W. Golf — Katherine Cook Turning Cents Into Swings

All it took was 10 cents for Katherine Cook of the nationally ranked Florida State women’s golf team to fall in love with the game of golf.

Before the age of 10, Katherine would not have guessed she would have earned a golf scholarship to play at Florida State. Growing up, she played a lot of tennis with her older sister, Abbey. While she did love being outside and enjoyed the time she spent with her sister, it wasn’t until her grandmother put a golf club in her hand that she truly realized what it meant to love a sport.

Cook begins play in her first collegiate event on Sunday when the Seminoles tee-off in the Moon Invitational on the Classic Course at Suntree Country Club.  Ranked No. 7 in the most recent Golfstat national poll, the Seminoles are the highest ranked of the 16 teams in the event.

Katherine’s grandmother found golf later in life and mainly played it recreationally.

“She was a big social butterfly; she loved to be around people.” Katherine said, “She understood the importance and the value that golf has, it’s a lifetime sport.”

Sharing these memories with her grandmother are what sparked her interest in the game. Her grandmother would not stop asking her about playing, but after a couple of incentives, it didn’t take much for her to continue it.

“She would make a bet, ‘Hey if you make this putt, I’ll pay you 10 cents’ and I was like well why not 25 or why not a dollar? She would say, ‘What are you pitching a fit about, you’re getting money.’ And this one time, I used to have the worst attitude about getting 10 cents, and she brought this huge bag to Walmart with me to one of those coin counters, and it must have totaled up to $80. It was just a zip lock bag, and she was like, ‘See what I mean, do you understand.’ So, she has taught me a lot of life lessons, through golf and being around her.”

Her grandmother always reminded her what this sport can do for someone.

She would say, “It brings you so many great people and teaches you so much about life,” said Katherine.

And that’s what her grandmother did. She taught her granddaughter the first steps in becoming a golfer.

“She probably wanted someone to play with too,” said Katherine.

This was easy to do, as her grandmother’s house sat behind the 16^th hole on Katherine’s home course — Glen Arven Country Club in Thomasville, Ga., which is still Cook’s favorite hole to this day.

“It’s this par three, it’s beautiful, it has bunkers behind the green, and it’s over the water and her house is tucked back in the right corner. She has a gazebo out there overlooking the green. It’s special. I have hit a few golf balls in her yard. It’s where she lived forever.”

Katherine grew up in a big family with two sisters (Amelia and Abbey); meaning competition was never in short supply. Whether it was playing on their Nintendo DS’s, going to tennis camp together in the summer, or the days when they would come down to Tallahassee from Thomasville and go to Fun Station for the day, Cook and her sisters always competed toe to toe.

Having an older sister who was great at a sport never made losing easy, Katherine recalls.

“Abbey loved to play tennis, and she would just beat me every single time.  I am so competitive, and it would drive me insane. She’s my older sister, which just helped her fuel her fire.”

It was all fun and games until one day Katherine stood too close to home plate in their family’s backyard. Her sisters and dad were outside playing two vs. two t-ball, but Katherine was a little too eager to see if Abbey could make contact with the ball.

“We had a pink aluminum t-ball bat, and we had a plastic bat but we didn’t want to use that because the metal bat would go further if you made contact with it,” said Katherine.

Her family insisted Katherine back up from the plate.

“The one time they didn’t remind me, Abby swung all the way through, hit me in the head, I blacked out, was on the ground, sat up and my dad just went ghost white, in panic. My older and younger sister were traumatized. Abbey has never let herself live that down.”

Family has been an instrumental part of Katherine’s life. Spending hours outside, playing together, and now walking through the woods together on their family farm, she considers those memories to be among her most cherished.

“A lot of the qualities I have gotten from golf have helped me connect with my family too,” said Katherine.

Even though both her sisters are very different from her, one a tennis player and one a dancer, they pushed Katherine to find her own way.

“They are the funniest people I know, and the bond you have with your sisters is so different from any other,” said Katherine.

One consistent aspect of her life that Katherine has taken with her from her family, into high school and now here at Florida State is the spirit of giving. After reluctantly giving a speech in front of her whole school, Katherine was elected the class treasurer as a sophomore. She began to realize how much giving back to the community can really make a difference not only in the lives of others but in her life too. She was able to tackle this position head on and moved up the ladder to eventually becoming the student body president her senior year.

Leadership gave her something to latch on to.

“Leadership is such an essential part of life,” said Katherine.  “I love leading others and giving my ideas.  I liked the leadership role, and I was happy that people liked me in the leadership role. People trusted me; that I was going to do a good job and people liked what I did.”

Service leadership was a huge part of her high school career.  It was talked about with the same importance level as classwork. These leadership opportunities allowed her to better learn how to lead.  She feels that being able to model how you lead after those who have been successful is important, specifically in the way they serve others.

“All the people that I look up to have served.”

The more she participated in service activities, the more appreciative and thankful she was for what she had.

“It’s just nice,” Katherine said simply.  “It is nice to lend a hand to someone in need. It means the world to them to see you.  As a person serving others, not only does it make you feel better, but sometimes you don’t realize the impacts you have on people.  Just conversing with them makes their day, not only do they think it’s crazy that you play a sport, but you’re a decent enough person to come and help.”

Katherine has continued in her role as a leader since her arrival at Florida State last semester.

She joins other student-athletes to discuss different issues concerning the athletics at the university. Most recently, the group has discussed mental health among the athletes. While she understands the issue is everywhere, if she can make even the smallest difference here then she is going to do just that.

“Student life is what you make it, if you can have a hand in making that better, why not?”

With such a strong support system back home, she knew she found the right place to play for the next four years, because of the exceptional support system offered by the coaches and players here at Florida State.

“My whole golf career I have been very simplistic,” said Katherine.  “I’ve never been a technical player, but once you put a few things in my head I’m going to sit there and pick them apart forever.”

It’s those moments that remind Katherine why she chose Florida State. It all started with a phone call from Coach Amy Bond on June 15, the first day recruiting opened her junior year of high school. This was her first phone call ever from a college, and she never once felt pressured to make a decision.

“Coach Bond always reassured me they were really interested and would love for me to think things through.”

As a huge University of Georgia fan her whole life, she never considered Florida State until she really began to look into the program. She saw the support, felt the family environment among the players and coaches, and knew this was the right team for her.

“I am here for a reason. I’m surrounded by all the right people that want to push me to grow to be better.”

As a freshman this season, Katherine has only scratched the surface of her potential. She will continue to grow and learn about golf and, in turn, about life. With every pre-tournament routine, eating an egg-white grill, and putting exactly six three-footers before she starts, she will always know how she got here.

And to think, it all started with a 10-cent bet.