BluDoor Studios
Chiara Swing
It all started on a typical summer day. Two 11-year-old girls who lived next door to each other had nothing better to do, so they decided to take part in a junior golf camp on a whim at Timarron Country Club. It was a chance to get outside, play a new sport and afterward go swimming in the club pool.
Chiara Brambilla didn’t own golf clubs of her own, but her neighbor’s dad had a set, so the girls shared. She had never swung a club, but her ability to make contact with the ball and send it flying into the air caught the eye of the camp’s instructors.
“I had no idea what golf was. None of my family played,” says Brambilla, who back then felt more at home spiking a volleyball than guiding a Titleist toward a hole in the ground. “And when I was hitting balls, they were like, ‘Whoa, this is your first time playing?’
“All of [the camp instructors] were saying, ‘You should try this, it could be something you could be really good at.’”
It turns out they were right. A mere six years later, the Carroll senior boasted the state’s No. 1 ranking and has toured the country by playing in a plethora of American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tournaments and even winning one. This month, she also took part in her fourth trip to the UIL state tournament, and in the fall, she’ll be a scholarship player at the University of Houston. Needless to say, Brambilla is glad she gave the sport a shot.
FROM DRIVE BY TO DRIVING
The golf course soon went from a nice place to drive by in a car to a common destination to drive shots. It wasn’t long before Brambilla started taking lessons at the PGA Tour Superstore in Southlake. As she gained experience and started playing in small, nine-hole tournaments as a 12-year-old seventh grader, her love of the game blossomed into regular 18-hole competitions and even two-day tournaments as an eighth grader. In middle school, Brambilla viewed golf as just a side gig, a fun diversion when she wasn’t playing or training for her primary sport of volleyball.
Following in the footsteps of her sister, Laura Brambilla — three years her senior and an eventual standout as a middle blocker for the Lady Dragons — Chiara originally thought volleyball was her calling as well. But it didn’t take long for even Laura, a current Washington University In St. Louis volleyball junior, to realize that her sister could excel on a different path.
“It was honestly right away in her first tournament,” says Laura of when she first noticed Chiara’s talent. “It was a very small one, but she won it and I think she made a birdie. We were all like, ‘Wow, your first tournament and you've already made a birdie,’ which is awesome. “She found her true passion in golf, and it's kind of something that she's always just been inherently good at,” she says. “We all just kind of knew when she started she was going to be amazing at golf, and she is. She proved us all right.”
It took a while before Chiara saw the same light. She tried to juggle two sports entering high school, managing a schedule of high school volleyball, club volleyball, high school golf and AJGA events.
The hectic schedule was difficult to maintain in itself, but noticing steady improvement on the golf course became the tipping point during her freshman season. Practice with a club in hand was garnering better results than what she saw on the gym floor.
“That year, I realized I was pretty good at golf compared to those around me, and I really had improved a lot,” Chiara says. “I thought, ‘You know what, it's time to put up volleyball and give golf a real try.’”
Positive results from the move quickly ensued. Chiara won her first two-day tournament the summer before her sophomore year, registering a personal-best performance. She captured several other two-day junior golf tournaments, and even qualified for the ING World Championships in California — her first travel tournament.
The summers heading into her junior and senior years were filled with weekly travel to AJGA events across the U.S., all featuring the top 50 girls golfers in the country. Chiara won the Northwest Arkansas Open last September — her biggest win to date. Playing in the Southwestern Women’s Amateur Tournament last summer pitted her against college girls from big schools such as UT Austin. And the AJGA Invitational in Stanford this past February featured girls on the U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team, consisting of the top 10 players in the country.
The tournament win and others in which she placed near the top earned her the No. 1 ranking in the state for girls golf by the AJGA. “That's just crazy to me. It feels surreal,” Chiara says. “It’s because of how much work I've put in and how much I've sacrificed. [The golf course] is my second home.”
DRAGON DRIVE TIME
BluDoor Studios
Chiara Standing Pose
A member of the varsity program all four years, the Lady Dragons have reaped the benefits of Chiara’s dedication, advancing to the 6A state tournament every year in no small part due to her performance.
Chiara was welcomed by the upperclassmen her freshman season, as the older girls took her under their wing and helped with the adjustment to the high school golf game. Chiara benefitted from their mentorship and built some friendships that continue today. The veterans watched her game continue to develop over the coming seasons, as she became a leader and consistent playmaker.
“She's very strong mentally, and golf is a very big mental sport,” says MaKayla Tyrrell, a friend and former Carroll golfer now playing on the Oklahoma University golf team. “She's a very hard worker, and I've seen her come a long way.
“When you're on a team, you want to try and work your way up to be the best player on the team, and she's done a really good job of that.”
Chiara comes through when the season is on the line, regularly leading the Lady Dragons in shooting low scores at the season’s toughest meets, especially in the postseason. One of her more memorable performances was at the 6A Region I meet in 2023, where she shot a second-round 65 to set the regional and course record at Tangle Ridge Golf Course in Grand Prairie. She nearly copied that effort on the same course at this spring’s regional meet, shooting a 68. Both times, her performance propelled the Lady Dragons to state.
Her coaches will attest her play during competition isn’t the only valuable asset she brings to the team.
“She's been a world-beater for us and a good leader,” says Matt Glenn, associate head golf coach at Carroll. “I think the biggest thing is her example of the time she puts in towards trying to make her golf game great. She's not going to verbally say, ‘You girls need to get out and get to working.’ She just sets a good example, and then those [younger players] fall in line.”
PLAYING THE LONG GAME
Chiara’s ability to drive the ball as far as 290 yards and putt with consistency are currently her greatest strengths. Competitive by nature, she wants to continue working on her short game, but really enjoys displaying her hitting distance in practice.
“Every day at practice, I'm out with [Carroll boys golf team members], teeing it up from way back there, trying to beat them,” she says. “I’ll play against them, but I'll play from their tees, because they'll get mad at me. They'll be like, ‘Well, you're playing from further up’, and I’m like, ‘Well, I'm a girl.’ But I'll put myself all the way back there with them, and then I'll beat them and they'll still get mad.”
Receiving a scholarship to play college golf at Houston — a resurging girls program considered one of the best in the nation — allows her to keep pursuing the dream of playing in the LPGA. Chiara was impressed with the program, facilities and coaches immediately, first visiting the campus in March 2023. Although she expects to receive top coaching to prepare her for success in the future and hopefully as a professional, Chiara also knows succeeding in the sport in the NCAA and beyond is something that won’t come easy.
“I'm going in as kind of an underdog,” she says. “I don't think many people thought I was going to go to a Big 12 Conference school, because I haven't been playing golf as long as other top golfers, but I don't think anyone is going to see it coming, because I've just been practicing nonstop.”
Those who know her best don’t count her out when it comes to reaching her goals. That includes her studies, as she’ll be graduating summa cum laude in the spring with a 4.0 GPA.
Whether giving her best on the golf course or excelling in academics, they expect her to come out with that same amount of fight and intensity that she’s displayed since she first took up the sport.
“She's not willing to lose,” says Paige Martin, Carroll associate head golf coach. “There's nothing that's going to stop that kid, and she's going to lay it all out there, no matter the outcome. Sometimes you see kids that want to give up and want to stop working, and that's not in her nature.”
Whether it’s on the golf course or in the classroom, Chiara gives her best at everything she does, believing that her efforts will take her further than even her deep swings do. “I want to be a professional golfer and represent my country in some big tournaments,” Chiara says. “I’m hopeful that’s where my future lies.”