Throw a dart at a map, and odds are it’ll land somewhere that Felicia Medalla-Kennedy has lived or worked.
A native of California who grew up in the Philippines, Felicia works as a solutions consultant for sports technology platform Hudl. Previously, on the staff of Australian firm Catapult, she traveled across Southeast Asia meeting with athletes and sports teams, helping them understand how to use performance data and technology to better develop themselves and inform coaching decisions.
Currently, Felicia lives in Boise. Following a junior golf career in the Philippines, she went to college in California, obtained a master's degree in the United Kingdom, and soon lived in the Philippines again before reaching her current home.
As she circled the globe several times over, a constant in Felicia’s life has been playing golf, which she originally undertook at the age of six. She was and still is an exceptional player, evident by her victory in the 2025 Idaho Women’s Mid-Amateur championship.
Felicia’s skills and penchant for the game have proved to be an invaluable asset throughout her life. They trace back to her upbringing in her archipelagic home country when, one day, six-year-old Felicia decided to tag along with a few schoolkids going to hit a few buckets of golf balls.
“After school every day, they’d hop in their van and go to the driving range,” Felicia recalled. “One day I decided to join them, pick golf up, and it just felt like a sport I’d play for the rest of my life.”
It really was that simple. She added, in jest of her former thoughts: “I was young and delusional, and like, ‘I’m going to be the best. I want to be the best golfer.’”
Felicia’s junior career began and moved at a torrid pace. At eight, she was representing the Philippines on an international level, playing tournaments in the United States during summers in the hope of gaining exposure to college scouts.
When she turned 13, her supportive father hired her a strength coach. That physical expert's advice immediately fascinated Felicia and made her wonder how such a discipline could serve countries like her own and their aspiring professional athletes.
“I fell in love with the physical side of the game and basically sports performance,” she recalled. “It was part of the struggles that we had in the Philippines; we had the talent, but we didn't have enough people nurturing that talent.”
Earning an advanced degree or two in the process of playing golf took on an even greater level of importance. Her junior efforts paid off through a scholarship to California State, Fullerton, coached at the time by former tour pro Pearl Sinn-Bonnani. Felicia eventually earned captaincy of the Titans’ women’s team, as well as a shiny Kinesiology degree. She moved to the University of Nottingham in England to earn a master's degree in business while playing on that school’s golf team as well.
Times were great, in regard to Felicia’s record both on paper and on fescue. Loving the style of European golf courses, particularly Scottish links, she came very close to turning pro in early 2020.
“At that point, I thought I would love to have a taster session to see if turning pro in Europe is meant for me,” she recalled. “Unfortunately, that's when COVID hit.”
As the Pandemic quickly advanced, Felicia had to return home to the Philippines where, like most people around the world, she was effectively confined to her own house.
“Golf courses were closed,” she said. “I was literally just locked in the house and didn't leave; there was no point in leaving.”
Several months went by, before she eventually landed a job at Catapult. It was a good fit and she fortunately became busier. Once the restrictions eased, Felicia began to travel across Southeast Asia, providing sports science solutions to various soccer and cricket athletes, as well as several national sports teams of that part of the world.
A big step forward, absolutely. But job in hand, Felicia needed to find a way to adapt to adult life, a world in which friends take more effort to find.
“Golf was such a great avenue for me, if not the greatest,” she said. “I tapped into the golf community in the Philippines and started playing every day with a bunch of women my age. I started competing in club tournaments, and club championships.”
As the world gradually normalized, Catapult granted Felicia the ability to work from California, where she similarly found several golf-related social avenues.
She made it to Boise in early 2025, settling there after marrying her longtime boyfriend (and Idaho native), J.C. Naturally, she dove straight into the Gem State golf community, playing in IGA events and serving the Boise State women’s golf team as a volunteer advisory coach.
“The amount of diversity of golf in Idaho has been great for me and my game, as someone who enjoys playing in different conditions,” she said. “It has been fun to see and fun to be a part of. It’s an underrated golf destination in my opinion.”
Felicia’s arrival in Boise just about coincided with her beginning her current position at Hudl, where she can continue to utilize her sports performance expertise she finds so rewarding. Her title of “solutions consultant” entails an amalgamation of sales, product and support, on the company’s Athlete Performance Team. Essentially, she utilizes complex data to assist athletic clients with what they may need to improve their given needs.
Part of why Felicia loves it so much is the mentorship it allows her to provide, especially to girls and women who golf. In addition to Boise State, Felicia also lends her knowledge to Crane Creek Country Club.
It’s all part of an unwavering goal of hers.
“Most of the time, when you think about sports research and performance, it's not really geared towards female athletes,” she says. “The growth of women's sports just hasn't been matched by the research and the funding, in terms of the knowledge of the female body and women's health. That's what makes me wake up an hour earlier for work.
“I want to work towards making more opportunities for our female athletes. In terms of golf, I just really want to mentor a bunch of young girls and be a good role model to them, and I think that keeps me disciplined and gives me self-control. It allows me to live my life with integrity and with character.”
Certainly, competing is fun, too. Playing at the Mid-Amateur level, she has been able to uniquely connect to other competitors who similarly have spent much of their lives playing golf. It’s led her to unforgettable memories, too, like participation in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Brae Burn Country Club near Boston, Mass.
“I think the mid-amateur circuit has been such a blessing in my life,” she said. "Not only being able to compete at this level, but being able to do it with girls that are dealing with the same thing I'm going through; still wanting to be in the game, still wanting to compete, basically challenge yourselves, keep discipline and all that.”
Felicia’s world is right where she wants it. Asking if she loves what she does elicits a succinct, no-doubt response:
“Yeah, I really do.”