Royalty siblings earn McConnell Golf Scholarships for Golf & Tennis
In 2020, Keenan and Sierra Royalty became the first pair of siblings to earn McConnell Golf Scholarships.
Keenan, a 16-year-old high school sophomore, is one of the state’s most accomplished junior golfers, having captured numerous local, state and regional titles since he began competing when he was just five years old. In May, Keenan was awarded a McConnell Golf Scholarship.
Four months later, his 14-year-old sister, Sierra – an eighth-grade honors student at Wakefield Middle School – received a McConnell Golf Tennis Scholarship. Sierra, who is currently ranked 68th in the Southeast, recently won a USTA Level 4 tournament in Kinston, North Carolina; then beat the No. 1 seed in a Level 4 tournament in Snow Hill, North Carolina, catapulting her 14 spots higher in the rankings.
The McConnell Golf Scholarship program is designed to offer instruction, practice and playing opportunities to young golfers and tennis players who may not have the financial means to practice at first-class facilities. To qualify, certain criteria must be met, including level of talent, need and commitment — as well as proven dedication and value to the future of the sport.
Keenan and Sierra hail from an athletic lineage. Their father, Doug, was drafted by the Houston Astros and pitched in the minor leagues for a couple years. One of their brothers, Alex, is a pitcher within the Cleveland Indians organization, while their oldest brother, Paul, played baseball at Wakefield High School.
Keenan says coming from an athletic family had an important influence on his approach to golf.
“I'm very competitive when it comes to my family, so that has helped me aim to become the best I can be at golf,” he says. “I’m very motivated to become the most accomplished of all of us.”
Keenan has navigated quite a journey. By the time he was just a year old, he was walking and swinging a plastic, 18-inch golf club. His parents gave him golf balls, but Keenan quickly began hitting them so well that he was breaking things in the house.
He then progressed to a golf mat outside the front door, and was quickly able to hit a ball across the cul-de-sac and close to the neighbors’ house. So, his parents bought a net.
“We had a park at the end of our street, so we would take Keenan there to hit golf balls,” recalls his mother, Karen. “All the neighbors knew him, and loved to see him tote a golf bag bigger than he was.”
Keenan’s first tournaments were with U.S. Kids Golf and his parents both caddied for him. When he turned 11, he began to play on a wide variety of state and regional tours.
His parents decided to pull Keenan out of public school in seventh grade, so he could incorporate more golf time into his schedule.
“Homeschool has been the best way to budget his time. He currently attends homeschool classes at New Life Camp in Raleigh one day per week, then studies at home or on the road. He maintains straight As and is finding a great balance,” Karen says.
When Keenan was in sixth grade, his feet began to swell when walking long golf courses. He learned that each of his feet had an extra bone that needed to be removed — meaning 2016 became a long year, including foot surgeries and no golf.
Now, Keenan’s true talent has begun to shine through.
In 2020, when golf tournaments were on hold, Keenan spent all day, every day on the practice range. He also spent time on the putting and chipping greens, while playing as many holes as possible from sunup to sundown.
Keenan is coached by The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation’s Director of Golf Adam McLaughlin, whose expertise has been instrumental to his development. Keenan has also met several PGA professionals who practice at Wakefield — and often ask Keenan to join them in a putting contest — along with numerous other high school golfers, with whom he practices and plays tournaments.
“Since becoming a McConnell Golf Scholar, Keenan has made some drastic improvement in his game as shown in the results over the past few months,” says McLaughlin. “I’ve been impressed with his work ethic and attitude during the time that I’ve spent coaching him. Keenan is a humble young man with excellent manners. He exemplifies the characteristics that we all look for in junior golfers. I expect big things from him over the next few years.”
Since August 2020, Keenan has consistently finished in the Top four from among nearly 150 high school boys, other than two tournaments where he placed 11th and 18th. He plans to not only play collegiate golf, but also work toward competing on the PGA Tour.
“The McConnell Golf Scholarship has seriously taken my entire game to a new level,” Keenan says. “Since starting, I’ve dropped my state ranking about 125 placements, and my national ranking by more than 700 placements. I’ve competed in countless tournaments since then, and I’ve consistently been finishing around the top. The scholarship is the greatest thing that has ever happened to my golf game.”
The youngest Royalty sibling, Sierra, “has always been an overachiever,” says her mother. “(Vice president) of student council and now president of the Beta Club, which is an all-A club in middle school. She is also involved in our church and volunteering in the community, prior to COVID.”
Sierra started competing in sports at age five, and tennis became her passion fairly quickly.
“At first, I experimented with different sports and activities such as dance, gymnastics and tennis, and I did all of them for quite some time,” she says. “But tennis was the sport and activity that I loved doing the most… At around eight years old, I stopped doing gymnastics and ever since then, tennis is the only sport I’ve really done and enjoyed.”
Before she was awarded a tennis scholarship in September 2020, Sierra was practicing with the tennis coach at NC State. When NC State closed due to COVID-19, Sierra would hit with her father in the street or any tennis courts they could find, until she was able to play at The Country Club at Wakefield.
Now she attends every clinic three days a week with high school players at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation. She also takes private lessons with McConnell Golf’s Corporate Director of Tennis, Kyle Thortsen, who is based at Wakefield.
“Kyle has helped Sierra’s game tremendously, and she absolutely loves playing with his group. Andrew Hodges is the other pro tennis coach who works with Kyle, and he has helped boost Sierra’s playing level,” her mother says.
“Our first opportunity to get to know Sierra was from a Summer High Performance tennis camp that was being held at Wakefield Plantation,” says Thortsen. “From the start of camp, it was easy to see that this young lady was all business once she stepped inside of the gates. From conditioning to drills, Sierra gives us 100 percent effort and focus every time. There’s no doubt that her determination and want-to-learn attitude will take her to great heights, on and off the tennis court.”
Sierra aspires to play collegiate and professional tennis one day — and believes her McConnell Golf Tennis Scholarship will provide just the boost she needs.
“My goal would be to have a good education, of course, and I would love to take tennis into my future,” Sierra said. “The McConnell Scholarship has definitely made me want to work and train harder. Knowing how much it has already helped me, and how much more it will help me, makes me excited and eager to see what my future in tennis will be like.”