Who is Kelli McKandless?
Kelli grew up in the small Central Texas town of Hamilton, where there wasn’t much to do other than play sports. Kelli’s goal early on was to earn a college scholarship, in either basketball or golf. Kelli soon realized that she’d have a hard time being recruited as a 5 foot 7 inch post player, so she chose golf as her primary sport in her junior and senior years. Kelli took lessons from legendary LPGA instructor Amy Fox, and with Amy’s help, Kelli won multiple Texas State Team and Individual Honors. Kelli’s hard work paid off, and she was awarded multiple offers to Division I schools. Though Kelli was honored, the offers were not quite what she was hoping for. She turned them down and spent a year on the Junior College squad of McLennan Community College. From there she received a full scholarship to Baylor University to complete her last 3 years of College, with a Degree in Health Fitness.
After graduation, Kelli went to qualifying school for the Futures Tour (now Symetra Tour), where she received partial status. While playing professionally from 2004 to 2006, she worked and studied under Amy Fox. After this, Kelli went into teaching at Granbury ISD, where she taught 7th and 8th grade Science until 2012.
In October 2012, Kelli found a way to combine golf and teaching, and took a position as the Director of Instruction at Brookhaven Country Club, where she grew the program by $500k in five years. As the program continued to grow, Kelli found she was spending less and less time teaching golf. Kelli sought out the Teaching Professional position at Gleneagles Country Club in order to focus completely on her students. In November of 2018, Kelli’s wife, Audrey, was offered a great opportunity with Oakwood Homes in Denver. So we decided to trade in our boots for skis and relocated to Colorado.
In early 2020, Kelli renovated the horse barn on her property to establish Golf Barn Parker. Golf Barn Parker is an indoor teaching studio with a TrackMan Golf Simulator. It's perfect for inclement weather and is the primary spot for lessons in the winter. Kelli’s goal is to spread the love of the game of golf by improving her student’s skills and game strategy.