Cathryn Brown was about 8 years old when older brother Cullan caddied for her in a six-hole tournament at Hopkinsville Country Club, just under an hour away from their home in Eddyville, Kentucky. Emily Brown made sure to dress them in the matching shirts, and she has a vivid memory of the siblings stepping up to a par-3 and 14-year-old Cullan pull a club from his sister’s little red bag.
Cathryn took one look at the bottom of that club and marched back over to the bag, slamming it back in as she pulled out another.
Cullan shrugged at his mother, who laughed. Cathryn proceeded to hit the green in regulation, then turned around, looked at Cullan and said, “Told you.”
“I mean, I’d have given anything if that had been on a video,” said Emily, “because that was just absolutely hilarious.”
As 20-year-old Cathryn listened to her mom’s re-telling of the story, she offered an explanation: “I didn’t like him underestimating me.”
The beauty of the whole exchange is Cullan believed in his little sister’s potential from the start, telling her she could be better than him if she put her mind to it.
After the Brown family tragically lost Cullan to osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer in his left thigh, in 2020 at the age of 20, 15-year-old Cathryn told her parents she was giving up basketball to focus solely on golf, with the hope of carrying the same blue-and-white Kentucky golf bag her brother did.
The dream came true and then some.
Last week in Prospect, Kentucky, Cathryn squared off against one of her Kentucky teammates and roommates, C.A. Carter, in the final round of the 97th Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Women’s Amateur Championship, carrying her own bag. While Cathryn is a talker, C.A. is more the quiet type. Cathryn, a rising junior at Kentucky, said the fact that she could deal with a mostly silent round and not let it bother her demonstrates one of the many ways she’s matured as a player in her time as a Wildcat.
During that championship match, Cathryn saw a lone goose fly by at Nevel Meade Golf Club and took it as a sign that Cullan was watching.
“He feels thousands of miles away,” she said, “but he’s not. He’s not.”
Cullan died five years ago, and to listen to Cathryn speak is to hear the voice of a young woman who grew up faster than most. There’s humbleness and wisdom and a great deal of faith. Humor, too.
Cullan, known locally as “the mayor,” was so popular in his hometown and beyond that the golf course where he and Cathryn grew up at Mineral Mound State Park was renamed “The Cullan” after he died. The University of Kentucky now hosts an event in the fall called the Cullan Brown Collegiate at Lexington Country Club. In the program’s golf house, “Cullan’s Kitchen” still has all the cooking supplies he bought years ago, such as a crock pot and griddle. His love of food and cooking skills were legendary.
There’s also a Cullan Brown Memorial West Kentucky Jr. Golf Development Fund. After Cullan died, Emily found the recipe for his signature rub, known as Flavor Dust. She makes it yearly for the junior event that raises money for the foundation and weekly at home whenever the family grills.
“If I get a hold of it,” said Cathryn, “the whole thing goes on my steak.”
Cathryn’s first job was at the golf course named after her brother. At Kentucky, she has the chance to finish what he didn’t get to – earn a degree and perhaps chase a dream in professional golf. It can get heavy at times, but Cathryn reminds herself Cullan wouldn’t want it to be heavy.
Like her brother, Cathryn has a love of kids and giving back. She’s prone to pull out the hula hoops used in a junior clinic for her own practice sessions.
“You know, it’s just something fun to do and it gives me, it just gives a new perspective on the game,” said Catherine of the hoops.
“At the end of the day, it is a game, and it’s not who I am, and it’s not my identity. You know, I’m going to wake up the same way the next morning, win or lose.”
Sounds like something Cullan would say.
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