Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Bill Moyers, Broadcaster and LBJ’s White House Press Secretary, Dies at 91

9 hours ago

S&P 500, Nasdaq Near Record Highs as Rate-Cut Bets Creep Up

15 hours ago

Bobby Sherman, Easygoing Teen Idol of the 1960s and ’70s, Dies at 81

15 hours ago

Cargo Ship That Caught Fire Carrying Electric Vehicles Sinks in the Pacific

15 hours ago

US Supreme Court Backs South Carolina Effort to Defund Planned Parenthood

15 hours ago

4 Million Acres of California Forests Could Lose Protection. What Trump’s ‘Roadless Rule’ Repeal Could Do

1 day ago

West Nile Virus Detected in Mosquitoes in Fresno County

1 day ago

Fresno Residents Join Nationwide Fast to Call Attention to Gaza Crisis

2 days ago

Suspect in Bombing at California Fertility Clinic Dies in Federal Custody

2 days ago
Column: From Orphan in China to Playing With Pros at Pebble
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
September 24, 2019

Share

Kayli Lucas is headed to Pebble Beach to play in a PGA Tour Champions event, a dream week for a 17-year-old girl from Tennessee who knew nothing about golf until a friend from church invited her out for a lesson at The First Tee.

“I’m goal-oriented. I wanted to prove to myself how far I can go on my own.” Kayli Lucas 
She liked how the club felt in her hands. Like so many others brought to golf, she found that the greatest appeal was the individual test to get better.
“I’m goal-oriented,” she said. “I wanted to prove to myself how far I can go on my own.”
How far she can go?
It’s how far Kayli already has come that makes her appearance in the Pure Insurance Championship so amazing.
Her mother calls the trip to Pebble Beach a “once-in-a-lifetime deal.” Kayli was among 78 participants from The First Tee chapters around the country who were selected to compete alongside PGA Tour Champions players like Bernhard Langer and Mark O’Meara, Vijay Singh and Davis Love III.
But then, everything about Kayli is once in a lifetime.
For starters, she doesn’t know exactly where she was born, or even when. She was an infant when she was found outside an equipment factory in Nanjing, China, and taken in as an orphan. That’s about the time Lisa Lucas showed up as part of a 20-month process to adopt a baby girl.

She Was Hooked

The orphanage sent her a picture, and Lucas could see in the baby’s eyes something was not quite right. No matter. She wanted her. When they arrived in Nanjing and switched the girl out of her clothes, her entire body was covered with scabies, which had led to a staph infection. Lucas said the baby was rushed to a hospital.
“They said two weeks longer and I would not have had my child,” Lucas said. “She’s a miracle all the way around. She was about 9 months when we got her and from lack of human touch, she could barely hold her head up. Two weeks before we left, she was sitting up on her own.”
Her muscles were underdeveloped. She had a bald spot in the back of her head through elementary school.
Kayli knows her story now.
Her mother waited until she was old enough to understand that she was born in China and was very sick, that they have no idea about her birth parents and never will. The orphanage had a rough idea of Kayli’s age when they found her, so Lucas chose Oct. 14 as her birthdate for the official record.
“I’m not brought up in an Asian-oriented household. I don’t necessarily think about it,” Kayli said. “I don’t think I fully understood it until five years ago. I never Googled the city where I was found, or born, until a school project. We had to do an autobiography.”
Hers, no doubt, was different from her classmates.
Lucas remarried and moved to Gallatin, about 30 miles northeast of Nashville. She wanted her daughter to be more active, whether that was gymnastics or something else. Her friend invited her to The First Tee, and Kayli asked her stepfather, Greg Borchers, to at least show how her how to swing a club before her first lesson.
She was hooked.

First, There’s a Trip to Pebble

Josh McCade, the executive director of The First Tee of Tennessee, could tell she was different. Sure, he heard enough conversations over the years to piece together Kayli’s story. What he saw was someone who made the most of opportunities, and golf was no different.

“She had this eagerness to learn the game of golf. That was something you could tell. After class, she’d be hitting balls on the range, putting and chipping on her own. You can separate kids from who’s there because they want to be there. She has a great spirit about herself.” — Josh McCade, the executive director of The First Tee of Tennessee
“She had this eagerness to learn the game of golf,” McCade said. “That was something you could tell. After class, she’d be hitting balls on the range, putting and chipping on her own. You can separate kids from who’s there because they want to be there. She has a great spirit about herself.”
Kayli says Borchers has invested the most time in her game, how to treat the course and manage her game. The teachers at The First Tee and Gallatin High have honed her swing. “Without them, my swing would be a hot mess,” she said with a laugh.
She plays on the high school team. Her best score — not in competition — is 2-over par for 18 holes. She is looking into colleges in the Midwest for next year and deciding how much she wants golf to be part of it.
First, there’s a trip to Pebble.
Kayli was in Los Angeles last month for the CoBank Peak Performers , one of nine First Tee participants who spent a day with six-time major champion Nick Faldo at Trump National along the Pacific. “I was super nervous and did not hit the ball well,” she said with a laugh.
She has not yet found out her partner for the Pure Insurance Championship.
Her mother has never been to California, and she’ll be in the beauty of the Monterey Peninsula watching a girl she first saw as an infant in an orphanage in China, with no guarantees where it all would lead.
“I’m just so thankful to have her,” Lucas said. “I know people say I’m a blessing to her life. But she’s blessing to mine.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Hawaiian Airlines Hit by Cyber Attack

DON'T MISS

US House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

DON'T MISS

Convicted Felon Caught With Guns, Ammunition in Fresno Bust

DON'T MISS

Fresno Advocates Want Respect for Immigrants, Defend Miguel Arias

DON'T MISS

Crypto Industry Moves Into US Housing Market

DON'T MISS

Bill Moyers, Broadcaster and LBJ’s White House Press Secretary, Dies at 91

DON'T MISS

Trump Says a Deal Related to Trade Was Signed With China on Wednesday

DON'T MISS

Clovis Police Searching for At-Risk Missing Man Last Seen in Fresno

DON'T MISS

State Department Approves $30 Million for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

DON'T MISS

Wonderdog Still Barking: Justin Wilson Thrives With Boston Red Sox

UP NEXT

Trump Administration Orders CA to Strip Trans Athlete of Medals

UP NEXT

Thunder Cap Incredible Season by Beating Pacers for NBA Title

UP NEXT

LA Dodgers Pledge $1 Million to Support Families Impacted by ICE Raids

UP NEXT

The Secret to Finding the Best Travel Bargains

UP NEXT

Amazon’s Prime Day 2025 Levels Up With Four Days of Deals Starting July 8

UP NEXT

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Get a 400% Pay Raise

UP NEXT

It’s Final. No Live Horse Racing at Big Fresno Fair in 2025

UP NEXT

Buss Family to Sell Lakers at $10 Billion Valuation, ESPN Says

UP NEXT

LA Dodgers Say They Denied ICE Agents Access to Stadium Parking Lot

UP NEXT

Canseco, Cheechoo to Sign Autographs When Chukchansi Cuts Ribbon on Top Golf

Fresno Advocates Want Respect for Immigrants, Defend Miguel Arias

7 hours ago

Crypto Industry Moves Into US Housing Market

8 hours ago

Bill Moyers, Broadcaster and LBJ’s White House Press Secretary, Dies at 91

9 hours ago

Trump Says a Deal Related to Trade Was Signed With China on Wednesday

9 hours ago

Clovis Police Searching for At-Risk Missing Man Last Seen in Fresno

10 hours ago

State Department Approves $30 Million for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

10 hours ago

Wonderdog Still Barking: Justin Wilson Thrives With Boston Red Sox

10 hours ago

Anna Wintour to Step Down From Vogue Editor-in-Chief Role, Media Reports Say

11 hours ago

Feds Charge Bullard High Teacher With Child Porn, Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

11 hours ago

New Data Clarifies a Lingering Question on 2024 Turnout

11 hours ago

Hawaiian Airlines Hit by Cyber Attack

WASHINGTON – Hawaiian Airlines said on Thursday that some of its IT systems were disrupted by a hack, adding its flights were operatin...

7 hours ago

Hawaiian Airlines airplanes on the runway at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. April 28, 2020.
7 hours ago

Hawaiian Airlines Hit by Cyber Attack

A view of Harvard campus on John F. Kennedy Street at Harvard University is pictured in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., December 7, 2023. (Reuters File)
7 hours ago

US House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

A convicted felon was arrested in Fresno County after investigators found a rifle, handgun, and ammunition while serving a search warrant. (Fresno PD)
7 hours ago

Convicted Felon Caught With Guns, Ammunition in Fresno Bust

7 hours ago

Fresno Advocates Want Respect for Immigrants, Defend Miguel Arias

American_Flag_Bitcoin_1280x720
8 hours ago

Crypto Industry Moves Into US Housing Market

Journalist Bill Moyers delivers the keynote speech at the People for the American Way Foundation's Spirit of Liberty dinner in Beverly Hills September 21, 2004. (Reuters File)
9 hours ago

Bill Moyers, Broadcaster and LBJ’s White House Press Secretary, Dies at 91

President Donald Trump speaks during a "One Big Beautiful" event at the White House in Washington, DC., U.S., June 26, 2025. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
9 hours ago

Trump Says a Deal Related to Trade Was Signed With China on Wednesday

Clovis police are searching for Surinder Pal, 55, an at-risk man last seen in Fresno, after his car was found abandoned. (Clovis PD)
10 hours ago

Clovis Police Searching for At-Risk Missing Man Last Seen in Fresno

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend