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A Competitive Heart: Kathy Kurata
When Kathy Kurata was 11 years old, she competed for the first time at the L.A. City Junior Championship with one of the top players in her age group and she was nervous. The starter listed off all her achievements and Kurata’s eyes were nearly popping out of her head, looking to her dad for support, who was standing by the tee-box. Her competitor was really, really good.
She thought about what her dad told her before the match, “Don’t worry about everyone else’s game, yours is the only one that matters.”
She was still nervous, standing behind her opponent impatiently waiting to see the result.
Kurata’s playing partner proceeded to swing as hard as her little body could handle, tip the ball off the tee, spin it around and land behind the tee marker. Young Kathy mouthed to her father with a cheeky grin, “I can hit it further than that!”
“I have moments to this day where I’m playing with ladies who are nervous on the first tee, so I like to tell them that story and it always makes them smile,” Kurata said.
If you follow amateur golf, you should know Kathy Kurata. These days, you’ll find her at pretty much any competitive environment you could think of. Whether it’s the Mission Hills CC Women’s Club team play, the SCGA Women’s Senior Amateur, or the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Kurata doesn’t do it halfway. For starters, the inaugural 2018 SCGA Senior Women’s Player of the Year has won the club championship at Friendly Hills CC 19 times. Or at least she thinks.
“For the first time this year, I was invited to play on the SWIM Team (Senior Women’s Invitational Matches,) a Curtis Cup style amateur tournament with North America vs Europe, and they asked me to put together my resume of all my victories. I thought to myself, ‘I have no idea what I’ve won!’ I really had to think about it.”
At a lunch with Kathy and her best friend and sidekick, Mikie Alpert, I asked about her top accomplishments. Alpert had to step in and remind her,
“What else are you proud of in 2018, Kathy? What awesome thing did you do for the first time this year?”
In my head I’m thinking, “Well, aside from winning the Player of the Year and making the cut at the Inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, what else is there?”
“Oh, yea! I made it to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur! I had never made it that far before. That was really neat, my husband had friends in Florida that drove out a few hours just to watch me play,” said the Pasadena resident.
