Golf Tales - Emma Carpenter

Meet two young and aspiring Minnesota golfers, Derek?Hitchner and Emma Carpenter, who are turning heads with their talent and?work?ethic.

Minnesota

In the age of social media, there are “influencers” in all areas of fashion, comedy and sports–and golf is no exception. Emma Carpenter, a senior on the University of Minnesota women’s golf team, has used social media to open doors she never thought were possible. 

Carpenter grew up in Dekalb, Illinois, 60 miles west of Chicago. She played soccer and volleyball and was also interested in singing and theater. When she was 12 years old, her dad took her to the local golf course to compete in a Drive, Chip & Putt local qualifier without her ever having swung a golf club–she ended up winning the event. From then on, her golf career took off.

Carpenter immediately started taking lessons and playing in junior golf tournaments. In high school, she was the first girl to play on the boys’ varsity golf team in school history. She started to attract the attention of college golf programs around the country and ended up deciding between the University of Minnesota and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Carpenter chose the University of Minnesota.

“What stuck out to me the most was that I really loved that the coaches were recruiting me, I loved the girls that were on the team, I loved the academics the school has, and I loved the state of Minnesota,” says Carpenter.

Once she arrived on the U’s Minneapolis campus, her social media following grew organically.

“How I got involved with social media was an accident. I didn’t purposefully, at the start, grow my social media into what it is now,” Carpenter explains. 
She began with a few hundred followers in high school and now boasts nearly 65,000 followers on Instagram alone. With the introduction of NIL (name, image, and likeness) into college sports in 2021, she was able to partner with more businesses to leverage her social media following to help market their brands. 

Carpenter is currently partnered with the popular golf brands Peter Millar, Golf Pride, 2nd Swing Golf, and GOLFZON, creating content celebrating women in golf and targeting a highly desirable younger demographic. According to Google, influencers with 50,000 or more followers typically earn $200 per post.
She is also a podcast host for the multi-media golf platform 5 Clubs, which was created by Golf Channel’s Gary Williams and ESPN’s Jay Bilas. As a podcast host, she has had the opportunity to interview many intriguing guests. One exceptional interview was with LIV golf star, Bryson DeChambeau. 

“I was really nervous for that podcast because I knew it was an amazing opportunity to get a one-on-one with Bryson,” Carpenter says. “Once we started, the nerves went away, and it was like we were having a normal conversation. Bryson was super interesting and nice for coming on the show. It’s hard to pick one guest as my favorite because I have a special place in my heart for every one of them, but it is hard to top Bryson.”

Beyond golf brands and podcasts, Carpenter participates in Gopher athletics by singing the national anthem at sporting events, a practice she carried over from singing it at Dekalb High School and Northern Illinois University and continues at the University of Minnesota. She has sung for every Gopher sport other than the football team–maybe next year! 

Carpenter has also become involved in sports broadcasting with the likes of Gopher Digital Productions and Big Ten Network+. She has done everything from working in the control room to doing play-by-play and sideline reporting for multiple different sports, ranging from baseball to basketball. In late 2021, she made her ESPN+ debut, doing play-by-play for the NCAA Volleyball Tournament games that took place in Minneapolis. 

Carpenter says it’s not easy being a student-athlete while building a career with her social media and broadcast journalism.

“I love the challenge and couldn’t imagine my life without it [social media],” she explains. It really helps me feel balanced in my life. If I was only doing school and golf, I do not think I would be as happy as I am with getting the chance to be myself and put time into other things that I really enjoy doing.” 

As for what the future holds, Carpenter does not know yet. She plans to take a fifth (COVID) year of eligibility to get a master’s degree and play another year for the U of M women’s golf team. Following that, her dream would be to get into sportscasting but is not ruling out golf just yet.

Carpenter is nonetheless aware of the influence she wields with young followers thanks to her talent and social platform.