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Chase Kyes’ meteoric rise in the junior golf circuit and his recent commitment to the University of Tennessee have captivated the Greystone community (and the broader amateur golf world).
Chase’s mother, Kerstin Kyes, could see the determination in her son’s eyes from a young age. It seems he’s always been this way, fueled by relentless drive yet outwardly calm and reserved.
“He’s never not reached a goal,” Kerstin said. “He’s never stopped trying. He lives this passion for the game of golf, even through multiple injuries.”
While Chase Kyes has accomplished great things in the game of golf, his mother still reminds him to appreciate the simpler things in life, like eating meals and connecting with other people in the Greystone community.
“He’d leave at sunrise every day, take the golf cart, and be back thirteen hours later,” she said. “He’s so driven that sometimes he’d forget basic things, like eating breakfast.”
An Early Start to Sports
Chase took to sports early, walking at eight months old and carrying clubs not long afterward. But the first sport he connected
with was baseball, through his dad’s college experience. Kerstin noticed how Chase would observe players and their movements.
“Chase was initially a straight line to baseball,” she said. “What we found is that if he saw something that he wanted to figure out, he would get tunnel vision and be hyper-focused. He would often stare at people, trying to figure out their swings and movements.”
Chase was very good at baseball, though he played pretty much every sport, coached by his father and grandfather (affectionately known as PaPa). He started playing golf for fun around age 8, and felt a unique draw to the fairways.
For Chase, the appeal of golf was independence.
“When he played a team sport, he was one of many. When he’s out playing on the golf course, it’s all on him,” Kerstin said. “He loved that fact. He would work with Chip Thomas at Greystone, and eventually enroll in the Blackburn Academy. He entered a local nine-hole tournament around age 9, and won it.”
Chase kept up with other sports for a few years but eventually committed to golf during his freshman year in high school. That’s when his dogged commitment to improvement brought him to levels no one in the family expected.
Crafting a Championship Mentality
The accolades came fast and furious. Back-to-back Alabama Class 7A State Championships in 2023 and 2024. Rising positions in the Rolex American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) rankings. First-place finishes in two AJGA and multiple Southeastern Junior Golf Tour events. A #1 ranking for his recruiting class of 2025 on Junior Golf Scoreboard, a database that computes young golfers' rankings among their peers.
But for Kerstin, the moment that sticks in her mind is something that demonstrates Chase’s ability to drown out the noise.
“In the [2024] U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, Chase was paired with Charlie Woods in a threesome,” she said. “That’s Tiger Woods’ son, and Tiger was there among the crowd. Most people were there to see the GOAT of all GOATS, and he’s there watching my son play the best round of golf he’s ever golfed–the lowest round of anyone that day.”
“But the whole spectacle just didn’t faze him,” she added. “It makes me emotional, as we didn’t think we were going to see this level of attention until he reached the Tour. But to him, it’s ‘just another golf tournament,’ and Charlie Woods was ‘just another kid.’ At that point, I had no doubt in my mind that he’s meant to do this.”
Keeping Connected to Home
Even as Chase continues to rise into the junior golf stratosphere, Kerstin looks for opportunities to keep him grounded and connected to friends and family.
“With all that’s gone on, it’s important to us that he has some form of normalcy,” she said. “That’s why we wanted him to stay in public school, even though there were many great private and homeschool options available. When traveling for competition, we’d still have him check in with schoolwork. When he’s home, he goes to school like any other teenager.”
Even still, Chase found his best connections among the golfers at Greystone–some of them more than twice his age.
“Some of his closest friends are 40-50-year-old golfers at the club,” Kerstin said. “He learned from them, some were pros who gave him good guidance. He also has a group of guys to play poker with. We absolutely love the people and the neighborhood for him. He’s pretty much the mayor of Greystone at this point.”
Empowering Kids to New Heights
Chase’s development and success didn’t surprise the Kyes family, even if it has made life more hectic. Still, Kerstin sees it as part of her job as a parent–and offers a valuable lesson for other parents of driven youth athletes.
“Every parent wants their kids to live out their dreams,” she said. “It takes sacrifice, it takes commitment. We’ve poured all our time and energy into all three of our kids, including Chase’s active younger sisters, Cailyn and Camdyn”
“It will pay off one day, as long as parents let their children pull them in the direction they want to go.”
Chase’s story is a testament to the power of golf as a developmental game for youth members. Discover more about Greystone’s commitment to championship golf and the Blackburn Academy.
