By: John Grupp
Saturday, June 28, 2025 | 11:01 AM
Courtesy of Mark J. Media
North Allegheny’s Kayli Dings, shown at the Tri-State Junior PGA Ten Junior tournament on May 16-17 at Laurel Valley, is having a busy summer in preparation for her senior season as she aims to return to the PIAA Class 3A individual championships.
Courtesy of Mark J. Media
North Allegheny’s Kayli Dings, shown at the Tri-State Junior PGA Ten Junior tournament on May 16-17 at Laurel Valley, is having a busy summer in preparation for her senior season as she aims to return to the PIAA Class 3A individual championships.
Courtesy of Mark J. Media
North Allegheny’s Kayli Dings, shown at the Tri-State Junior PGA Ten Junior tournament on May 16-17 at Laurel Valley, is having a busy summer in preparation for her senior season as she aims to return to the PIAA Class 3A individual championships.
Courtesy of Mark J. Media
North Allegheny’s Kayli Dings, shown at the Tri-State Junior PGA Ten Junior tournament on May 16-17 at Laurel Valley, is having a busy summer in preparation for her senior season as she aims to return to the PIAA Class 3A individual championships.
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North Allegheny’s Kayli Dings remembers when she had a hard time hitting a golf ball more than 50 yards.
“It was very frustrating,” she said. “But, honestly, that’s what made it so fun. It was so competitive. It motivated me to get better.”
Dings, who will be a senior at NA in the fall, has come a long way from her humble middle school-aged debut. She was a top-five golfer as a freshman for North Allegheny’s 2022 WPIAL Class 3A runner-up, and last spring she reached the PIAA individual championships for the first time.
Not too bad for someone who had thumbed her nose at golf as a youngster whenever her dad, Ben, brought up the sport.
“Basketball was my thing,” she said. “I didn’t care about golf. I was like, ‘I don’t know what this is. It doesn’t make sense to me.’ My dad said, ‘You actually have a good swing.’ I said, ‘I don’t even know what that means.’ ”
Dings eventually figured it out. She started taking the sport seriously three summers ago and estimates she “went through eight swing coaches in one year” trying to find a good fit.
“It was crazy,” she said. “I felt bad because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is so frustrating. I’m not getting better.’ I didn’t know what to do.”
Dings finally found her match with Diamond Run club pro Adam Morrison, whose wife, Sarah, is the North Allegheny girls golf coach. Working with the Morrisons, Dings has grown from a frustrated, light-hitting novice into a prolific ball-striker, an Isaly’s Junior Golf Tour Player of the Year champion and the No. 1 girls golfer at the WPIAL’s biggest school.
“Her game has improved dramatically,” Adam Morrison said. “Not only from a mental standpoint, but her ball-striking across the board. Her distance over the last two or three years, she is hitting it past pretty much everybody she is playing against. She definitely has a huge advantage off the tee.”
Dings gets the most out of her 5-foot-5, 113-pound frame. Adam Morrison said Dings averages about 240 yards on her drives, thanks in part to long arms that create lag in her swing and result in more club velocity.
“She is hitting the ball probably 30 yards past most of the kids she’s playing with,” he said.
Said Dings: “The best club in my bag is my driver. That’s the one club I can rely on the most.”
Dings is keeping busy this summer working on all facets of her game. She has played in five tournaments, firing a 3-over 75 at Highlands Golf Club at Seven Springs on June 11 to win her Islay’s age group and placing fourth in the girls 16-18 division at the Ten Junior on May 16-17 at Laurel Valley. Dings said she signed up for 16 events total, ranging from the Islay’s Tour, where she will try to defend her 2024 title, to the Hurricane
Junior Golf Tour.
“I try to get out every day that I can,” said Dings, whose home course is Diamond Run. “I’ve been improving, and I’m excited.”
High school practice starts for the 2025 season Aug. 4, and Dings may have something to prove after the unusual end to her junior season. Dings finished eighth at the 2024 WPIAL Class 3A individual championships, shooting a 36-hole 171, leaving her one place shy of qualifying for states. When a spot opened up, Dings was selected as the “most deserving” based on a complicated PIAA formula used to decide the best performance in a district championship by a nonqualifier.
So, two weeks after a dejected Dings left the WPIAL championships at Butler Country Club without a PIAA invite, coach Morrison phoned her with the good news.
“I was pretty disappointed in myself,” Dings said. “My coach called me and asked me, ‘Do you want to play at states?’ I was in disbelief. I didn’t know how it was possible. I was so happy. It made me feel so much better.”
Dings, who tied for 32nd at states, plans on leaving nothing to chance this season. Last year, she won the Section 1-3A qualifier with a 74 and was tied for fourth after the first round at the WPIAL championships.
But she still needed help to reach states.
“Even though I didn’t play my best round at (WPIALs), I think I improved so much last year,” she said. “That’s the main reason why I was so disappointed. I knew I could do it, and I didn’t. There’s no reason for me not to be there this year. I know I can do it.”
Tags: North Allegheny
