After claiming Alaska’s premier amateur golf titles, Keira DeLand is taking her talents to the next level

At just 15 years old, Palmer’s Keira DeLand won her first major amateur golf championship at the Alaska State Match Play tournament. Now 17, she’d made it her goal at the beginning of this season to win both of the state’s premier tournaments before heading off to college in the fall.

She completed the impressive sweep by winning the women’s Alaska State Amateur Championship this month after claiming the Alaska State Match Play women’s title in July.

“It was definitely rewarding for all the hard work to pay off,” DeLand said.

While last year’s state amateur tournament was on her home course in Palmer, she didn’t perform as well at the time. That motivated her to put in the work to win it this year on the hill and creek courses at the Moose Run Golf Course at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Unlike most other states, where golf can be played competitively or leisurely pretty much year-round, Alaska has a short golf season that only lasts about five months, from April or May until October.

“You don’t really get great golf conditions until June or July and we’re usually done by October,” DeLand said. “I’ve even had to play in the snow in October before.”

Taking advantage of long summer days and the favorable golfing conditions that come with them was instrumental in DeLand reaching her goal of sweeping the top two women’s tournaments in the state.

“I was trying to play every day or at least practice,” she said. “I played a lot more rounds than I did last year, which really helped in getting ready for tournaments. I was trying to be out there six days a week.”

DeLand grew up next to the Palmer Golf Course and started signing up for junior clinics and then tournaments, and graduated to playing competitively the older she got. Both her father and uncle love playing golf and would take DeLand and her siblings out on the course all the time.

“We were always next to the golf course, so why not go?” she said. “Around middle school and into high school, I was like, ‘OK, I can actually go to college for this,’ so I just started playing a bunch.”

DeLand graduated from Mat-Su Career & Tech High School in Wasilla and will be continuing her competitive golf career at the collegiate level at Lee University, a private Christian university in Cleveland, Tennessee.

The Flames have a Division II program that produces stellar scholars as well as athletes, with multiple players receiving All-American and Academic All-American honors last year.

“They’re a really good golf team and I’m excited to play with some better girls,” DeLand said.

The female golf community in Alaska is small, and it’s even smaller at the youth level, which has twice prompted DeLand to travel out of state to seek greater levels of competition.

“It would definitely be something cool to see more girls in the sport and more people (around) my age and even younger,” she said.

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DeLand played in a tournament last summer in Pittsburgh, where she placed second and traveled to Las Vegas for a senior showcase against female golfers her age or younger from all around the world this past winter.

“It was just a great experience because up here, there aren’t a whole lot of people my age that take it competitively, so it was just cool to see that,” she said.

At this year’s state amateur tournament, there was only one other girl who was 17 years old. Also competing was Anchorage’s Abigail Ante, a Division II student-athlete who competes at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and graduated from South High.

DeLand believes that they’re the only two female Alaskans currently going to college to compete in golf. She said most of their regular competition back home consists of older women when she and Ante aren’t playing against each other.

Attitude and one’s approach to the game are what she believes separates a good golfer from a competitive golfer.

“Golf is such a mental sport, which I don’t think a lot of people understand when learning the game,” she said. “You can hit balls all you want on the driving range, but going out there and playing and scoring is a lot different.”

Moving on from a bad shot instead of dwelling on the missed opportunity is something DeLand also thinks is paramount to keeping a positive outlook during practice and especially in competitions.

While she doesn’t see herself pursuing golf professionally after college, where she plans to major in business, DeLand says playing the sport is something she intends to do for the rest of her life.