Meet Valparaiso area youth golfers, siblings Aidan and Kennedy Gutierrez

VALPARAISO, Ind. — Siblings Aidan and Kennedy Gutierrez love the game of golf. Through consistent, hard work and a shared competitive drive, they have also each amassed an impressive list of achievements on the golf course.

Aidan is a junior at Valparaiso High School and the 2022 Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) State Golf Champion. He is a two-time U.S. Junior Golf Qualifier medalist and participant in 2019 (Inverness Country Club) and 2021 (The Country Club of North Carolina), reaching matchplay. Other notable achievements include being the runner-up in both the 2020 Indiana Boys State Championship and the 2022 Bubba Conlee Invitational, placing 6th at the 2022 Dye Junior National Invitational, and being ranked as high as #71 in the 2022 junior world rankings. He has committed to playing golf at Baylor following his 2024 graduation.

Kennedy is in the sixth grade at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. She is the 2022 Northwest Indiana Junior Golf Player of the Year. She was the runner-up in both the Red, White, and Blue Invitational and Jekyll Island Invitational. She placed 5th at the 2022 Junior World Championships and is currently ranked #11 for the class of 2029 girls.

Aidan and Kennedy spend a lot of time on the golf course to be as accomplished as they are. Being able to do so together has a positive effect on both their relationship and their golf game. Kennedy loves that golf gives them another way to spend time with each other.

According to Aidan, “Kennedy and I are pretty much the same person, and we both fell in love with golf and have the same goals. So really, it’s just so much fun that we get to go through this process of striving towards our goals together every day.”

Both of them independently told me that a cherished golf memory was when Kennedy caddied for Aidan at the 2022 Dye Junior National Invitational.

Aidan’s pride is obvious when he recalls how Kennedy “bore through pushing the bag 54 holes for me and I played pretty well that week too, and just being together through the whole battle was awesome to me.”

Kennedy is grateful for the advice and example of her big brother.

She shares: “One way Aidan helps me is by encouraging me. He also is always giving me advice about my golf game and tries to help me whenever he can.”

Moreover, watching Aidan play in big events motivates her to work towards a goal of playing at those same events herself. Aidan takes his mentorship role seriously and says one of his reasons for always giving it his all on the golf course with her is because he feels a responsibility to lead by example. He also recognizes that Kennedy is now at a level where she could beat him at the game and a natural sibling rivalry kicks in.

He honestly admits that “I hate losing in general, but when I lose to my own sister, it’s a different kind of sting. So, she always pushes me to be better because I have to keep improving if I want to be the better golfer in the family.”

Whoever emerges as the individual winner on any given golf day is unpredictable, but what is clear is that Aidan and Kennedy definitely help each other become better golfers together. We look forward to watching them meet more goals this season!

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