“When I got to Rocky Top, I was immediately impressed with the presence that both Kayla and Vanessa hold on the team,” said assistant coach Anna Newell, who joined the staff in August 2023 and had a successful golf career at Tennessee. “It was apparent that they look out for their teammates and keep a high standard for the team.”
A perfect example came at Forest Akers West Course in East Lansing, Michigan, home to the Mary Fossum Invitational. The second tournament on their fall schedule, the course is particularly tough due to its fast greens and narrow fairways. Vanessa remembers Kayla coming up to her before play started one morning to make sure the difficulty of the course was not halting her standards.
“She told me that just because pars will be good on a course like this, I should still be aiming for birdies and the pars will come,” said Vanessa. “If she had not said that, I might not have played as well. It’s just small advice like that that is clutch in the moment.”
Vanessa finished the tournament with 11 birdies and placed fourth, the best finish of her collegiate career. In their next tournament two weeks later, Kayla followed suit with a fifth-place finish, also a career-best.
Small adjustments to each other’s approach are the bulk of the advice they give one another. They have become so intertwined on and off the course that they can sense when something is off.
“They have a level of accountability that’s hard to find in players,” said assistant coach Nic Robinson, who joined the program with Cantú in 2021. “They are both incredibly talented, so they have the skill to push each other, as well as their competitive spirit to drive them.”
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