Dean Wong

When she was 10 years old, Katrina Hegge knew she was serious about golf and is now a seasoned veteran of the game over thirty trophies to show for it.

Hegge is now 15 years old. As a freshman at Seattle Prep, she won the Metro League championship by ten strokes this fall.

She will playing in the 3A District meet in May, followed by the state playoffs at Washington National in the Tri-Cities area.

“I should make it to state and should be one of the top three golfers, if not winning it all,” said Hegge.

At the age of five, Hegge watched her father Richard Hegge practice his golf swing and became hooked.

“She came to me because I was doing it. It was a way for us to be together,” said Richard Hegge.

Her father taught her the basics of the game. When she outgrew his golf knowledge, she began training with coaches.

“Coaches saw something in her game. She hit the ball a long way but was rough talent wise. She had fun and was excited about it,” said Richard Hegge.

Her first tournament was at the age of nine. She shot a 115 at the Yakima Sun Tides Golf Course. “It was not bad for being nine years old,” said Hegge.

“I liked going to tournaments and competing against other people on the youth and junior tours. It was fun to win, after that I started winning a lot,” said Hegge.

The bedroom of her Ballard home is filled with stuffed animals and golf trophies.

“Ten are at my dad’s. There are too many for my room,” said Hegge.

She has gotten used to winning and says it’s not a big deal anymore.

At Seattle Prep she has worked on her accuracy to get the ball where she wanted it to go and intensified her already developed mental game.

Hegge’s handicap is now 3.1. Her father says he can no longer keep up with her daughter on the golf course with his nine-handicap.

She has competed in 100 tournaments in the last five years and has been to 20 tournaments already this year.

Richard Hegge takes time off from work in the summer to be with his daughter at competitions. They have traveled to Mexico, California, Texas and Eastern Washington.

At the National Nike Junior Tournament this year, she placed ninth. The top ten finishers in national tournaments receive an automatic exemption to return.

Hegge is a member of Team Washington and helped the team take seventh place a tournament at the Guadalajara Country Club in Mexico this year.

At Jackson Park, Hegge hit a hole-in-one on a par-4 on the third hole.

Her idol is women’s golf star Anika Sorenstam. “She is a good player,” said Hegge.

Although she concedes it would be nice to sign a ten million dollar endorsement contract like 16-year old sensation Michelle Wie, Hegge wants a college education.

“People have told me to go professional. I want to go to college and get a degree and have something to fall back on,” said Hegge.

While playing professionally is still a goal, she is good at math and is thinking about studying accounting.

Hegge would like to attend college in a warm weather state like Southern California or Arizona.

College recruiters can’t contact her until her junior year, but they are aware of her.

“On a national basis, people are watching her. There is some buzz and talk back and forth,” said Richard Hegge.

For her community service hours, required in high schools for graduation, Hegge is a volunteer girl’s basketball coach at Whitman Middle School. She was on the varsity team last year.

“I help the coach run plays and drills. I just like to help out. I know all the kids on the team,” said Hegge.

In the classroom at Seattle Prep, Hegge maintains a 3.2 grade point average. She does four hours of homework a night and was busy working on a family history project last week.

“Hegge also works as a carrier for the Ballard News-Tribune, delivering the newspaper to homes every Wednesday. Her mother is Susan Findlay.