Junior Keenan Hickton has been one of Emory’s top golfers since his freshman year. During his first two years, he has achieved a myriad of accolades, including First and Second team University Athletic Association (UAA) honors. For the Fall 2016 golf season, he has been the team’s top performer in both the Rhodes College Fall Invitational andNCAA Division-III Fall Preview.
The Emory Wheel: Where are you from?
Keenan Hickton: Pittsburgh, Pa.
EW: How did you get into golf? Did you belong to a country club?
KH: I got into golf through my family. I belonged to a country club back home. My older brothers and my dad played.
EW: What were some of your best golf experiences prior to coming to Emory?
KH: I didn’t play that much [golf] in high school because I played basketball as well, but I got into it pretty late — I would say not until junior and senior year of high school. I did well in the state tournament, and my team did too. That’s what sparked my future in collegiate golf and my in interest in playing collegiate golf.
EW: What is one of your biggest achievements or defining moments?
KH: Hopefully it hasn’t come yet. I would say one of the highlights of the team last year was making it to nationals because [during] my freshman year, we were not even close. At the beginning of last year, our chances looked pretty grim, and although we didn’t do as well as would’ve wanted to at nationals, I think our team’s spring season last year was pretty incredible, and we have a lot of people returning this year. I’m looking to achieve a lot of things [that] I think are very possible individually. The team has a lot of limits we can reach very easily this season.
EW: Is there a player on the PGA Tour who you look up to?
KH: Arnold Palmer died. He is actually from Western Pennsylvania. I had the opportunity to meet him once. He was a pretty awesome figure. Bobby Jones went to Emory for law school, and it is pretty cool to say that you went to the same school as Bobby Jones. That was somewhat of a factor in coming to school here. My favorite player on the PGA Tour is Justin Rose, who just won the Olympics.
EW: What do you hope to see from the golf team going forward?
KH: I’m really excited about the team going forward. We didn’t have the best start to the season, but I think what was interesting about our start was that we were doing well in both of the tournaments for a lot of the tournament. We weren’t able to finish them the way we wanted to. I think that shows how much potential we have, and honestly, my opinion right now is that we can easily be one of the top teams in the country. And one thing we’re kind of setting our minds [on] is that Huntingdon [(Ala.)] has been incredibly good so far this season, and we got beat by them very badly at the Nationals Preview. We’re kind of using that benchmark as motivation to see how much we can improve throughout the season and then go into the rest of the season with a huge chip on our shoulder and see how far we can go with it. I think it’s important to highlight how young our team is and how many people we have returning. There are exciting possibilities for the rest of the season.
