Bellarmine's Alaina Schmitt has been a quick study on the golf course

LOIUSVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The best player on the Bellarmine women's golf team never played in high school or before high school, for that matter.

But after falling for the game, Alaina Schmitt has been all in and has become one of the top players in the state.

Better late than never. And a pretty big surprise to the man she calls her caddy, sherpa and father.

Richard Schmitt played college golf at the University of Louisville and has spent his life in the golf business, but never pushed his three kids to play. he tried to get Alaina, his youngest and only daughter, to sample the game in seventh grade. It didn't go so well.

"The entire time I just hated it and didn't want anything to do with it," admitted Alaina Schmitt .

"She wanted to be back at the swimming pool," said Richard Schmitt . "She stuck it out for three or four holes and that was about it."

So you can imagine his thoughts when Alaina broke this news after her Freshman year at Murray State.

"She called a family meeting and said Dad, I've taken up golf and decided that I might want to take a semester off and see what I can do with it," said Richard Schmitt. "I was like 'Wait a minute. I didn't know you played golf or had a set of clubs or anything.'"

Alaina played softball growing up at Male High School and missed competition and playing a sport. She had gotten a job at Murray at a golf course and found a passion for the game. She transferred to Bellarmine, worked on her game and got a shot as a walk-on.

"Immediately you could tell she had some natural talent," said Bellarmine women's golf coach Art Henry. "But to make the leap she's made? I don't want to say I'm surprised because that might make her feel like I didn't trust her, but like wow, that is terrific for anybody."

"I have so much to discover and so much progress to make and a lot of the girls my age playing are kind of either at their peak or getting burned out from playing too much," said Alaina Schmitt. "So I started to use that to my advantage. I was hungry for it and I wanted to play all the time and practice all the time. So I just want to see how far I can get with it."

It's hard to know just how far Schmitt can get with it. She has shaved eight strokes off her scoring average in the last two years and reached another level this summer, shooting 67 for a runner-up finish in the Kentucky Women's Stroke Play and then winning the State Amateur.

"I told her that as long as she keeps progressing and she keeps her work ethic, the sky's the limit," said Richard Schmitt. "Her ceiling is really high."

"I also think that I can reach more people because I can show them that 'Hey I started golf four years ago but I'm the state am champ and you can do whatever you put your mind to and work hard at'," added Alaina Schmitt.

Schmitt also spends time helping teach kids the game through the First Tee of Louisville. She graduated with a degree in sports administration as an All-American scholar and will use her COVID year for one more season with the Knights, starting a masters degree and then hopes to try her hand as a pro.