On Friday afternoon on the Aspen Municipal Golf Course, Kristin Walla, 21, stepped up to the first tee and peered down toward the green, deciphering exactly where she wanted to play the ball.
She then grabbed a wood, set her stance, and without one hint of effort, smashed the ball crisply into the warm summer air with one powerful yet controlled motion.
“Get left,” she said, holding her follow-through, trying to guide the ball with her eyes.
The shot was nearly perfect. It bounced down the right side of the fairway, and rolled into the rough. Just about any golfer in Aspen would be ecstatic with both the distance and placement of the shot.
But then again, Walla is not just any golfer in Aspen: She is one the most talented female golfers in the entire state.
And her talent was on perfect display two shots later, when she lined up a 20-foot putt, and sunk it as if it were a only tap in from one foot away.
Now coming into her senior year at the University of Texas, where she has played on the team for the past three years, Walla will have an opportunity to prove that she is not just Aspen's finest golfer, but also an elite player that has a legitimate shot of playing with the best in the world.
Hitting jumps, not greens
As opposed to a prodigy like Tiger Woods, who has been swinging a gold club since he could walk, Walla was not initially interested in the idea of playing golf at an early age.
“She was always a gifted athlete,” said John Walla, Kristin's father, who played golf at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “But when she was younger, she was more interested in other sports like soccer and skiing.”
Skiing in particular is where Walla showed her athletic potential. She was a competitive alpine racer, dabbled in Nordic skiing, and eventually wound up the AVSC freestyle team, competing in the bumps, park and pipe, while excelling in each category.
But by the time Walla was 11 years old, her athletic interests suddenly began to change, and drastically.
“I can still remember looking at my clubs, and thinking, why am I not playing more golf?” Walla said.
Though her father had already given her basic golfing instructions, Walla had never committed herself to the game.
“Suddenly,” she continued, “all I wanted to do was go out and play golf as much as I could. I became obsessed with the game.”
“It happened quickly,” said John. “Both her and her brother, Nate, would go out and play together all the time. I can still remember people watching her hit the ball on the driving range and saying, ‘She can really hit the ball.'”
Without question Walla picked up the game with ease, and ended up winning her first tournament in Glenwood Springs the same year she began playing.
“It definitely came easy to me, maybe it's from my dad's genetics,” she said.
“Kristin has always been a very visual learner,” said John. “Just by watching, she developed a very natural stance and swing.”
Becoming a Longhorn
By the time Walla reached high school, she was becoming a standout golfer with top finishes in tournaments around the state. Yet Walla faced an initial impediment her freshman year in terms of how she would continue playing competitively.
“At that time,” she said, “Aspen High School didn't have a girl's golf team, so I wasn't exactly sure how I would be able to play.”
After talking with the athletic director, Carol Sams, and finding a coaching staff, which included John Walla, a team was formed, and Kristin was able to play.
“We barely had enough girls to even get a full team together,” she remembered. “So we ended up having to form a joint team with Basalt.”
Team issues aside, Walla simply dominated. She won the regional high school tournament all four years in a row, blowing out the field consistently.
As a freshman, Walla even finished eighth in the state tournament, which was remarkable considering that Walla still hadn't had her major growth spurt.
“It was pretty incredible,” said John. “She was barely 5-feet tall at the time, but could still compete with anyone.”
Walla would eventually grow another six inches in high school, and by the time she was a senior, finished second place in the state.
Through both high school and summer tournaments, Walla began to grab the attention of college coaches.
“During the recruiting process, most coaches couldn't believe that I was actually from Aspen,” she said. “They couldn't understand how a real golfer could even come from here.”
But, talent speaks for itself, and after being offered admission and scholarships from schools like Georgia Tech and Denver University, Walla eventually committed to Texas.
“I wanted to experience something new,” she said. “I was interested in being in a place that was different, in terms of a climate, but also in terms of culture. It has been a great experience.”
Perfecting the swing
Watching Walla play on the Aspen Golf Course, it does not appear that she has many flaws her in game. Her swing is fluid and loose, her long game is deadly, her short game accurate, and her putting fine-tuned.
But when you ask Walla to describe the strongest part of her game, she does not talk about anything physical, but mental.
“Right now, I think the strongest part of my game is simply my attitude. I have played a lot of matches, and that experience allows me to stay relaxed when I am on the course.”
Walla's mental game was something that she admits she struggled with for years.
“I am definitely a thinker, and very analytical,” she continued. “I had to learn how to harness my thoughts and try to really focus on each shot.”
This sense of focus has given Walla a handful of top-15 finishes at Texas, and is now setting her up for what could be a breakthrough senior year.
“The eventual goal is the LPGA tour,” she said, “but I have a long ways to go.”
Walla will continue her charge toward the professional tour this summer with U.S. amateur tournaments in Oregon, Colorado and North Carolina, just to name a few.
And as Walla competes all over the country, she will take with her many of the skills that she learned not on the golf course, but on the mountains of Aspen.
“I learned a lot about golf from freestyle skiing,” she said. “Both sports are about turning something complicated into something simple. And in the end, no matter what sport you do, it is all about execution.”
bastian@aspendailynews.com
