Rachel Klueppel and Cole Kaminski, two of Cullan Brown's best friends, drove from UK and Murray State to Bowling Green to watch Cathryn Brown play in the recent state tournament. "That really meant a lot to us," said Emily Brown, Cathryn's mother
It has been over two months since the death of golfer Cullan Brown at age 20 after a year-long battle with cancer.Brown won a state high school golf championship at Lyon County and had a superb freshman season at the University of Kentucky before his career was stopped by cancer.
While he might be gone, his memory certainly lives on and no one knows that better than his sister, Cathryn, a junior at Lyon County who recently finished seventh in the girls state tourney.
“As soon as Macey (Brown of Apollo) won (the title in a playoff), she came up, gave me a big hug and said everything out here was for Cullan,” Cathryn Brown said. “I started crying. She knew I was struggling. Bowling Green Country Club (where the state is held) is where I grew up watching Cullan play. I have a lot of memories there. Seeing people with blue ribbons (in her brother’s honor) touched my heart. Even if he had not met them I knew they loved him.”
More of that love will be on display Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the first Cullan Brown Invitational to benefit the Cullan Brown Memorial Junior Golf Development Fund. Over 100 of the state’s top high school and college golfers were invited to play in the event at Calvert City Country Club and Paxton Park Golf Course in Paducah.
Chris Redle of Bluegrass Golf Tour says three of the top finishers at the boys state tourney and eight of the top 10 girls are entered in the event. Of the 85 high school golfers invited early, 59 entered and there will be over 100 players in the field.
“Our goal is to raise as much money as we can for the development fund,” Redle said. “We expect to exceed $5,000 in contributions. In 2021 we hope to have this tournament in the summer and double the field size with more daylight because the bottom line is to raise money in Cullan’s memory.”
Spectators will be allowed with proper social distancing.
“They can walk, follow and cheer golfers,” Redle said.
This will be Cathryn Brown’s final tournament before starting her sophomore basketball season at Lyon County.
“I just know Cullan is getting a kick out of this,” Cathryn Brown said. “He always said one day I would be better than him (at golf) but I was always like, ‘No way dude.’ He was way better than I could ever be. I know he would want me to keep working as hard as I can. I was not far off winning state this year and I hope I can get back and compete next year, too. I was really proud of what I did this year but I believe very strongly that if I didn’t win Cullan would have wanted Macey to win. I talked about her all time. I don’t think her and Cullan ever met, but he knew about her. Macey was the first person I called the night he passed away. Me and Macey have been best friends. She has pulled me through some tough times since he passed away.”
Another rock for Cathryn Brown has been LPGA Tour player Emma Talley of nearby Princeton. During the LPGA quarantine time, Tally often went to play golf with Brown and helped her with her mental approach and also worked on making her driver better.
“Her and Cullan were really close friends and his death was hard for her, too,” Cathryn Brown said. “She was like a sister to me growing up. I swear every time she came to my house she had pizza for me. She brought pizza to school for my birthday. She is great and I will never lose track of her. It’s not easy getting through some days. It’s nice to have friends to get me through it and she’s definitely one of them. Some days are way better than others and other days you just try to make it through.”
