It’s a familiar story for golfing girls: Dad hears there are scholarships going to waste on collegiate golf teams and gets his toddler daughters into the game at the local muni’s par-3 course, so they become teenagers who can shoot in the 80s.
The twist for Kat Kachel, though, came in 2018, when her high school coach, former CGA Player of the Year Colin Prater, suggested the 15-year-old get a summer job caddying at the Broadmoor, the posh resort across town from her home course, Cherokee Ridge.
“It was easy money, and I already knew the game, so he thought I would be a great fit for it,” Kat remembers.
And she made sure she was. She soaked up the experience, caddying mostly for a Colorado Springs health care leader (George Tracy) and a real estate investment mogul (Dale Stamp). Not only did she develop communication skills to speak respectfully in professional relationships, she sponged up the random tips and tricks they shared with her.
“One day we were playing with a group and one of the golfers ended up getting a blister and it split open during the round,” she recalls. “Dale said maybe hand tape or athletic tape could be something good for you to keep in your pocket, just in case somebody needs it. I’ve actually used that two or three times in my caddying time.”
In those days, before the Broadmoor Caddie Leadership Academy oversaw the youth program, Kat had to compete with seasoned caddies for bags. So she learned how to win encore gigs, taking two or three holes to quietly figure out her golfer’s needs.
“Did they want to chat with me while they’re walking up the fairway, or chat with their friends? Are they more talkative or do they just want to focus on golf? Each person has different expectations of their caddie,” she notes.
Sometimes, she’d caddie for a player engaged in a rather high-stakes game with buddies. She’d notice they’d become less talkative as the wagers rose. It was eye-opening. “Oh my gosh, you’re playing a game on a random Tuesday and you owe the other guy, like 300 bucks!” she remembers.
In those days, even the youth caddies were working for only tips. These days, those enrolled with the Broadmoor Caddie Leadership Program can collect a $600 monthly stipend plus tips.
Of course, there’s also the possibility of an Evans Scholarship. And that’s where Kat’s caddie experience eventually led. Caddying, not playing, would be the skill that financed her degree in environmental studies at CU Boulder.
It’s a degree she might someday use, especially as courses have become more interested in sustainability and conservation. But the young lady has the golf bug. When she heard Mark Kelbel was stepping down as program director for the BCLA, she threw her visor in the ring.
Says the CGA’s Director of Caddie Development, Emily Olson: “She was an intern with the BCLA a year ago and prior to that she was a caddie there, so it seemed like it made sense to bring her on full time once she graduated.”
Of course, Brian Kachel can take his share of the credit. Although playing golf did not send his girls to college, it did lead them to the place that would produce scholarships, the CGA’s caddie and leadership programs. Kat’s sister Lauren, 19, will be one of Kat’s assistants this summer and then take her own Evans Scholarship to CU Boulder for her sophomore year of integrated physiology studies.
Lauren, says Kat, is now the better golfer of the two sisters. “I don’t have much time to play anymore,” Kat says. She doesn’t sound unhappy about that.