Like many other kids in today’s generation freshman Hadley Ashton grew up doing multiple youth sports. Her busy agenda consisted of basketball, volleyball, soccer, and much more. But this list was quickly narrowed down to one sport she “fell in love with”: golf. 

Not only did Ashton love the game itself, but she also loved winning, and became very familiar with the top of the leaderboard at a young age. After excelling on junior platforms such as US Kids Golf, and PGA junior league, she quickly moved up the ranks, and began to compete on larger platforms, such as Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado, America Junior Golf Alliance, and multiple other mainstream associations. 

After excelling in her own age category, she continued to move up the ranks, and “play up” in harder age divisions.

“I’ve pretty much always played up with the older girls.” Ashton says. In golf, the results aren’t so much based on strength and size, but rather consistency, mental strength, and patience, all which Ashton learned early on. 

“I think it matured me really quickly,” she says, “Learning from them [older girls] so early on gave me a major boost, and I would say [it] put me ahead of my age group for sure… playing a sport with 18 year olds, as a 10 year old, definitely taught me a lot.” 

In fact, one of these older girls is 21 year old CU women’s golf player, Hailey Schalk. Not only is Schalk Hadleys friend, but also major golf mentor, as she has won many JGAC and AJGA titles herself. Growing up as neighbors with a common interest in golf, Hailey and Hadley undoubtedly spent a lot of time together, on and off the course.