Considered one of, if not the, best to come out of Henderson County
Payton Carter remembers sitting with her Murray State University women’s golf coach and crying when she learned she’d not made the team her freshman year.
The rounds golfers play in the August pre-season determine who would be representing MSU, and Carter had fallen short.
“I didn’t even break 80,” Carter said. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.”
She said she was intimidated those first weeks at Murray, when she saw that the other golfers could hit it farther than her and their short games were better than hers.
Her coach then, Velvet Milkman, told her to relax, saying she was right where she needed to be. She suggested Carter take a redshirt year to practice more and lift weights so that she’d be ready for the next year.
Of the season she sat out, Carter said: “It was awful.” But she did what Milkman asked and saw steady improvement. It was the first time she’d been able to spend at least 20 hours per week on the golf course. She also began receiving instruction from a new swing coach.
“I’d never practiced that much in my life,” she said.
That first taste of college golf five years ago is a far cry from where Carter stands now with an extensive list of accomplishments for the Lady Racer golf program under her belt. Her most recent season, which was her senior year, she was named the Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Year in the program’s first season in the league. As a junior, she was named the Ohio Valley Conference Golfer of the Year. And the year before that, she was named ALL-OVC. There are more accolades, but not enough room to print them all.
Local golf observers say she is the best collegiate golfer to ever come out of Henderson County—and certainly the most decorated.
She also had an excellent high school career, winning the Second Region as a Henderson County High School senior and qualifying for the state tournament every season from seventh grade to senior year.
Carter, 23, made the NCAA regional golf championship in her junior season after winning the OVC championship. She did not make it this past season after losing in a playoff in the MVC championship. Despite coming up short at the MVC championship, she was still named the conference’s golfer of the year.
The loss in the MVC championship, which was played April 16-18 at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Ill., haunted her for weeks after, she said. She could still see putts that stopped on the edge of the hole. She was angry about the 80 she shot in the final round.
Now she said she’s put it in the past, and fortunately for the Murray State women’s golf team, Carter has one more season of eligibility left thanks to the COVID year that the NCAA has offered. She said she’s taking it with the renewed goal of making the regionals and then the NCAA championships.
“This is my last chance,” she said. “I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”
But beyond another collegiate season—specifically pursuing a career in the LPGA—she said she’s doubtful. For one, the expenses to chase that dream are high. To make the LPGA, a golfer needs to go through a Qualifying School, which costs thousands of dollars and entails two to three months of unpaid cutthroat tournament golf. The winners of that Qualifying School can obtain an LPGA tour card. Those who don’t must go through it all again, which includes paying the entry again.
Furthermore, Carter said the money LPGA golfers make isn’t much unless they are ranked in the top 25 in the world. Golfers spend their lives on the road. And finally, all the golfing and walking is hard on the body.
“It would be a lot,” she said. “I don’t think I have any aspirations.”
Carter, the daughter of Bob and Melissa Carter, grew up with the 12th hole of the Henderson Country Club course just out her back door, so she’s been around the game for most of her life. Her father taught her the game. And though professional golf doesn’t appear to be in her future, the game of golf likely will be.
Marrying her fiancé, Austin Knight, ensures golf will remain a big part of her life. Knight, 25, played number one on the men’s golf team when he was at Murray, and he currently is a teacher at Hopkinsville High School and the head golf coach for both HHS and Christian County High School.
Carter’s always been an excellent student—her undergraduate GPA was 3.99, which earned her the OVC Academic Medal of Honor. She was also MVC first-team all-academic. She’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in school counseling.
She said she’ll likely coach in the future, most likely at the collegiate level, but recently a new idea has come to her. She knows how demanding collegiate athletics is and wants to provide mental health counseling to college athletes.
“You have to be very mentally stable to perform as a college athlete,” she said. “There just needs to be those resources there.”
After her next season, she’ll need only a fall 2024 internship to earn her master’s degree. At that time, she’ll have had both her bachelor’s and master’s degree paid for via athletic and academic scholarships.
“I feel like I’ve had a good career and I’m content with leaving the sport with what I’ve done,” she said.
And she’ll have finished an outstanding golfing career at Murray that seemed the most unlikely of possibilities as she sat crying with her coach at the beginning of her freshman year.
