Whistling Straits hosting unique PGA WORKS event for minority golfers

• EKU golfer Dili Sitanonth will compete in the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship at Whistling Straits.
• The PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship provides opportunities for minority golfers from various colleges.
• Sitanonth aims to pursue both a professional golf career and a career in aviation.

Eastern Kentucky University golfer Dili Sitanonth isn’t afraid to chase new horizons.

She has lived around the world while going after her dream of becoming a pro. Sitanonth is also an aviation major who is just starting to take off on solo flights.

The senior golfer will set her sights on Whistling Straits in Kohler from May 5-7 as she competes in the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship.

The world-renowned links course has hosted many big tournaments, notably the 2021 Ryder Cup, three PGA Championships and the 2007 U.S. Senior Open. Several other tournaments are on the way: the 2028 U.S. Amateur, the 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls’ Junior.

But the PGA WORKS has a different kind of impact. It was created in 1986 for athletes from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving schools and other institutions that provide opportunities for minorities.

Last year at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, 184 golfers and student-athletes from 65 schools competed across five divisions in the 54-hole, stroke-play event.  It is open to all minority men and women golfers at any collegiate level.

Sitanonth first played in the event when she was on the team at Texas Southern, an HBCU. Then last year, after transferring to Eastern Kentucky because of their top-notch aviation program, she finished second as an individual.

The event gave her confidence that she could compete at a high level.

“First of all, with the course setting, it’s very professional,” Sitanonth said. “The camera crews and everything kind of give me a little taste of what it is going to be like when I move on to like a bigger tour.

“The field is very competitive. So I would say it’s prepared me for everything.”

Sitanonth has shown that she will go after her goals when given the opportunity. She was born in Thailand and doesn’t have a typical golf background.

“I started to play golf when I was like 3 ½,” Sitanonth said. “But it was just an extracurricular for me. Like an activity after school during that time.

“Didn’t play competitively until 12, 13, which is a little late, I would say. And then two, three years later it was time for me to make a decision about my high school.”

Sitanonth’s parents let her research schools, and she found the Loretto School in Scotland, which gave her a golf scholarship.

She came to the United States to become a pro.

“She’s one of the harder workers we’ve had here at EKU,” Colonels coach Mandy Moore said. “She’s just really passionate and devoted about what she does.

“She has a goal and a dream of what she wants and she really works hard with her coaches back home and the way she goes about things here to just keep working toward that.”

Sitanonth’s fearlessness extends to getting behind the controls of a plane.

“My plan is to do both golf and aviation,” she said. “I’m not graduating this semester, because I have to fly still. So hopefully I can still fly while I try to get my Tour card.”

Give her an opportunity and the sky is the limit.