KEEP GRINDING TO BE THE BEST: Kilpatrick focused on improving his game

Published 12:05 am Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Rising Andalusia High School senior Adam Kilpatrick is spending his summer preparing for his final season with the Bulldog golf team.

Kilpatrick recently competed in the Future Masters Tournament at the Dothan Country Club, but just missed the cut to play in the final round.

“On Wednesday, we played a practice round and I got to play with a guy from India,” Kilpatrick said. “I shot a 66 in my practice round so I had a lot of confidence built up going into Thursday for the first round.”

The first round didn’t go the way he hoped and left Kilpatrick looking up a long list of players ahead of him going into the second round.

“I just got off to a really rough start,” Kilpatrick said. “It kind of put me out of it real quick and I fired an 81. I was kind of behind in the pack a decent bit.”

In the second round, Kilpatrick bounced back with an impressive round.

“Coming in the second day, I just played chill and ended up shooting a 71,” Kilpatrick said. “I missed the cut by two strokes. That first day I just couldn’t find the a fairway off of the tee box. It was the wrong time to play bad.”

Kilpatrick said the atmosphere at the tournament was electric.

“There were kids there from 40 different states and 13 different countries,” Kilpatrick said. “I love meeting new people and it’s not very often you get to play with someone from India or New York. It was cool meeting them and talking about golf. There were 243 kids just in my age group and there are three different age groups.”

Coming into his senior season at Andalusia, Kilpatrick said he hopes to accomplish several things this year.

“One is to win a state championship and bring it back to Andalusia,” Kilpatrick said. “I want to just keep working on my game and bring my ACT score up a little bit. Then I have to decide who I’m going to go play for in college. That’s going to be a big thing. I’ve had offers from Spring Hill, Miles College and maybe soon from Troy and ASU. There are a bunch of others that have also expressed interest.”

This summer, Kilpatrick has spent most every day playing or practicing golf.

“You know that no likes losing honestly,” Kilpatrick said on what drives him to be the best. “Our assistant coach Geno Smith always pushes me really hard to keep practicing and get better. He motivates me because he played college golf and I kind of want to follow in his footsteps. My grandfather also motivates me. I started playing golf on his golf course when I was 4 years old. I want to make him happy because he has put a lot of money into helping me become a better golfer.”