Kaylin Yost, who has competed on the Epson Tour since 2015, is hearing impaired. This summer, she took a break from competing on Tour to represent the United States in the Deaflympics in Samsun, Turkey.
“It has been an amazing experience since the opening ceremony,” said Yost, when reached by text. “Turkey being the host this year put on an unreal opening ceremony performance. It was at a stadium with 33,000 people in it and there were dancing performances, water shows, music and fireworks. Meeting people from all over the world has been a lot of fun and seeing the other events/sports being played has been awesome."
She won her semifinal match on Monday 5 & 4 and will play for the gold medal on Wednesday against Diksha Dagar of India.
Yost shot 73-69 in qualifying stroke play to advance to the match play portion of the competition. Dagar shot 68-71 so Yost is expecting a challenging match.
Yost, who played college golf at Campbell, has made four starts on the Epson Tour this year and has made the cut twice. She made headlines earlier in the season when she Monday Qualified for the Bank of Hope Founders Cup and made the cut.
The 2017 Deaflympics were the first to include golf. There were six golfers that competed.
Yost wears hearing aids in both ears while competing on Tour. She took a year off in 2016 and took a full-time job at JetStarter, but returned in 2017 when she re-found her passion for golf.