By Heidi Richardson, PGA
Golf has been the steady core of my life for as long as I can remember. I became a PGA of America Golf Professional when I was nine months pregnant with my son, and I have now spent 30 years building my HR Collective Golf Academy. Before I found myself mentoring new generations of players, there was my mother — placing my hands around that first golf grip, driving me to junior tournaments and cheering me on. Looking back on my life and career, I know and feel how profound her encouragement was. It was such a gift, and she shaped everything I have accomplished. As I look forward, watching my own daughter continue our family’s golf legacy, I realize that this game is far more than a sport to us — it is the thread binding four generations of women with purpose, passion and pride. The time our family spends on the golf course is priceless to me. I’m so grateful to be working with and playing with my family. In fact, sometimes I don’t even mind if I score some bogeys!
My golf journey began one day when my parents were playing on the course. I was at the pool and decided to walk over to the putting green. It was then that my mother first signed me up for junior programs. She saw something in me before I ever recognized it in myself: curiosity, potential and the determination to grow. When I was a teenager, experiencing all the doubts and distractions that come with adolescence, she kept reminding me that I belonged at the golf course in this game, and she kept me focused. She told me that golf would open doors, build character and give me a community larger than I could imagine. She was right. Her steady support carried me into collegiate golf, and the lessons I learned on those fairways shaped the foundation of my professional life and formed lifelong friendships. I share those same thoughts with my clients (juniors and adults). Golf opens doors and is a great gift in your life.
Becoming a PGA member eventually felt like the best next step — not only to grow my own career, but to extend the same mentorship and opportunity that I had been given. Teaching came naturally to me. I love the process of watching my clients and juniors gain confidence, find joy in the challenge and surprise themselves with what they can achieve. A swing may be built with technique, but I encourage my clients to maintain confidence and the same passion I have. I learned that a great coach must provide both. My passion is to encourage this personal growth with all my clients.
With time, my passion and years of teaching grew into a vision: to build a Women’s and Junior golf academy that wasn’t just about instruction but about growing the women’s and junior golf community and truly sharing my love of the game. I wanted to create a place where my clients felt supported, where families felt welcomed and where girls and young women felt seen and inspired. As the years passed, I dedicated myself to establishing programs that nurtured not just skilled golfers, but strong, resilient young people. I invested in the kind of mentorship my mother had given me — stable, patient and full of confidence.
But nothing prepared me for what it would feel like when my own daughter decided to join me on this path. I exposed her to junior golf when she came to work with me, and she participated in my LPGA Girls Golf programs. She chose soccer as her sport through high school but was curious again as she was looking at her career path options.
At first, she helped on a part time basis — pitching in with junior programs, stepping in when I needed an extra set of hands and learning how much behind-the-scenes work it truly takes to run a thriving golf academy. Soon, she wasn’t just helping. She was leading. Website management, marketing, social media outreach, customer communication — she took over the core pillars of the business with skill, creativity and a natural understanding of our mission. I was also happy that she connected with students and families with the same warmth and professionalism that had always been natural and important to me. I loved it when the juniors started asking for “Coach Casey!”
After working alongside me for two to three years, she made a decision that filled my heart in a way I never expected. She chose to become a PGA member herself! Watching her step into this profession — one that has been so significant in my life — has so much meaning, and I’m thrilled we are continuing through generations. I saw in her the same spark my mother once saw in me. I can see the future of our academy, our players and our community. And for the first time, I have begun to see the possible outline of my own retirement — not as an ending, but as a passing of the torch into capable, devoted hands. I could not write a better story than this!
And now, I’m so excited our legacy continues to grow, as we have welcomed her first child, our little girl, Ozzy. A fourth-generation golfer in the making. We have our tiny new heartbeat in a line of women who have found such great purpose and joy on the golf course. When I hold her, I imagine the countless moments ahead – the day she picks up her first tiny club, the first time she runs across the putting green, the way she will learn through example that women belong in this game — not on the sidelines, but at the center. It was just yesterday when that was Casey!
As an academy and as a family, we have always prioritized our commitment to encouraging more girls and women to join the game. Golf teaches strength, focus, resilience and confidence. It gives women and girls a place to grow, to compete, to lead and to belong. For decades, I have dedicated myself to guiding young girls through these lessons, reminding them that they can achieve anything they set their minds to, both on the golf course and in life.
Now it brings me so much joy to watch my daughter do the same. Together, we share a profession and a purpose: to expand the opportunities for women in golf, to build pathways for girls to develop both skill and self-worth and to create communities where female athletes feel empowered. This is the legacy my mother unknowingly sparked when she first placed a club in my hand. It is the legacy my daughter now carries forward with me. And it is the legacy my sweet granddaughter, little Ozzy, will one day inherit — a legacy of women lifting women, generation after generation. I can hardly explain it without tears in my eyes! We all smile because my “grandmother name” is Grandma Birdie!
Reflecting on my awesome life, career and family in golf, I feel nothing but gratitude. Gratitude to my strong and wonderful mother for lighting the first spark. Gratitude to this game, which has given me a career, a community and a purpose. Gratitude to my daughter for choosing to walk alongside me and for strengthening our mission with her own voice and passion. And gratitude for the future, which now shines with the promise of a granddaughter who will grow up surrounded by love, mentorship and possibility.
Golf has shaped three generations of women in my family, and now, we are beyond excited for our fourth. As I step into the later chapters of my career, I do so with pride and peace, knowing that the academy I built, the values I taught and the community I cherish will continue to flourish in the hands of my daughter. Together, we will keep opening doors for girls and women in golf. Together, we will continue to honor the legacy boldly started decades ago by my wonderful mother. And together, we will ensure that the next generation — led by little Ozzy — has every opportunity to thrive in this beautiful game that has given us so much.
Heidi Richardson is a PGA of America Teaching Professional at the HRG Collective Golf Academy, located at Encinitas Ranch Golf Course in Encinitas, California. She played on the UCLA Women’s Golf Team and earned the 2016 and 2021 Southern California PGA Section Youth Player Development Awards, as well as the 2018 Section Player Development Award. She is also a Quarter Century PGA Member.
