LINCOLN — Kelli Ann Strand needed a team.
In a mountain town of 900 people, the pickings were slim.
Strand was a high school freshman in Challis, Idaho, more than two hours from the nearest stoplight. Her graduating class was 15, and none of the other girls played golf.
Her older brother played in a neighboring town before forming a team with three other boys at Challis Junior and Senior High.
If Strand wanted to do the same, she had to recruit.
She found two girls who competed in rodeo and one who ran track and convinced them to pick up a golf club for the first time. Her uncle Eric Strand was the coach, but she found herself taking on extra responsibilities: basic instructions and explaining rules while finding time to work on her own game.
People are also reading…
Challis made it to state every season of Kelli Ann Strand’s high school career. Now in her second year at Nebraska, another challenge awaits.
Strand will compete in an NCAA regional for the second straight season, this one in Cle Elum, Washington, that begins Monday. She’s the only Husker in the three-day event one state away from the place where she honed her game.
“I think her game is good enough to qualify for nationals,” Nebraska coach Jeanne Sutherland said. “She’s just gonna have to stay patient, put it together. She’s just gotta let her skills do the talking for her. She can’t press or worry.
“She just has to play golf.”
Strand grew up playing Challis’ nine-hole course next to an RV park. It wasn’t the country club experience many golfers get but it offered advantages.
She could play whenever she wanted without a tee time. Other golfers knew who she was, her college aspirations and to stay out of her way when she was practicing — another effect of a small, contained community.
Still, Idaho is hardly a hotbed for golf, especially a remote area like Challis.
Strand played in statewide and national tournaments, trying to get herself on the radar of college coaches. Former NU coach Lisa Johnson coached in Idaho for almost two decades with stints at the University of Idaho and Boise State. She recruited Strand, then passed the baton when Sutherland was promoted from associate to coach in 2022.
Strand set a program record with a 72.05 stroke average as a freshman and has cut nearly a shot off of it this season at 71.17. She made adjustments, too, notably a better short game to go with her driving ability.
“I see improvements every day and it just kinda comes together slowly,” Strand said.
There’s also the mental side of golf. The part that’s less tangible, harder to practice.
Strand worked on acceptance and moving on within the flow of a round. She tries to put pressure on herself in practice to simulate the pressure of real stakes.
Practice rounds with the team often have an extra dash of competition, like keeping track of points for being closest to the pin. When Strand is alone on the course, she might add a time element to a putting drill or not allow herself to leave until she completes it.
Monday, she’ll have a chance to validate her process. Both at Nebraska and what started as a leap of faith in Challis.
“You might get bad bounces on the course,” Strand said. “Things might not go how you want, but just learning to accept that that could happen and being able to move on from it quickly and not being scared of what could happen, I think allows us to be more free and just play better golf.”