the best decision I've ever
made my entire life. Uh you know, I've got a big,
fat natty ring to show for it. So I think
that definitely attribute to to that being a good decision.
(28:14):
And uh, next week, I'll I'll make sure to tell
you a little bit more about my decision to transfer. Um.
I was actually the first transfer ever in the transfer portal,
which is the kind of cool thing to say. Um,
how I went back into getting back into that recruiting process. Um,
you know, that was definitely difficult after being at a
(28:37):
school for three years and having these relationships and friendships,
um with everyone there that you're gonna uproot and all
of a sudden moved a completely different states. So that
was definitely a little bit difficult. But yeah, i'll kind
of walk you through next week how I went about
that and uh kind of the transition from Clemson to
Old Miss. What was different from Clemson the Old Miss,
(28:59):
and uh, what I think was um a huge factor
in my key to success and why I'm playing professionally
now um so. As always, thank you for listening to
the Bertie Bunch on the College Athletes Network. Please subscribe
to you don't miss an episode. Feel free to reach
out to me on Instagram or my website can you
(29:20):
dig It or www dot Kennedy swan dot com. Uh
and thanks so much for listening and we'll talk to
you soon. Have a great one. Can you can you
do J? Don you dij. This has been a presentation
(29:48):
of the College Athletes Network.
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