H-L grad Kiley Cline excelling on and off the golf course

If there are two things Kiley Cline likes to do, they are expand her academic horizons and play golf.She'll continue to do both next month when she heads to Division II University of Missouri St. Louis to serve as a graduate assistant in golf while earning a graduate degree in business.All that comes after the 2021 Hopewell-Loudon graduate earned a bachelor's degree in biology, with minors in Spanish and chemistry, this past spring at Bluffton University while serving as the No. 1 player for the Division III Bluffton women's golf team for the past four seasons."That's Kiley," said Ryan Turner, who coached Cline in the spring portion of her senior year with the Beavers."She was really huge for the program. She was someone all the girls really looked up to. Even outside of golf, she was a leader. Everyone who was really close to Kiley would reach out to her about everything," he said. "She was a role model even in the way she handled herself off the course — never letting her emotions get the best of her, always a workhorse on and off the course. She was always the last person to leave practice, doing all of her drills and setting a really good standard and really good example for the rest of the girls and the rest of the team."Cline definitely left a mark at Bluffton.She holds individual program records for lowest season average (79.37 in 2024-25), lowest career average (83.68, 2021-25), lowest 18-hole score (1-over 72) and lowest 36-hole score (4-over 146) and is part of every team record in the program's recordbook.She also earned Bluffton University's Kathryn E. Little Award as outstanding senior female athlete of the year this past year. Kline said she believes she's just the second women's golfer in school history to earn the award, which was first handed out in 1977."I was hoping to leave a big impression on the program but I definitely didn't expect it to be as big as it was," Cline said."It was pretty cool. I would say it's a pretty big award," she said. "It's a great honor to be even nominated for that award, so that was pretty awesome."It came after some challenges.Unlike in Ohio high school golf, which occurs in the fall, college golf athletes begin competition in the fall, take the winter off and resume in the spring.The competition, individually and team-wise, is tougher, the courses are longer and the need to stay mentally focused is heightened.Cline entered college as an experienced high school player, but found the early going difficult.But not insurmountable, said Adam Craig, who coached Cline for the first three and a half years of her collegiate career."She came in and figured out that college golf was harder than she thought. She came in and did not have the fall she anticipated having (as a freshman)," Craig said. "She put her nose down and just worked. She was the first one to practice and the last one to leave the golf course. She put in more time than probably anybody else I've ever coached."That first year for Kiley, she didn't play the fall the way she wanted to, but went in and put in the work and came out and had a better spring," he said. "She chucked that season behind her, it wasn't her best, and went home for the summer and the rest is history from there."Cline is used to leading the way, though, helping begin Hopewell-Loudon's girls program with her father Joe as coach.She graduated before the Chieftains sent teams to the state tournament in 2022 and 2023 but said she was glad to help get things going."It was nice to see more girls getting into the sport, because I feel like when I started, there weren't too many," said Cline, who grew up playing golf with her father and two sisters. "If there were any, they were all on the (boys) team. It was nice to see the girls side of that sport get recognition."Cline said following her father's footsteps as a high school coach is definitely on her mind, along with possibly getting into pharmaceutical sales, after graduate school.But first comes learning the ropes of coaching, and Craig said one his best recruits ever will learn from one of the best college coaches around.Troy Halterman played professionally and served as a club professional for several years before starting his coaching career. The director of golf operations at University of Missouri St. Louis is entering his 10th season overseeing the women's program and his 16th season coaching the men after being named a four-time conference coach of the year and four-time Golf Coaches Association of America Midwest Region coach of the year."He's going to teach her golf. He's been around the golf industry for 25-plus years," Craig said. "She loves golf now, (and) she may come out of the state of Missouri wanting to be a golf coach."She's going to a great place to learn a lot about coaching, I can tell you that," he said.