Despite being the daughter of a popular PGA of America Golf Professional in Minnesota, Katie Bakken didn’t dream of playing or coaching golf for a living.
It took an unexpected opportunity of caddying at a local LPGA Tour event as a teenager and advice from a soon-to-be-famous coach during college to ignite Katie’s desire to follow in her father Bill Bakken’s footsteps.
Basketball has been her sport while growing up watching her father work long hours on the practice range – until the First Bank Presents the Edina Realty LPGA Classic came to a nearby course when she was 13. Her father’s connections landed Katie an opportunity to caddie in the tournament.
It didn’t go well. She wore ballet flats, turning the course into a slip-and-slide. Even worse, at one point she was unable to get the pin out of the hole.
Despite a tough two-day stretch as a looper, she went home and made a proclamation to her parents: “My dream is to become a professional golfer.”
After a decent high school career, Bakken wanted to play in the Pac-10, so she left Minnesota to attend the University of California in Berkeley. Her scholarship paid only for her books.
Bakken quickly realized she made a mistake, which was confirmed by her college roommate, a native of Scotland who convinced Bakken to return to Minnesota. That roommate was Anne Walker, the current Stanford women’s head coach who recently led her team to its fourth national title.
Bakken went from being a Golden Bear to a Golden Gopher at the University of Minnesota. It was a wise move. She became the No. 1 player on the Minnesota team, won the Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational and earned All-Big Ten honors.
Bakken planned to turn professional, but didn’t receive a vote of confidence from college coach Missy Ringler just before graduation.
“She told me she didn’t think I was ready, that I didn’t practice hard enough,” Bakken recalls. “I then worked my butt off.”
Fueled by winning the Minnesota Women’s State Open as an amateur, Bakken entered LPGA Tour Q-school, making it to the finals to earn a spot on the Futures Tour. She made it to the LPGA Tour’s final stage several times, but never obtained her card and kept competing on the Futures Tour.
Bakken then decided to take her game international, playing on the Ladies Asian Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
Although she wasn’t filling her trophy case, the experience of playing in far-flung places such as Taiwan, Dubai, India and Australia made life interesting. She qualified for a U.S. Women’s Open and British Women’s Open – as well as having her dad join her overseas as a caddie/instructor.
“I learned more about culture those seven years than I did my four years in college,” says Bakken, “but sometimes your plan just doesn’t go the way you think.”
In 2008, she returned to the U.S. burned out. Bakken was ready to follow her father’s path.
In California she worked for Matt Kilgariff, PGA, Director of Instruction at The Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe. She spent more than a decade in Southern California before returning to Minnesota in 2024 with her daughter to be closer to her family shortly after her dad passed away.
“I took what I learned from The Bridges back to Minnesota,” Bakken explains.
She now teaches at Brookview Golf Academy in Golden Valley, near Minneapolis, being elected to PGA of America Membership last November. She also instructs occasionally at nearby Hazeltine National Golf Club (site of the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship) with Director of Instruction Mike Barge, PGA, who taught her in high school because her father knew she wanted another voice.
The teenager who never wanted to coach now loves spending most of her days on the range.
“As a former player, I have insight on how to actually produce the shot, and I had a lot of great PGA (of America) instructors such as Mike (Barge), Jim McLean and my father,” says Bakken.
“I’ve had a lot of encouraging people like my dad along the way. I improved as a player and now as a coach, and I’ve worked hard. I’m proud.”
Her father would be, too. —Craig Dolch
