Here’s who won 2024 Kenneth Smith Award as Kansas City’s top high school golfer

Claire Sullivan of Olathe Northwest on Thursday won the Kenneth Smith Award as the top female high school golfer in the Kansas City metro for 2024.

The award is sponsored by the Kenneth L. and Eva S. Smith Foundation and given each year to the area’s top male and female golfers. The boys’ Kenneth Smith Award will be presented next spring at the conclusion of the boys’ high school golf season.

Sullivan, a senior four-year starter, is a first-team all-state competitor (2024, 2022) who helped Olathe Northwest win two state team championships (2022 and 2023). She tied for 12th at this year’s Kansas Class 6A tournament in Hutchinson after finishing top-10 in the previous two.

She won three regular-season tournaments as a senior, including the 6A regional at Falcon Lakes, where she shot a 2-under 70. Her senior-season scoring average was 73.18.

Off the golf course, Sullivan currently ranks seventh out of 506 students in her senior class at Olathe Northwest and is a member of the National Honor Society and National Arts Honor Society.

Along with doing volunteer work on numerous fronts, she also started her own business called Cards by Claire. She created hand-drawn designs, sourced a professional printer, marketed the cards to local businesses for sale in their shops (and also sold them on her Instagram page) — and then donated the proceeds to the HALO Foundation, which supports homeless kids in the KC metro.

Kenneth Smith Award nominees, submitted by golf coaches and athletics directors, were judged in four areas: performance in high school golf tournaments, academic achievement, leadership on the golf team and in other aspects of school, and community service through school, church or other activities.

In recognition of the winner’s achievements, the Kenneth L. and Eva S. Smith Foundation is contributing $5,000 to First Tee of Greater Kansas City to support their cutting-edge child development programs.

Who won boys Kenneth Smith Award?

Earlier this year, Blue Valley’s Chance Rinkol won the boys Kenneth Smith Award.

Rinkol, who now attends the University of Iowa, led his high school team to back-to-back state titles. He also won the 2023 AJGA Joplin Junior Championship and 2023 Midwest PGA Junior Championship.

This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 11:43 AM.